IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/h/izm/prcdng/200617.html
   My bibliography  Save this book chapter

Identifying the Role of Education in Socio-Economic Development

In: Proceedings of the Conference on Human and Economic Resources

Author

Listed:
  • Francesco Burchi

    (University of Roma Tre)

Abstract

Food insecurity and illiteracy involve more than 800 million people today. In the proposed paper, I argue that education is a fundamental factor in achieving food security for rural populations in developing countries. I base my arguments on the Human Development Approach, according to which, education is both intrinsically and instrumentally relevant for education. In this paper I focus on the instrumental role of education for food security, by posing the question: Is education, both basic and higher, an essential tool to fight against food insecurity in the rural areas of developing countries? I answer this question by examining the theoretical and empirical causalities between the two variables: education and food security. Traditional Economic theories developed since the 1960s within the endogenous growth theory promoted the concept of human capital, according to which education is considered as a means to ensure economic growth. On the contrary, following Amartya Sen’s human development paradigm, I argue that education can play an instrumental role in two different ways: through economic production and through social change. While there is a literature, albeit short, on the contribution of education on development, this does not occur for food security. In this paper I argue that especially basic education, and not training or vocational education, can improve the capacity of individuals to live a decent life and to escape from the hunger trap. The basic idea is that being educated improves rural people’s capacity to diversify assets and activities, to access information on health and sanitation, to enhance human agency in addition to increasing productivity in the agricultural sector; these are all essential elements to ensure food security in the long-run. The theoretical study is, then, accompanied by an empirical analysis. Based on data taken by the Demographic and Health Survey, I construct a cross-section model, aiming to show the impact of education on “household food insecurity”. Both variables concerning basic and higher education are included to show the best predictors. Food insecurity is, instead, measured by an aggregate indicator, chosen according to available data and theoretical foundations. The model focuses first on rural areas, usually the most disadvantaged by national educational policies, and then on total countries, in order to explain the difference between urban and rural areas, defined urban bias. My aim is to prove that basic education has a good (negative) explanatory capacity of food insecurity. Moreover I seek to specify if higher education gives a statistically significant contribution or not, although probably lower than basic education variables. As a conclusion, the policy implications of my study are the following. I argue that education is both theoretically and empirically proven to be relevant in fighting food insecurity and, therefore, governments and donors aiming to tackle these problems should focus their attention to this sector. Such a policy, indeed, should be made with a specific emphasis on rural areas and keeping in mind the multiple-advantages provided by an educated and skilled society.

Suggested Citation

  • Francesco Burchi, 2006. "Identifying the Role of Education in Socio-Economic Development," Papers of the Annual IUE-SUNY Cortland Conference in Economics, in: Oguz Esen & Ayla Ogus (ed.), Proceedings of the Conference on Human and Economic Resources, pages 193-206, Izmir University of Economics.
  • Handle: RePEc:izm:prcdng:200617
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://eco.ieu.edu.tr/wp-content/proceedings/2006/0617.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Schultz, T. Paul, 2003. "Human capital, schooling and health," Economics & Human Biology, Elsevier, vol. 1(2), pages 207-221, June.
    2. 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.
    3. Lockheed, Marlaine E & Jamison, Dean T & Lau, Lawrence J, 1980. "Farmer Education and Farm Efficiency: A Survey," Economic Development and Cultural Change, University of Chicago Press, vol. 29(1), pages 37-76, October.
    4. Sen, Amartya, 1998. "Mortality as an Indicator of Economic Success and Failure," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 108(446), pages 1-25, January.
    5. T. Paul Schultz, 2003. "Human Capital, Schooling and Health Returns," Working Papers 853, Economic Growth Center, Yale University.
    6. Lanzi, Diego, 2007. "Capabilities, human capital and education," Journal of Behavioral and Experimental Economics (formerly The Journal of Socio-Economics), Elsevier, vol. 36(3), pages 424-435, June.
    7. Phillips, Joseph M, 1987. "A Comment on Farmer Education and Farm Efficiency: A Survey," Economic Development and Cultural Change, University of Chicago Press, vol. 35(3), pages 637-641, April.
    8. Streeten,Paul Patrick, 1997. "Thinking about Development," Cambridge Books, Cambridge University Press, number 9780521599733.
    9. Sen, Amartya, 1997. "Editorial: Human capital and human capability," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 25(12), pages 1959-1961, December.
    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. Florența-Diana Tănase & Suzana Demyen & Venera-Cristina Manciu & Adrian-Costinel Tănase, 2022. "Online Education in the COVID-19 Pandemic—Premise for Economic Competitiveness Growth?," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(6), pages 1-28, March.
    2. Dula Etana & Degefa Tolossa, 2017. "Unemployment and Food Insecurity in Urban Ethiopia," African Development Review, African Development Bank, vol. 29(1), pages 56-68, March.
    3. Mirela MINICÄ‚ & Suzana DEMYEN, 2018. "The Involvement of Educational Stakeholders in the University Curricular Design," Book chapters-LUMEN Proceedings, in: Carmen NÄ‚STASE (ed.), The 14th Economic International Conference: Strategies and Development Policies of Territories: International, Country, Region, City, Location Challen, edition 1, volume 6, chapter 16, pages 166-180, Editura Lumen.

    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. Deniz Karaoğlan & Dürdane Şirin Saraçoğlu, 2018. "Socio-Economic Factors Affecting Early Childhood Health: the Case of Turkey," Child Indicators Research, Springer;The International Society of Child Indicators (ISCI), vol. 11(3), pages 1051-1075, June.
    2. Deniz Karaoğlan & Dürdane Şirin Saracoğlu, 2016. "Socio-Economic Factors Affecting Early Childhood Health: The Case of Turkey," ERC Working Papers 1614, ERC - Economic Research Center, Middle East Technical University, revised 2016.
    3. Wolff, François-Charles & Maliki, 2008. "Evidence on the impact of child labor on child health in Indonesia, 1993-2000," Economics & Human Biology, Elsevier, vol. 6(1), pages 143-169, March.
    4. Sirin Saracoglu & Deniz KARAOĞLAN**, 2017. "Socio-Economic Factors Affecting Early Childhood Health: The Case Of Turkey," EcoMod2017 10749, EcoMod.
    5. Maria-Dolores, Ramon & Martínez Carrion, José Miguel, 2012. "The comovement between height and some economic development indicators in Spain," UMUFAE Economics Working Papers 26464, DIGITUM. Universidad de Murcia.
    6. Brown, Drusilla K. & Downes, Thomas & Eggleston, Karen & Kumari, Ratna, 2009. "Human Resource Management Technology Diffusion through Global Supply Chains: Buyer-directed Factory-based Health Care in India," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 37(9), pages 1484-1493, September.
    7. Václav Urbánek & Kateřina Maršíková-Nepolská, 2005. "Financial Market in the Czech Republic and Human Capital Investment: Private Financing of Higher Education," Prague Economic Papers, Prague University of Economics and Business, vol. 2005(2), pages 131-146.
    8. Fernando Bucheli, 2021. "Before Entering Adulthood: Developing an Index of Capabilities for Young Adults in Bogota," Applied Research in Quality of Life, Springer;International Society for Quality-of-Life Studies, vol. 16(3), pages 965-1002, June.
    9. Yogesh Ghore & Brad Long & Zeynep Ozkok & Derin Derici, 2023. "Rethinking human capital: Perspectives from women working in the informal economy," Development Policy Review, Overseas Development Institute, vol. 41(5), September.
    10. Susan Harkness, 2004. "Social and Political Indicators of Human Well-being," WIDER Working Paper Series RP2004-33, World Institute for Development Economic Research (UNU-WIDER).
    11. Shazia Kousar & Farhan Ahmed & Muhammad Afzal & Juan E. Trinidad Segovia, 2023. "Is government spending in the education and health sector necessary for human capital development?," Palgrave Communications, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 10(1), pages 1-11, December.
    12. Marcel Fafchamps & Agnes R. Quisumbing, 1999. "Human Capital, Productivity, and Labor Allocation in Rural Pakistan," Journal of Human Resources, University of Wisconsin Press, vol. 34(2), pages 369-406.
    13. Natacha Raffin, 2009. "Environmental health and education: Towards sustainable growth," Documents de travail du Centre d'Economie de la Sorbonne 09026, Université Panthéon-Sorbonne (Paris 1), Centre d'Economie de la Sorbonne.
    14. Sohn, Kitae, 2015. "The height premium in Indonesia," Economics & Human Biology, Elsevier, vol. 16(C), pages 1-15.
    15. Kaushal, Kaushalendra Kumar, 2014. "Pathway from nutrition intake to wage among elementary workers in India," MPRA Paper 56652, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    16. Natacha Raffin, 2012. "Childrens environmental health, education, and economic development," Canadian Journal of Economics, Canadian Economics Association, vol. 45(3), pages 996-1022, August.
    17. Nguyen-Anh, Tuan & Hoang-Duc, Chinh & Tiet, Tuyen & Nguyen-Van, Phu & To-The, Nguyen, 2022. "Composite effects of human, natural and social capitals on sustainable food-crop farming in Sub-Saharan Africa," Food Policy, Elsevier, vol. 113(C).
    18. Böckerman, Petri & Johansson, Edvard & Kiiskinen, Urpo & Heliövaara, Markku, 2010. "The relationship between physical work and the height premium: Finnish evidence," Economics & Human Biology, Elsevier, vol. 8(3), pages 414-420, December.
    19. Price, Gregory N., 2013. "The allometry of metabolism and stature: Worker fatigue and height in the Tanzanian labor market," Economics & Human Biology, Elsevier, vol. 11(4), pages 515-521.
    20. Ashish Singh & Kaushalendra Kumar & Abhishek Singh, 2016. "Trends in Inequality in Food Consumption and Calorie Intake in India: Evidence from the Last Three Decades, 1983–2012," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 128(3), pages 1319-1346, September.

    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:izm:prcdng:200617. 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: Ayla Ogus Binatli (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/deieutr.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.