Returns to education among entrepreneurs in Bangladesh

This article estimates returns to education among entrepreneurs in Bangladesh, using unique survey data from 2012. Our main instrument for education is the education of the father of the entrepreneur, and we control for sibling education in order to take out the potential effect of father education on productivity and profitability. The results suggest a return to education in the order of 11 per cent per year of education. Using the education of the mother as an alternative instrument, we find evidence of heterogeneous returns to education among entrepreneurs. Compared to our main instrument, the education of mothers appears to affect education choices among individuals with relatively higher participation probabilities in education, where returns to education are lower.