Educational Expansion and Educational Inequality

Takahiro Akita

No EMS_2024_02, Working Papers from Research Institute, International University of Japan

Abstract: This study explores the relationship between educational expansion and educational inequality through the use of hypothetical examples. It also examines the relationship empirically based on a Barro and Lee dataset on educational attainment for Asian countries and economies. If individuals without formal education are assigned 0 years of education, the education Gini coefficient is likely to decline monotonically with educational expansion. In contrast, if we assume that they receive some sort of informal education equivalent to a small amount of formal education, then the education Gini coefficient is likely to exhibit an inverted U-shaped pattern. Transforming years of education into human capital using an exponential function could lead to the Gini coefficient of human capital exhibiting an inverted U-shaped pattern with respect to human capital expansion. On the other hand, the standard deviation of education is likely to display an inverted U-shaped pattern, whether individuals without formal education are assigned 0 years of education or not. The Barro and Lee dataset reveals that the standard deviation of education follows an inverted U-shaped pattern, even when individuals without formal education are assigned 0 years of education. In contrast, the education Gini coefficient demonstrates a downward-sloping pattern when individuals without formal education are assigned 0 years of education. However, when assigning one year to individuals without formal education, the education Gini coefficient displays an inverted U-shaped pattern. These empirical observations align with the conclusions drawn from hypothetical examples.

Keywords: Keywords: educational expansion; educational inequality; education Gini coefficient; inverted U-shaped pattern; human capital inequality; Asian countries and economies (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 38 pages
Date: 2024-03
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-edu, nep-inv and nep-sea
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