Gender effects of education on economic development in Turkey

Tansel, Aysit and Gungor, Nil D. (2012): Gender effects of education on economic development in Turkey.

Abstract

Several recent empirical studies have examined the gender effects of education on economic growth or on steady-state level of output using the much exploited, familiar cross-country data in order to determine their quantitative importance and the direction of correlation. This paper undertakes a similar study of the gender effects of education using province level data for Turkey. The main findings indicate that female education positively and significantly affects the steady-state level of labor productivity, while the effect of male education is in general either positive or insignificant. Separate examination of the effect of educational gender gap was negative on output. The results are found to be robust to a number of sensitivity analyses, such as elimination of outlier observations, controls for simultaneity and measurement errors, controls for omitted variables by including regional dummy variables, steady-state versus growth equations and considering different samples.

• Item Type: MPRA Paper
• Language: English
• Keywords: Labor Productivity; Economic Development; Education; Gender; Turkey
• Subjects: O - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth > O1 - Economic Development > O11 - Macroeconomic Analyses of Economic Development; I - Health, Education, and Welfare > I2 - Education and Research Institutions > I21 - Analysis of Education; J - Labor and Demographic Economics > J1 - Demographic Economics > J16 - Economics of Gender ; Non-labor Discrimination

References

Anderson, T. W. (1951) “Estimating linear restrictions on regression coefficients for multivariate normal distributions,” Annals of Mathematical Statistics, 20, 46-63.

Barro, R. J. (1991) “Economic growth in a cross section of countries,” Quarterly Journal of Economics, 106, 407-443.

Barro, R. J. (1994) “Sources of economic growth,” Carnegie-Rochester Conference Series on Public Policy, 40, 1-46.

Barro, R. J. and Sala-i-Martin, X. (1995) Economic Growth, New York: McGraw-Hill.

Barro, R. J. (1996a) “Democracy and growth,” Journal of Economic Growth, 1, 1-27.

Barro, R.J. (1996b) “Inflation and growth,” Federal Reserve Bank of St Louis Review, May/June, 153-169.

Barro, R. J. (1997) Determinants of Economic Growth: A Cross-Country Empirical Study, Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.

Barro, R. J. (1999a) “Human capital and growth in cross-country regressions,” Swedish Economic Policy Review, 6, 237-277.

Barro, R. J. (1999b) “Inequality, growth, and investment,” NBER Working Paper Series No. 7038, National Bureau of Economic Research, Cambridge, MA.

Belsley, D. A., Kuh, E. and Welsch, R. E. (1980) Regression Diagnostics: Identifying Influential Data and Sources of Collinearity, New York: John Wiley and Sons Co.

Benavot, A. (1989) “Education, gender, and economic development: a cross-national study,” Sociology of Education, 62, 14-32.

Bils, M. and Klenow, P. J. (1998) “Does schooling cause growth or the other way around?” NBER Working Paper Series No. 6393, National Bureau of Economic Research, Cambridge, MA.

Boopen, S. (2006) “Are there gender-separate education effects on growth? A dynamic time series analysis,” Mimeo. School of Public Sector Policy and Management, University of Technology, Mauritius.

Caselli, F., Esquivel, G. and Lefort, F. (1996) “Reopening the convergence debate: A new look at cross-country growth empirics,” Journal of Economic Growth, 1, 363-389.

Celasun, M. (1989) “Income distribution and employment aspects of Turkey’s post-1980 adjustment,” METU Studies in Development, 16(3-4), 1-31.

Dollar, D. and Gatti, R. (1999) “Gender inequality, income, and growth: are good times good for women?” World Bank, Policy Research Report on Engendering Development, Working Paper Series, No. 1. Washington, D.C.

Durham, J. B. (1999) “Economic growth and political regimes,” Journal of Economic Growth, 4, 81-111.

Engelbrecht, H. J. (1997) “Human Capital R&D and North-South Knowledge Spillovers,” Department of Applied and International Economics, Discussion Paper No. 98.03. Massey University, Albany, New Zealand.

Evans, J. (2009) “Female education as a determinant of economic growth: Delineating the impact of gender-specific education on economic growth,” paper presented at the annual meeting of the ISA-ABRI joint international meeting, Pontifical Catholic University, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, July 20-24.

Forbes, K. J. (2000) “A Reassessment of the Relationship between inequality and growth,” American Economic Review, 90(4), 869-887.

Hansen, L. P. (1982) “Large sample properties of generalized method of moments estimators,” Econometrica, 50, 1029-1054.

Hanushek, E. A. and Wöβmann, L. (2007) “The role of education quality on economic growth,” World Bank Policy Research Working Paper No. 4122, Washington, DC.

Hill, M.A. and King, E.M. (1993) “Women’s education in developing countries: an overview,” in Elizabeth M. King and M. Anne Hill (eds) Women’s Education in Developing Countries: Barriers, Benefits and Policies, Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1-50.

Hill, M.A. and King, E.M. (1995) “Women’s education and economic well-being,” Feminist Economics 1, 21-46.

Islam, N. (1995) “Growth empirics: A panel approach,” Quarterly Journal of Economics, 111, 1127-1170.

Jamison, E. A., Jamison, D. T. and Hanushek, E. A. (2006) “The effects of education quality on income growth and mortality decline,” NBER Working Paper Series No. 12652, National Bureau of Economic Research, Cambridge, MA.

Kalaitzidakis, P., Mamuneas, T. P., Savvides A. and Stengos T. (2001) “Measures of human capital and nonlinearities in economic growth,” Journal of Economic Growth, 6, 229-254.

Kara, O. (2006) “Occupational gender wage discrimination in Turkey,” Journal of Economic Studies, 33(2), 130-143.

Karaarslan, E. (2005) “Kamu kesimi eğitim harcamalarının analizi,” (An analysis of public sector education expenditures), Maliye Dergisi, No. 149, 36-73. (http://portal1.sgb.gov.tr/calismalar/yayinlar/md/149/erkankaraarslan.pdf)

Klasen, S. (2002) “Low schooling for girls, slower growth for all? Cross-country evidence on the effect of gender inequality in education on economic development,” World Bank Economic Review, 16(3), 345-373.

Knowles, S. and Owen, P. D. (1995) “Health capital and cross-country variation in income per capita in the Mankiw-Romer-Weil model”, Economics Letters, 48, 99-106.

Knowles, S. and Owen, P.D. (1997) “Education and health in an effective-labour empirical growth model,” Economic Record, 73, 314-28.

Knowles, S., Lorgelly, P. K. and Owen, P. D. (2002) “Are educational gender gaps a brake on economic development? Some cross-country empirical evidence,” Oxford Economic Papers, 54, 118-149.

Lau, L.J., Jamison, D.T., Liu, S. and Rivkin S. (1993) “Education and economic growth: Some cross-sectional evidence from Brazil,” Journal of Development Economics, 41, 45-70.

Li, G. (1985) “Robust Regression,” in D. C. Hoaglin, F. Mosteller and J. W. Tukey (eds) Exploring Data Tables, Trends and Shapes, New York: John Wiley and Sons Co., 281-343.

Lorgelly, P. K. and Owen, P. D. (1999) “The effect of female and male schooling on economic growth the Barro-Lee model,” Empirical Economics, 24, 537-557.

Lucas, Robert E. (1988) “On the mechanics of economic development,” Journal of Monetary Economics, 22, 3-42.

Mankiw, N. G., Phelps, E. S. and Romer, P. M. (1995) “The growth of nations,” Brookings Papers on Economic Activity, 5th Anniversary Issue, 26(1995-1), 275-326.

Mankiw, N. G., Romer, D. and Weil, D. N. (1992) “A contribution to the empirics of economic growth,” Quarterly Journal of Economics, 107, 407-437.

Moon, H. R. and Phillips, P. C. B. (1998) “A reinterpretation of the Feldstein-Horioka regressions from a nonstationary panel viewpoints,” mimeo, Department of Economics, Yale University, New Haven.

Özmucur, S. (1992) Productivity and profitability: The Turkish Case, İstanbul: Boğaziçi University Publications.

Özötün, E. (1980) İller İtibariyle Türkiye Gayri Safi Yurtiçi Hasılası – Kaynak ve Yöntemler 1975-1978 (Provincial Distribution of the Gross Domestic Product of Turkey – Sources and Methods 1975-1978), Publication No. 907, Ankara: State Institute of Statistics.

_________ (1988) Türkiye Gayri Safi Yurtiçi Hasılasının İller İtibariyle Dağılımı,1979-1986 (Provincial Distribution of the Gross Domestic Product of Turkey 1979-1986), Publication No. 1988/8, İstanbul: İstanbul Chamber of Industry Research Department.

Pesaran, M. H. and Smith, R. (1995) “Estimating long-run relationships from dynamic heterogeneous panels,” Journal of Econometrics, 68(1), 79-113.

Perotti, R. (1996) “Growth income distribution and Democracy, “ Journal of Economic Growth, 1, 149-187.

Pritchet, L. and Summers, L. H. (1996) “Wealthier is healthier,” Journal of Human Resources, 31, 841-868.

Romer, P. M. (1990) “The origins of endogenous growth,” Journal of Economic Perspectives, 8, 3-22.

Rousseeuw, P. J. and Leroy, A. M. (1987) Robust Regression and Outlier Detection, New York: John Wiley and Sons Co.

Sadeghi, J. M. (1995) “The relationship of gender difference in education to economic growth: a cross-country analysis,” Economic Research Forum, Working Paper No. 9521, Cairo, Egypt.

Saygılı, Ş., Cihan, C. and Yurtoğlu, H. (2005) Türkiye ekonomisinde sermaye birikimi, verimlilik ve büyüme: 1972-2003 (Capital accumulation, efficiency and growth in the Turkish economy: 1972-2003), Publication No. DPT:2686, Ankara: State Planning Organization.

Schultz, T. P. (1995) “Investments in schooling and health of women and men: Quantities and returns,” in T. P. Schultz (ed.) Investment in Women’s Human Capital, Chicago, Illinois: University of Chicago Press.

Stokey, N. (1994) “Comments on Barro and Lee,” Carnegie-Rochester Conference Series on Public Policy, 40, 47-57.

Tamer, M. (2007) “Kamu eğitim harcamalarını genç nüfusa bölersek,” (If we divide educational expenditures by the size of the young population) Milliyet, 17 May 2007. (http://www.milliyet.com.tr/2007/05/17/yazar/tamer.html)

Tansel, A and Güngör, N. D. (1997) “The educational attainment of Turkey’s labor force: A comparison across provinces and over time,” METU Studies in Development, 24(4), 531-547.

Taymaz, E. and Suiçmez, H. (2005) Türkiye’de verimlilik, büyüme ve kriz (Efficiency, growth and crisis in Turkey), Ankara: Milli Prodüktivite Merkezi.

Uygur, E. (1993) Financial liberalization and economic performance in Turkey, Ankara: The Central Bank of the Republic of Turkey.

Yamarik, S. and Ghosh, S. (2004) “Is female education productive? A reassessment of its effects and determinants,” mimeo, Department of Economics, Tufts University, Medford, MA, USA.