Suchergebnisse

"Regression results show that more unequal societies tend to spend comparatively more on higher levels of education. In a two-period model with heterogeneous agents, this paper investigates the political determinants of this bias. In the first period, public education is financed by the incumbent government by issuing bonds. Investments in basic and higher education have conflicting effects on future labour income distribution and net returns to these investments depend on the tax and transfers system being selected in the following period through the democratic process. Our idea is that public investment in basic education, by decreasing future labour income inequality, may induce future policy-makers to redistribute resources through financial rents taxation, thus making unfeasible the issuing of debt to finance basic education. This will be the more probable the greater wealth inequality is." (Author's abstract, IAB-Doku) ((en))

This study employs a multidisciplinary approach to understand household education decisions and their implications for gender inequality in education in rural China. Based on a household survey of poor rural counties in Gansu and Hebei and local accounts, the study finds that parents have higher educational expectations for boys than for girls. Household education spending is a heavy economic burden for poor rural households, and school non-attendance rates are higher for girls than for boys in the majority of the counties. School attendance is related to economic burden, gender and other factors, but the relationship differs across the counties.