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Why Has Education Inequality Widened in Sabah, Malaysia?

Author

Listed:
  • Sui Chin Tan

    (Universiti Malaysia Sabah)

  • Chong Mun Ho

    (Universiti Malaysia Sabah)

  • Vincent Pang

    (Universiti Malaysia Sabah)

Abstract

Past education inequality studies found that within-groups inequality was higher than that of between-groups. This situation has resulted in neglect of the effect of between-groups inequality which shows the disparity among groups. This paper aims to investigate both within- and between-group inequality, besides interpreting education inequality among individuals. Based on a case study in Sabah, Malaysia, this study measures education inequality through analysis of standard public examination results via the Theil index. Results show that education inequality in urban areas tends to be lesser than in rural areas, with students in the former showing better results in their examinations. It is noted that the overall level of education inequality as well as inequality for urban and rural areas in Sabah decreased between 2009 and 2013. The irony, however, is that although the education inequality in these two locales was lesser, the inequality among groups has begun to diverge.

Suggested Citation

  • Sui Chin Tan & Chong Mun Ho & Vincent Pang, 2016. "Why Has Education Inequality Widened in Sabah, Malaysia?," Economics Bulletin, AccessEcon, vol. 36(1), pages 569-575.
    • Handle: RePEc:ebl:ecbull:eb-15-00223
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    File URL: http://www.accessecon.com/Pubs/EB/2016/Volume36/EB-16-V36-I1-P56.pdf
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    3. Chris Elbers & Peter Lanjouw & Johan Mistiaen & Berk Özler, 2008. "Reinterpreting between-group inequality," The Journal of Economic Inequality, Springer;Society for the Study of Economic Inequality, vol. 6(3), pages 231-245, September.
    4. Ravi Kanbur & Juzhong Zhuang, 2013. "Urbanization and Inequality in Asia," Asian Development Review, MIT Press, vol. 30(1), pages 131-147, March.
    5. Takahiro AKITA & Rizal Affandi LUKMAN & Yukino YAMADA, 1999. "Inequality In The Distribution Of Household Expenditures In Indonesia: A Theil Decomposition Analysis," The Developing Economies, Institute of Developing Economies, vol. 37(2), pages 197-221, June.
    6. Thomas, Vinod & Wang, Yan & Fan, Xibo, 2001. "Measuring education inequality - Gini coefficients of education," Policy Research Working Paper Series 2525, The World Bank.
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    Cited by:

    1. Jiali Wan & Yanfang Liu & Yiyun Chen & Jiameng Hu & Zhengyu Wang, 2018. "A Tale of North and South: Balanced and Sustainable Development of Primary Education in Ningxia, China," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 10(2), pages 1-16, February.

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Theil inequality; Education achievement; Between-group inequality;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • I2 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Education

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