Measuring Education Inequality : Gini Coefficients of Education

Abstract

Equal access to education is among the basic human rights and a component of well being. Yet, the educational gaps between various groups in many countries are staggering. This paper employs an education Gini index to measure inequality in educational attainment. It presents both the direct and indirect methods of calculating the education gini index, and generates a quinquennial dataset on education Gini for population age over fifteen, for 85 countries from 1960 to 1990. Preliminary empirical analysis finds that, first, education inequality for most of the countries has been declining during the three decades, with a few exceptions. Second, education inequality measured by education Gini is negatively associated with the average years of schooling. This implies that countries with a higher education attainment level are most likely to achieve better education equality than those with lower attainment levels. Third, a clear pattern of education Kuznets Curve exists if the standard deviation of education is used. Fourth, gender-gaps are clearly related to the education inequality, and over time, the impact of gender-gaps on inequality has become stronger. Fifth, per capita GDP (PPP) increments are negatively associated with education inequality, and they are positively related to the average years of schooling of the labor force, after controlling for initial income levels.