IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/injoed/v61y2018icp173-183.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Making sense of low private returns in MENA: A human capital approach

Author

Listed:
  • Kingsbury, Ian

Abstract

Several scholars and media outlets have identified the low rate of return to education in the Arab World as a root cause of unrest and upheaval (Fargues, 2011; Adams and Winthrop, 2011; Rhoads and Liu, 2009; Shafiq and Vignoles, 2015). Yet, a close inspection of extant literature reveals that there is a limited theoretical or practical understanding of why returns in the region are so low. This paper aims to begin filling that void by empirically examining the relationship between four salient features of Arab World political economy and returns to education. My findings are not causal, nor are they exhaustive or conclusive. Rather, they are suggestive, and hopefully intriguing. It is my hope that this analysis might serve as a roadmap to those who might drill down into an understudied regional issue with global consequences.

Suggested Citation

  • Kingsbury, Ian, 2018. "Making sense of low private returns in MENA: A human capital approach," International Journal of Educational Development, Elsevier, vol. 61(C), pages 173-183.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:injoed:v:61:y:2018:i:c:p:173-183
    DOI: 10.1016/j.ijedudev.2018.01.001
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0738059317305394
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.ijedudev.2018.01.001?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Mahdi Barouni & Stijn Broecke, 2014. "The Returns to Education in Africa: Some New Estimates," Journal of Development Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 50(12), pages 1593-1613, December.
    2. Reham Rizk, 2016. "Returns to Education: An Updated Comparison from Arab Countries," Working Papers 986, Economic Research Forum, revised Apr 2016.
    3. David Card & Alan B. Krueger, 1992. "School Quality and Black-White Relative Earnings: A Direct Assessment," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 107(1), pages 151-200.
    4. Fosu, Augustin K. (ed.), 2013. "Achieving Development Success: Strategies and Lessons from the Developing World," OUP Catalogue, Oxford University Press, number 9780199671557.
    5. Faical Boutayeba, 2017. "Estimating the Returns to Education in Algeria," Asian Journal of Economic Modelling, Asian Economic and Social Society, vol. 5(2), pages 147-153, June.
    6. Salim M. Araji & Hamid Mohtadi, 2018. "Natural resources, incentives and human capital: reinterpreting the curse," Middle East Development Journal, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 10(1), pages 1-30, January.
    7. Gylfason, Thorvaldur, 2001. "Natural resources, education, and economic development," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 45(4-6), pages 847-859, May.
    8. Montenegro, Claudio E. & Patrinos, Harry Anthony, 2014. "Comparable estimates of returns to schooling around the world," Policy Research Working Paper Series 7020, The World Bank.
    9. Fosu, Augustin Kwasi, 2013. "Achieving Development Success: Strategies and Lessons from the Developing World," WIDER Working Paper Series 027, World Institute for Development Economic Research (UNU-WIDER).
    10. van Hoorn, Andre, 2016. "The Cultural Roots of Human Capital Accumulation," MPRA Paper 80007, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    11. Henley, John S & Ereisha, Mohamed M, 1987. "State Control and the Labor Productivity Crisis: The Egyptian Textile Industry at Work," Economic Development and Cultural Change, University of Chicago Press, vol. 35(3), pages 491-521, April.
    12. Filipe R. Campante & Davin Chor, 2012. "Why Was the Arab World Poised for Revolution? Schooling, Economic Opportunities, and the Arab Spring," Journal of Economic Perspectives, American Economic Association, vol. 26(2), pages 167-188, Spring.
    13. repec:unu:wpaper:unupb3-2013 is not listed on IDEAS
    14. Hanushek, Eric A, 1986. "The Economics of Schooling: Production and Efficiency in Public Schools," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 24(3), pages 1141-1177, September.
    15. James Heckman & Anne Layne-Farrar & Petra Todd, 1995. "The Schooling Quality-Earnings Relationship: Using Economic Theory to Interpret Functional Forms Consistent with the Evidence," NBER Working Papers 5288, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    16. Faiçal Boutayeba, 2017. "Estimating the Returns to Education in Algeria," Asian Journal of Economic Modelling, Asian Economic and Social Society, vol. 5(2), pages 147-153.
    17. Zafiris Tzannatos & Ishac Diwan & Joanna Abdel Ahad, 2016. "Rates of Return to Education in Twenty Two Arab Countries: an Update and Comparison Between MENA and the Rest of the World," Working Papers 1007, Economic Research Forum, revised May 2016.
    18. Augustin Kwasi Fosu, 2013. "Achieving Development Success: Strategies and Lessons from the Developing World," WIDER Working Paper Series wp-2013-027, World Institute for Development Economic Research (UNU-WIDER).
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Tao Tang & Brayan Tillaguango & Rafael Alvarado & Ximena Songor-Jaramillo & Priscila Méndez & Stefania Pinzón, 2022. "Heterogeneity in the Causal Link between FDI, Globalization and Human Capital: New Empirical Evidence Using Threshold Regressions," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(14), pages 1-27, July.

    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. Simplice Asongu & Rexon Nting, 2020. "The comparative economics of financial access in gender economic inclusion," African Journal of Economic and Management Studies, Emerald Group Publishing Limited, vol. 12(2), pages 193-207, December.
    2. Asongu, Simplice & Boateng, Agyenim & Akamavi, Raphael, 2016. "Mobile Phone Innovation and Inclusive Human Development: Evidence from Sub-Saharan Africa," MPRA Paper 75046, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    3. Asongu, Simplice A. & Uduji, Joseph I. & Okolo-Obasi, Elda N., 2019. "Homicide and social media: Global empirical evidence," Technology in Society, Elsevier, vol. 59(C).
    4. Kodila-Tedika, Oasis & Asongu, Simplice A. & Cinyabuguma, Matthias, 2024. "The White Man’s Burden: On the Effect of African Resistance to European Domination," Journal of Economic Development, The Economic Research Institute, Chung-Ang University, vol. 49(2), pages 1-19, June.
    5. Simplice A. Asongu & Joseph I. Uduji & Elda N. Okolo-Obasi, 2020. "Foreign aid volatility and lifelong learning," International Journal of Education Economics and Development, Inderscience Enterprises Ltd, vol. 11(4), pages 370-406.
    6. Simplice A. Asongu, 2021. "The Effects of Mobile Phone Technology, Knowledge Creation and Diffusion on Inclusive Human Development in Sub-Saharan Africa," Journal of the Knowledge Economy, Springer;Portland International Center for Management of Engineering and Technology (PICMET), vol. 12(3), pages 1367-1398, September.
    7. Simplice A. Asongu & Jacinta C. Nwachukwu & Chris Pyke, 2019. "The Comparative Economics of ICT, Environmental Degradation and Inclusive Human Development in Sub-Saharan Africa," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 143(3), pages 1271-1297, June.
    8. Simplice A. Asongu & Ivo J. Leke, 2019. "External flows and inclusive human development in Sub-Saharan Africa," International Journal of Happiness and Development, Inderscience Enterprises Ltd, vol. 5(1), pages 33-56.
    9. Simplice A. Asongu & Vanessa S. Tchamyou, 2019. "Foreign Aid, Education and Lifelong Learning in Africa," Journal of the Knowledge Economy, Springer;Portland International Center for Management of Engineering and Technology (PICMET), vol. 10(1), pages 126-146, March.
    10. Bailey, Nicholas & Warby, Brian, 2019. "Explaining the competition for FDI: Evidence from Costa Rica and cross-national industry-level FDI data," Research in International Business and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 47(C), pages 67-77.
    11. Matthias Busse & Ceren Erdogan & Henning Mühlen, 2016. "China's Impact on Africa – The Role of Trade, FDI and Aid," Kyklos, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 69(2), pages 228-262, May.
    12. Tilman Altenburg & Wilfried Lütkenhorst, 2015. "Industrial Policy in Developing Countries," Books, Edward Elgar Publishing, number 14726.
    13. David Card & Alan B. Krueger, 1996. "Labor Market Effects of School Quality: Theory and Evidence," NBER Working Papers 5450, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    14. Judit Kiss, 2017. "South Africa - a re-emerging player in outward FDI," IWE Working Papers 235, Institute for World Economics - Centre for Economic and Regional Studies.
    15. Asongu, Simplice A. & Nwachukwu, Jacinta C., 2018. "Educational quality thresholds in the diffusion of knowledge with mobile phones for inclusive human development in sub-Saharan Africa," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 129(C), pages 164-172.
    16. Asongu, Simplice & Uduji, Joseph & Okolo-Obasi, Elda, 2020. "Political instability and political terror: global evidence on persistence," MPRA Paper 103147, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    17. Anh Pham & Jennifer P. Poole & Amelia U. Santos-Paulino, . "Foreign investment and female employment in Viet Nam," UNCTAD Transnational Corporations Journal, United Nations Conference on Trade and Development.
    18. Asongu, Simplice A. & Le Roux, Sara, 2017. "Enhancing ICT for inclusive human development in Sub-Saharan Africa," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 118(C), pages 44-54.
    19. Reham Rizk & Ronia Hawash, 2020. "Education Gap and Youth: A Growing Challenge in The MENA Region," Working Papers 1394, Economic Research Forum, revised 20 May 2020.
    20. Simplice A. Asongu & Oasis Kodila†Tedika, 2017. "Is Poverty in the African DNA (Gene)?," South African Journal of Economics, Economic Society of South Africa, vol. 85(4), pages 533-552, December.

    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:eee:injoed:v:61:y:2018:i:c:p:173-183. 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: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.journals.elsevier.com/international-journal-of-educational-development .

    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.