The cost of discipline? exploring the impact of corporal punishment on children’s foundational learning skills in Bangladesh

Abstract

In Bangladesh and other South Asian contexts, corporal punishment remains both widespread and socially accepted, often viewed by parents and teachers as a legitimate and effective means of disciplining children. Existing data indicate a high incidence of such practices, with 89% of mothers or primary caretakers reporting that they have subjected their children to some form of physical or psychological aggression at home. These practices are especially troubling in the context of Bangladesh’s acute learning crisis, where nearly half of all ten-year-old children fail to attain minimum proficiency by the end of primary school. This paper investigates the impact of corporal punishment at home on children’s foundational learning skills in Bangladesh. Using data from the 2019 Multiple Indicator Cluster Survey (MICS), the study employs a two-stage least squares (2SLS) instrumental variable approach to isolate the causal effects of corporal punishment, leveraging the implementation period of Bangladesh’s 2011 Child Law act as an instrument.