This study extends the recent debate on the rate of return of cattle rearing in India, triggered by Anagol et al (2017), Gehrke and Grimm (2018) and others, to the Bangladesh context and finds that the apparent paradox of widespread cattle rearing despite negative return in India absent. We use a nationally representative two-year panel data of rural Bangladesh and find that the average and marginal returns of cow and bullock are positive and high for both years. We show that appreciation of the value of cattle is the major contributing factor for positive returns. The existence of cattle market where they can be freely traded for slaughtering or production of milk or for any other purpose, that is constrained to various degrees in India, is the key to high positive return in Bangladesh.

TEAM: Kazi Ali Toufique, Kazi Iqbal and Wahid Ferdous Ibon