The Impact of Female Secondary Education on Economic Growth in Bangladesh: An ARDL Approach

The goal of this research is to investigate the impact of female secondary education on long-term economic growth in Bangladesh. For this purpose, following a quantitative methodology, the impacts of Female Secondary Education, Female Labor Force Participation Rate, and Fertility Rate on the real GDP growth of Bangladesh are examined for the period 1995–2021. The findings of the Auto Regressive Distributive Lag (ARDL) cointegration model reveal that the female secondary education and the female labor force participation rate have a positive significant impact on economic growth whereas the fertility rate has a negative significance on economic growth in Bangladesh. In addition, the Error Correction Model has been used to capture the speed of adjustment. The coefficient of Error Correction Term (ECT) holds a theoretically correct sign and is also statistically significant, meaning that there exists short-run adjustment in the whole system. The study offers some recommendations for the betterment of female secondary education which can contribute to the economic growth in Bangladesh and other developing economies.