IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/aic/saebjn/v66y2019i4p451-464n164.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

The Determinants of Income Inequality: The Role of Education

Author

Listed:
  • Anna Hovhannisyan
  • Ramon A. Castillo-Ponce
  • Rolando I. Valdez

Abstract

The economics literature reports mixed evidence on the importance of education as a determinant of income inequality. In this document we shed light on the debate by testing this relationship for a sample of developing and developed countries from 1990 to 2014. We control for country specific characteristics including trade openness, unemployment, foreign direct investment, and the share of elderly population. The results of robust panel data estimations unequivocally find that education is negatively and significantly associated with income inequality. JEL Codes - O1; O15; O57

Suggested Citation

  • Anna Hovhannisyan & Ramon A. Castillo-Ponce & Rolando I. Valdez, 2019. "The Determinants of Income Inequality: The Role of Education," Scientific Annals of Economics and Business (continues Analele Stiintifice), Alexandru Ioan Cuza University, Faculty of Economics and Business Administration, vol. 66(4), pages 451-464, December.
  • Handle: RePEc:aic:saebjn:v:66:y:2019:i:4:p:451-464:n:164
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://saeb.feaa.uaic.ro/index.php/saeb/article/view/1147
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Jesse M. Shapiro, 2006. "Smart Cities: Quality of Life, Productivity, and the Growth Effects of Human Capital," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 88(2), pages 324-335, May.
    2. Albanesi, Stefania, 2007. "Inflation and inequality," Journal of Monetary Economics, Elsevier, vol. 54(4), pages 1088-1114, May.
    3. Berry, Christopher R. & Glaeser, Edward L., 2005. "Divergence of Human Capital Levels across Cities," Working Paper Series rwp05-057, Harvard University, John F. Kennedy School of Government.
    4. Kaushik Basu & Joseph E. Stiglitz (ed.), 2016. "Inequality and Growth: Patterns and Policy," International Economic Association Series, Palgrave Macmillan, number 978-1-137-55454-3, December.
    5. Gary S. Becker, 1962. "Investment in Human Capital: A Theoretical Analysis," NBER Chapters, in: Investment in Human Beings, pages 9-49, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    6. Checchi, D., 2000. "Does Educational Achievement Help to Explain Income Inequality?," Research Paper 208, World Institute for Development Economics Research.
    7. Torben M. Andersen, 2019. "Social Background, Education, And Inequality," Economic Inquiry, Western Economic Association International, vol. 57(3), pages 1441-1459, July.
    8. Andersen, Torben M, 2015. "Social background, education and inequality," CEPR Discussion Papers 10433, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
    9. Kaushik Basu & Joseph E. Stiglitz (ed.), 2016. "Inequality and Growth: Patterns and Policy," International Economic Association Series, Palgrave Macmillan, number 978-1-137-55459-8, December.
    10. Claire Crawford & Paul Gregg & Lindsey Macmillan & Anna Vignoles & Gill Wyness, 2016. "Higher education, career opportunities, and intergenerational inequality," Oxford Review of Economic Policy, Oxford University Press and Oxford Review of Economic Policy Limited, vol. 32(4), pages 553-575.
    11. Vassilis Tselios, 2008. "Income and educational inequalities in the regions of the European Union: Geographical spillovers under welfare state restrictions," Papers in Regional Science, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 87(3), pages 403-430, August.
    12. Joshua R. Goldstein & Ronald D. Lee, 2014. "How large are the effects of population aging on economic inequality?," Vienna Yearbook of Population Research, Vienna Institute of Demography (VID) of the Austrian Academy of Sciences in Vienna, vol. 12(1), pages 193-209.
    13. Christopher R. Berry & Edward L. Glaeser, 2005. "The divergence of human capital levels across cities," Papers in Regional Science, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 84(3), pages 407-444, August.
    14. Alison Wolf, 2004. "Education and Economic Performance: Simplistic Theories and their Policy Consequences," Oxford Review of Economic Policy, Oxford University Press and Oxford Review of Economic Policy Limited, vol. 20(2), pages 315-333, Summer.
    15. Christopher R. Berry & Edward L. Glaeser, 2005. "The Divergence of Human Capital Levels across Cities," Harvard Institute of Economic Research Working Papers 2091, Harvard - Institute of Economic Research.
    16. Paulo Gala & Jhean Camargo & Elton Freitas, 2018. "The Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC) was right: scale-free complex networks and core-periphery patterns in world trade [Cincuenta años del pensamiento de la cepal: un," Cambridge Journal of Economics, Cambridge Political Economy Society, vol. 42(3), pages 633-651.
    17. Knight, J B & Sabot, R H, 1983. "Educational Expansion and the Kuznets Effect," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 73(5), pages 1132-1136, December.
    18. Christopher R. Berry & Edward L. Glaeser, 2005. "The Divergence of Human Capital Levels Across Cities," NBER Working Papers 11617, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Andrés Rodríguez‐Pose & Vassilis Tselios, 2009. "Education And Income Inequality In The Regions Of The European Union," Journal of Regional Science, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 49(3), pages 411-437, August.
    2. Paula Prenzel & Simona Iammarino, 2021. "Labor Force Aging and the Composition of Regional Human Capital," Economic Geography, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 97(2), pages 140-163, March.
    3. Paula Prenzel & Simona Iammarino, 2018. "Ageing labour: How does demographic change affect regional human capital?," Papers in Evolutionary Economic Geography (PEEG) 1832, Utrecht University, Department of Human Geography and Spatial Planning, Group Economic Geography, revised Aug 2018.
    4. Di Cataldo, Marco & Rodríguez-Pose, Andrés, 2016. "What drives employment growth and social inclusion in EU regions," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 68510, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.
    5. Jorge De la Roca & Gianmarco I P Ottaviano & Diego Puga, 2023. "City of Dreams," Journal of the European Economic Association, European Economic Association, vol. 21(2), pages 690-726.
    6. Xinxin Wang & Jingjing Hong & Pengpeng Fan & Shidan Xu & Zhixian Chai & Yubo Zhuo, 2021. "Is China’s urban–rural difference in population aging rational? An international comparison with key indicators," Growth and Change, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 52(3), pages 1866-1891, September.
    7. Arntz, Melanie & Brüll, Eduard & Lipowski, Cäcilia, 2021. "Do preferences for urban amenities really differ by skill?," ZEW Discussion Papers 21-045, ZEW - Leibniz Centre for European Economic Research.
    8. Maximiliano Alvarez & Vicente Royuela, 2022. "The effect of labor‐market differentials on interregional migration in Spain: A meta‐regression analysis," Journal of Regional Science, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 62(4), pages 913-937, September.
    9. Richard Florida & Charlotta Mellander & Kevin Stolarick, 2016. "Human capital in cities and suburbs," The Annals of Regional Science, Springer;Western Regional Science Association, vol. 57(1), pages 91-123, July.
    10. Sascha Sardadvar & Christian Reiner, 2017. "Does the presence of high-skilled employees increase total and high-skilled employment in the long run? Evidence from Austria," Empirica, Springer;Austrian Institute for Economic Research;Austrian Economic Association, vol. 44(1), pages 59-89, February.
    11. Viktor A. Venhorst, 2017. "Human capital spillovers in Dutch cities: consumption or productivity?," The Annals of Regional Science, Springer;Western Regional Science Association, vol. 59(3), pages 793-817, November.
    12. Südekum, Jens, 2008. "Convergence of the skill composition across German regions," Regional Science and Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 38(2), pages 148-159, March.
    13. Casey Dougal & Christopher A. Parsons & Sheridan Titman, 2014. "Urban Vibrancy and Corporate Growth," NBER Working Papers 20350, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    14. Edward L. Glaeser & Joshua D. Gottlieb, 2008. "The Economics of Place-Making Policies," Brookings Papers on Economic Activity, Economic Studies Program, The Brookings Institution, vol. 39(1 (Spring), pages 155-253.
    15. Winters, John V., 2011. "Human capital, higher education institutions, and quality of life," Regional Science and Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 41(5), pages 446-454, September.
    16. Edward L. Glaeser & Naomi Hausman, 2019. "The Spatial Mismatch between Innovation and Joblessness," NBER Chapters, in: Innovation Policy and the Economy, Volume 20, pages 233-299, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    17. Broxterman, Daniel A. & Yezer, Anthony M., 2020. "Measuring human capital divergence in a growing economy," Journal of Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 118(C).
    18. Marco Di Cataldo & Andrés Rodríguez-Pose, 2017. "What drives employment growth and social inclusion in the regions of the European Union?," Regional Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 51(12), pages 1840-1859, December.
    19. Xu, Shang & Klaiber, Allen & Miteva, Daniela, 2018. "The Impact of Concessions on Household Location Choice and Well-Being in Indonesia," 2018 Annual Meeting, August 5-7, Washington, D.C. 274009, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association.
    20. John V. Winters, 2013. "Human capital externalities and employment differences across metropolitan areas of the USA," Journal of Economic Geography, Oxford University Press, vol. 13(5), pages 799-822, September.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    education; income inequality; robust estimation;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • O1 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Economic Development
    • O15 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Economic Development - - - Economic Development: Human Resources; Human Development; Income Distribution; Migration
    • O57 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Economywide Country Studies - - - Comparative Studies of Countries

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:aic:saebjn:v:66:y:2019:i:4:p:451-464:n:164. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Sireteanu Napoleon-Alexandru (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/feaicro.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.