IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/cep/stidar/52.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Education, Inequality and Income Inequality

Author

Listed:
  • Daniele Checchi

Abstract

In this paper we propose to measure inequality of educational achievements by constructing a Gini index on educational attainments. We then use the proposed measure to analyse the relationship between inequality in incomes and educational achievements (in terms of both the average attainments and its concentration). Even if theoretical considerations suggest a non-linear relationship between these two measures of inequality, actual data indicate that average years of education have a stronger negative impact on measured income inequality. Multivariate regressions also prove that, once we take into account the negative correlation between average educational achievement and its dispersion, the relationship between income inequality and average years of schooling is U-shaped, with a lower turning point at 6.5 years. Income inequality is also negatively related to per capita income and positively related to capital/output ratio and government expenditure in education.

Suggested Citation

  • Daniele Checchi, 2001. "Education, Inequality and Income Inequality," STICERD - Distributional Analysis Research Programme Papers 52, Suntory and Toyota International Centres for Economics and Related Disciplines, LSE.
    • Handle: RePEc:cep:stidar:52
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://sticerd.lse.ac.uk/dps/darp/DARP52.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    Other versions of this item:

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Branko Milanovic, 2002. "True World Income Distribution, 1988 and 1993: First Calculation Based on Household Surveys Alone," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 112(476), pages 51-92, January.
    2. repec:bla:econom:v:63:y:1996:i:250:p:s103-17 is not listed on IDEAS
    3. Lopez, Ramon & Thomas, Vinod & Yan Wang, 1998. "Addressing the education puzzle : the distribution of education and economic reform," Policy Research Working Paper Series 2031, The World Bank.
    4. Jong–Wha Lee & Robert J. Barro, 2001. "Schooling Quality in a Cross–Section of Countries," Economica, London School of Economics and Political Science, vol. 68(272), pages 465-488, November.
    5. Jacob Mincer, 1996. "Changes in Wage Inequality, 1970-1990," NBER Working Papers 5823, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    6. Roberto Perotti, 1993. "Political Equilibrium, Income Distribution, and Growth," The Review of Economic Studies, Review of Economic Studies Ltd, vol. 60(4), pages 755-776.
    7. Checchi, Daniele, "undated". "Inequality in Income and Access to Education: A Cross-Country Analysis," WIDER Working Papers 295483, United Nations University, World Institute for Development Economic Research (UNU-WIDER).
    8. Feenstra, Robert C & Hanson, Gordon H, 1996. "Globalization, Outsourcing, and Wage Inequality," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 86(2), pages 240-245, May.
    9. Deininger, Klaus & Squire, Lyn, 1996. "A New Data Set Measuring Income Inequality," The World Bank Economic Review, World Bank, vol. 10(3), pages 565-591, September.
    10. Derek Neal & Sherwin Rosen, 1998. "Theories of the Distribution of Labor Earnings," NBER Working Papers 6378, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    11. Deininger, Klaus & Squire, Lyn, 1998. "New ways of looking at old issues: inequality and growth," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 57(2), pages 259-287.
    12. Jacob A. Mincer, 1974. "Introduction to "Schooling, Experience, and Earnings"," NBER Chapters, in: Schooling, Experience, and Earnings, pages 1-4, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    13. Barro, Robert J. & Lee, Jong-Wha, 1993. "International comparisons of educational attainment," Journal of Monetary Economics, Elsevier, vol. 32(3), pages 363-394, December.
    14. Robert J. Barro, 1999. "Inequality, Growth, and Investment," NBER Working Papers 7038, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    15. Galor, Oded & Tsiddon, Daniel, 1997. "The Distribution of Human Capital and Economic Growth," Journal of Economic Growth, Springer, vol. 2(1), pages 93-124, March.
    16. Flug, Karnit & Spilimbergo, Antonio & Wachtenheim, Erik, 1998. "Investment in education: do economic volatility and credit constraints matter?," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 55(2), pages 465-481, April.
    17. Banerjee, Abhijit V & Newman, Andrew F, 1993. "Occupational Choice and the Process of Development," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 101(2), pages 274-298, April.
    18. Matthew Higgins & Jeffrey G. Williamson, 1999. "Explaining Inequality the World Round: Cohort Size, Kuznets Curves, andOpenness," NBER Working Papers 7224, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    19. Kevin M. Murphy & W. Craig Riddell & Paul M. Romer, 1998. "Wages, Skills, and Technology in the United States and Canada," NBER Working Papers 6638, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    20. Ram, Rati, 1990. "Educational Expansion and Schooling Inequality: International Evidence and Some Implications," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 72(2), pages 266-274, May.
    21. Richard Breen & Cecilia García‐Peñalosa, 2005. "Income Inequality and Macroeconomic Volatility: An Empirical Investigation," Review of Development Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 9(3), pages 380-398, August.
    22. Cecilia Garcia-Penalosa & Eve Caroli & Philippe Aghion, 1999. "Inequality and Economic Growth: The Perspective of the New Growth Theories," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 37(4), pages 1615-1660, December.
    23. Roland Bénabou, 1996. "Inequality and Growth," NBER Chapters, in: NBER Macroeconomics Annual 1996, Volume 11, pages 11-92, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    24. Jacob A. Mincer, 1974. "Schooling, Experience, and Earnings," NBER Books, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc, number minc74-1.
    25. Oded Galor & Joseph Zeira, 1993. "Income Distribution and Macroeconomics," The Review of Economic Studies, Review of Economic Studies Ltd, vol. 60(1), pages 35-52.
    26. Thomas Piketty, 1997. "The Dynamics of the Wealth Distribution and the Interest Rate with Credit Rationing," The Review of Economic Studies, Review of Economic Studies Ltd, vol. 64(2), pages 173-189.
    27. Peter Gottschalk & Timothy M. Smeeding, 1997. "Cross-National Comparisons of Earnings and Income Inequality," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 35(2), pages 633-687, June.
    28. Daniele Checchi, 1999. "Inequality in Incomes and Access to Education. A Cross-Country Analysis (1960-90)," Working Papers 21, University of Milano-Bicocca, Department of Economics, revised May 1999.
    29. Andrew Glyn & Wiemer Salverda, 1999. "Employment Inequalities," Economics Working Paper Archive wp_293, Levy Economics Institute.
    30. Psacharopoulos, George, 1994. "Returns to investment in education: A global update," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 22(9), pages 1325-1343, September.
    31. Amparo Castello & Rafael Domenech, 2002. "Human Capital Inequality and Economic Growth: Some New Evidence," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 112(478), pages 187-200, March.
    32. Li, Hongyi & Squire, Lyn & Zou, Heng-fu, 1998. "Explaining International and Intertemporal Variations in Income Inequality," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 108(446), pages 26-43, January.
    33. O'Neill, Donal, 1995. "Education and Income Growth: Implications for Cross-Country Inequality," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 103(6), pages 1289-1301, December.
    34. Gary S. Becker, 1964. "Human Capital: A Theoretical and Empirical Analysis with Special Reference to Education, First Edition," NBER Books, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc, number beck-5.
    35. Cornia, Giovanni Andrea, "undated". "Liberalization, Globalization and Income Distribution," WIDER Working Papers 295482, United Nations University, World Institute for Development Economic Research (UNU-WIDER).
    36. Ravallion, Martin & Wodon, Quentin, 2000. "Does Child Labour Displace Schooling? Evidence on Behavioural Responses to an Enrollment Subsidy," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 110(462), pages 158-175, March.
    37. Perotti, Roberto, 1996. "Growth, Income Distribution, and Democracy: What the Data Say," Journal of Economic Growth, Springer, vol. 1(2), pages 149-187, June.
    38. Atkinson, A.B. & Brandolini, A., 2000. "Promise and Pitfalls in the Use of 'Secondary' Data -Sets: Income Inequality in OECD Countries," Papers 379, Banca Italia - Servizio di Studi.
    39. Atkinson, A. B., 1997. "Measurement of Trends in Poverty and the Income Distribution," Cambridge Working Papers in Economics 9712, Faculty of Economics, University of Cambridge.
    40. Anand, Sudhir & Kanbur, S. M. R., 1993. "The Kuznets process and the inequality--development relationship," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 40(1), pages 25-52, February.
    41. George J. Borjas & Valerie A. Ramey, 1995. "Foreign Competition, Market Power, and Wage Inequality," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 110(4), pages 1075-1110.
    42. Robert Summers & Alan Heston, 1991. "The Penn World Table (Mark 5): An Expanded Set of International Comparisons, 1950–1988," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 106(2), pages 327-368.
    43. Jacob A. Mincer, 1974. "Schooling and Earnings," NBER Chapters, in: Schooling, Experience, and Earnings, pages 41-63, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    44. Barro, Robert J & Lee, Jong Wha, 1996. "International Measures of Schooling Years and Schooling Quality," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 86(2), pages 218-223, May.
    45. Richard Breen, 1999. "Income Inequality and Macroeconomic Volatility: An Empirical Investigation," Economics Series Working Papers 1999-W20, University of Oxford, Department of Economics.
    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. Audrey Siew Kim LIM & Kam Ki TANG, 2008. "Human Capital Inequality And The Kuznets Curve," The Developing Economies, Institute of Developing Economies, vol. 46(1), pages 26-51, March.
    2. Derick R. C. Almeida & João A. S. Andrade & Adelaide Duarte & Marta Simões, 2022. "Human Capital Disparities and Earnings Inequality in The Portuguese Private Labour Market," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 159(1), pages 145-167, January.
    3. Ghosh, sudeshna, 2017. "Education Attainment Forecasting and Economic Inequality United States," MPRA Paper 89712, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    4. Jong-Wha Lee & Hanol Lee, 2018. "Human capital and income inequality," Journal of the Asia Pacific Economy, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 23(4), pages 554-583, October.
    5. Dobdinga C. Fonchamnyo & Nubonyin Hilda Fokong, 2017. "Educational Gender Gap, Economic Growth and Income Distribution: An Empirical Study of the Interrelationship in Cameroon," International Journal of Economics and Finance, Canadian Center of Science and Education, vol. 9(3), pages 168-176, March.
    6. Acevedo, Ivonne & Castellani, Francesca & Cota, María José & Lotti, Giulia & Székely, Miguel, 2022. "Higher Inequality in Latin America: A Collateral Effect of the Pandemic," IDB Publications (Working Papers) 11937, Inter-American Development Bank.
    7. Yousef Makhlouf & Christopher Lalley, 2023. "Education Expansion, Income Inequality and Structural Transformation: Evidence From OECD Countries," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 169(1), pages 255-281, September.
    8. Banzragch, Otgontugs & Mizunoya, Suguru & Bayarjargal, Munkhireedui, 2019. "Education inequality in Mongolia: Measurement and causes," International Journal of Educational Development, Elsevier, vol. 68(C), pages 68-79.
    9. Saccone Donatella, 2008. "Educational Inequality and Educational Poverty. the Chinese Case in the Period 1975-2004," Department of Economics and Statistics Cognetti de Martiis. Working Papers 200808, University of Turin.
    10. Bruno Martorano & Marco Sanfilippo, 2015. "Structural Change and Wage Inequality in the Manufacturing Sector: Long Run Evidence from East Asia," Oxford Development Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 43(2), pages 212-231, June.
    11. Audrey Siew Kim Lim & Kam Ki Tang, 2006. "Human inequality, human capital inequality and the Kuznets curve," CAMA Working Papers 2006-08, Centre for Applied Macroeconomic Analysis, Crawford School of Public Policy, The Australian National University.
    12. K.K.Tang & Lim, A. S. K, "undated". "Education Inequality, Human Capital Inequality and the Kuznets Curve," MRG Discussion Paper Series 0506, School of Economics, University of Queensland, Australia.
    13. Jirada Prasartpornsirichoke & Yoshi Takahashi & Peera Charoenporn, 2012. "The Ranking of Inequality in Human Capital: Evidence from Asian Countries," IDEC DP2 Series 2-14, Hiroshima University, Graduate School for International Development and Cooperation (IDEC).
    14. Gabriele Ballarino & Michela Braga & Massimiliano Bratti & Daniele Checchi & Antonio Filippin & Carlo V. Fiorio & Marco Leonardi & Elena Meschi & Francesco Scervini, 2013. "GINI Country Report: Growing Inequalities and their Impacts in Italy," GINI Country Reports italy, AIAS, Amsterdam Institute for Advanced Labour Studies.
    15. João Gabriel Fidalgo & Marta Simões & Adelaide Duarte, 2010. "Mind the Gap: Education Inequality at the Regional Level in Portugal, 1986-2005," Notas Económicas, Faculty of Economics, University of Coimbra, issue 32, pages 22-43, December.
    16. Hafsa Batool & Urooj Maqbool & Saba Gulzar, 2024. "Equal Educational Opportunities: A Catalyst for Sustainable Economic Development," Journal of Economic Impact, Science Impact Publishers, vol. 6(1), pages 53-61.
    17. Nguyen, Jessica & Dinh, Tue & Selart, Marcus, 2020. "The predicting abilities of social trust and good governance on economic crisis duration," SocArXiv bjkpd, Center for Open Science.
    18. Undp, 2011. "HDR 2011 - Sustainability and Equity: A Better Future for All," Human Development Report (1990 to present), Human Development Report Office (HDRO), United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), number hdr2011, September.
    19. Guarini, Giulio & Laureti, Tiziana & Garofalo, Giuseppe, 2018. "Territorial and individual educational inequality: A Capability Approach analysis for Italy," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 71(C), pages 247-262.
    20. Saccone Donatella, 2011. "Potenze economiche emergenti: Cina e India a confronto.Istruzione e diseguaglianze," Department of Economics and Statistics Cognetti de Martiis. Working Papers 201113, University of Turin.
    21. Wang, RuoPeng & Kimura, Shin, 2024. "Rethinking the role of government in education: Private education tuition waivers and public education," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 135(C).
    22. Noman Arshed & Awais Anwar & Nabeela Kousar & Samra Bukhari, 2018. "Education Enrollment Level and Income Inequality: A Case of SAARC Economies," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 140(3), pages 1211-1224, December.
    23. Nasfi Fkili Wahiba & Mahmoudi Dina, 2023. "Technological Change, Growth and Income Inequality," International Journal of Economics and Financial Issues, Econjournals, vol. 13(1), pages 121-131, January.
    24. Checchi, Daniele & Garcia-Penalosa, Cecilia, 2004. "Risk and the distribution of human capital," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 82(1), pages 53-61, January.
    25. Lawrence Adu Asamoah, 2021. "Institutional Quality and Income Inequality in Developing Countries: A Dynamic Panel Threshold Analysis," Progress in Development Studies, , vol. 21(2), pages 123-143, April.

    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. Checchi, Daniele, 2000. "Does Educational Achievement Help to Explain Income Inequality?," WIDER Working Papers 295540, United Nations University, World Institute for Development Economic Research (UNU-WIDER).
    2. Chicchi, D., 1999. "Inequality in Income and Access to Education: A Cross-Country Analysis," Research Paper 158, World Institute for Development Economics Research.
    3. Andrés Rodríguez-Pose & Vassilis Tselios, 2010. "Inequalities in income and education and regional economic growth in western Europe," The Annals of Regional Science, Springer;Western Regional Science Association, vol. 44(2), pages 349-375, April.
    4. Daniele Checchi, 1999. "Inequality in Incomes and Access to Education. A Cross-Country Analysis (1960-90)," Working Papers 21, University of Milano-Bicocca, Department of Economics, revised May 1999.
    5. Amparo Castelló-Climent, 2004. "A Reassessment Of The Relationship Between Inequality And Growth: What Human Capital Inequality Data Say?," Working Papers. Serie EC 2004-15, Instituto Valenciano de Investigaciones Económicas, S.A. (Ivie).
    6. Amparo Castelló-Climent & Rafael Doménech, 2012. "Human Capital and Income Inequality: Some Facts and Some Puzzles," Working Papers 1201, International Economics Institute, University of Valencia.
    7. Barro, Robert J, 2000. "Inequality and Growth in a Panel of Countries," Journal of Economic Growth, Springer, vol. 5(1), pages 5-32, March.
    8. Adelaide Duarte & Marta Simões, 2009. "Channels of transmission of inequality to growth: A survey of the theory and evidence from a Portuguese perspective," GEMF Working Papers 2009-07, GEMF, Faculty of Economics, University of Coimbra.
    9. Christophe Ehrhart, 2009. "The effects of inequality on growth: a survey of the theoretical and empirical literature," Working Papers 107, ECINEQ, Society for the Study of Economic Inequality.
    10. José De Gregorio & Jong-Wha Lee, 1999. "Education and Income Distribution: New Evidence from Cross-country Data," Documentos de Trabajo 55, Centro de Economía Aplicada, Universidad de Chile.
    11. Bourguignon, Francois, 2005. "The Effect of Economic Growth on Social Structures," Handbook of Economic Growth, in: Philippe Aghion & Steven Durlauf (ed.), Handbook of Economic Growth, edition 1, volume 1, chapter 27, pages 1701-1747, Elsevier.
    12. Josef ZweimüLler, 2000. "Inequality, Redistribution, and Economic Growth," Empirica, Springer;Austrian Institute for Economic Research;Austrian Economic Association, vol. 27(1), pages 1-20, March.
    13. Grabiella Berloffa & Maria Luigia Segnana, 2004. "Trade, inequality and pro-poor growth: Two perspectives, one message?," Department of Economics Working Papers 0408, Department of Economics, University of Trento, Italia.
    14. 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.
    15. Denis Cogneau & Charlotte Guénard, 2002. "Les inégalités et la croissance : une relation introuvable," Working Papers DT/2002/03, DIAL (Développement, Institutions et Mondialisation).
    16. Eicher, Theo S. & Garcia-Penalosa, Cecilia, 2001. "Inequality and growth: the dual role of human capital in development," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 66(1), pages 173-197, October.
    17. Theo S Eicher & Cecilia Garcia Penalosa, "undated". "Inequality and Growth," Working Papers 0083, University of Washington, Department of Economics.
    18. Ricardo Arguello, 2004. "Revisiting the Relationship between Income Distribution and Economic Growth," Borradores de Investigación 4336, Universidad del Rosario.
    19. Asli Demirgüç-Kunt & Ross Levine, 2009. "Finance and Inequality: Theory and Evidence," Annual Review of Financial Economics, Annual Reviews, vol. 1(1), pages 287-318, November.
    20. Ayal Kimhi, 2004. "Growth, Inequality and Labor Markets in LDCs: A Survey," CESifo Working Paper Series 1281, CESifo.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Education inequality; income inequality; economic growth.;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • I20 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Education - - - General
    • J24 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demand and Supply of Labor - - - Human Capital; Skills; Occupational Choice; Labor Productivity
    • O15 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Economic Development - - - Economic Development: Human Resources; Human Development; Income Distribution; Migration
    • N30 - Economic History - - Labor and Consumers, Demography, Education, Health, Welfare, Income, Wealth, Religion, and Philanthropy - - - General, International, or Comparative

    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:cep:stidar:52. 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: the person in charge (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://sticerd.lse.ac.uk/_new/publications/ .

    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.