Are educational gender gaps a brake on economic development? Some cross-country empirical evidence

TLDR

The interpretation of the model’s coefficient depends on which other education variables are included. The study estimates a neoclassical growth model that treats female and male education as separate explanatory variables. The model is reparameterised to include the gender gap in education, and the average long‑run effects of female and male education on output per worker are estimated across countries using long‑term averages. Results confirm the World Bank’s view that female education boosts labor productivity and remain robust across sensitivity tests.

Abstract

This paper estimates a neoclassical growth model that includes female and male education as separate explanatory variables. The model can be reparameterised so that the gender gap in education enters the model. The interpretation of its coefficient depends crucially on what other education variables appear in the equation. The average longrun effects of female and male education on output per worker are estimated for a cross section of countries using long time averages of the data. The results support the World Bank’s emphasis on the importance of female education in raising labour productivity and are robust to various sensitivity analyses.