Female education and economic growth: an empirical investigation for Egypt

Since the 1970s, Egypt has been pursuing policies to boost female education. However, no empirical study has attempted to quantify the impact of female education on the Egyptian economy. This paper examines the effect of female education on economic growth in Egypt between 1971-2014, using time-series analysis. Cointegration test and error correction model are utilised to examine long-run relationship and short-run Granger causality between female versus male education and economic growth. Results suggest that the expansion of female education does not Granger cause economic growth in the short-run. The remarkable finding of the study is that female education has a significant positive impact on economic growth in the long-run even more pronounced than that of male education, labour and capital. The paper recommends a number of policy interventions to boost women's education impact on sustainable economic growth in Egypt.