Measuring Education Inequality: Gini Coefficients of Education

Abstract

Equal access to education is a basic human right. But in many countries gaps in education between various groups are staggering. An education Gini index - a new indicator for the distribution of human capital and welfare - facilitates comparison of education inequality across countries and over time.

Thomas, Wang, and Fan use a Gini index to measure inequality in educational attainment. They present two methods (direct and indirect) for calculating an education Gini index and generate a quinquennial data set on education Gini indexes for the over-15 population in 85 countries (1960-90). Preliminary empirical analysis suggests that:

• Inequality in education in most of the countries declined over the three decades, with a few exceptions.

• Inequality in education as measured by the education Gini index is negatively associated with average years of schooling, implying that countries with higher educational attainment are more likely to achieve equality in education than those with lower attainment.

• A clear pattern of an education Kuznets curve exists if the standard deviation of education is used.

• Gender gaps are clearly related to education inequality, and over time, the association between gender gaps and inequality becomes stronger.

• Increases in per capita GDP (adjusted for purchasing power parity) seem to be negatively associated with education inequality and positively related to the labor force's average years of schooling, after controlling for initial income levels.

This paper - a joint product of the Office of the Vice President and the Economic Policy and Poverty Reduction Division, World Bank Institute - is an extension of the paper "Measuring Educational Inequality: Education Gini Index from 1960 to 1990" (Vinod Thomas, Yan Wang, and Xibo Fan, World Bank, Washington, DC). This study was funded by the Bank's Research Support Budget under the research project "The Quality of Growth" (RPO 682-02). The authors may be contacted at [e-mail], [e-mail], or [e-mail].

JEL Classification: C43, D63, I32, J24, O11, O15