1. Schooling, Gender Equity, and Economic Outcomes
Eric A. Hanushek
Stanford University

2. Long-standing Policy Emphasis on Human Capital
Key element of international development policy
Centerpiece of Millennium Development Goals
Education for All initiative

3. Importance of Human Capital Policy Focus
Traditional emphasis on school attainment
Development of access programs
New evidence that QUALITY is the primary issue

4. Linkage to Gender Issues in Development
First order: women equal men in economic outcomes
Extra policy impact of investments in females
Increased labor force participation
Health outcomes
Fertility
Intergenerational transmission of knowledge

5. Overview of Discussion
Importance of quality (cognitive skills)
Special gender issues
Policy actions

6. School Expectancy, 2001 8.6 7.6 7.1 6.4 Total Male Female World 10.3
Total
Male
Female
World
10.3
10.7
9.8
Countries in transition
12.5
12.2
12.6
Developed countries
15.9
15.2
16.4
Developing countries
9.5
10.1
8.9
Arab States
10.0
10.6
9.4
Central and Eastern Europe
12.7
Central Asia
11.4
11.5
11.3
East Asia and the Pacific
10.9
10.5
Latin America and the Caribbean
13.0
13.2
North America and Western Europe
16.3
15.4
16.8
South and West Asia
8.6
7.6
Sub-Saharan Africa
7.1
6.4

7. Quality Dimension Problem noticeably more serious
Completion does not equal literacy
International standards offer additional warning

8. Basic Skills
Grade 9
37 %
Fully literate
5 %

9. Basic Skills
Grade 9
22%
Fully literate 8%

10. Basic Skills
Grade 9
28%
Fully literate
13%

11. Performance Matters Individual earnings
Close relationship to cognitive skills

12. Performance Matters Individual earnings Distributional implications
Close relationship to cognitive skills
Distributional implications

13. Inequality of Educational Quality and of Earnings

14. Performance Matters Individual earnings Distributional implications
Close relationship to cognitive skills
Distributional implications
Economic growth

15. Education Quality and Economic Growth

16. Improved GDP with Moderately Strong Knowledge Improvement (0.5 s.d.)

17. Investment in Women’s Human Capital
Untapped resource
Dramatic gains in disparity of attainment
Not uniform
Related to economic institutions (?)
Inconsequential cognitive skill differences
Women read better
Men do math better
Differences appear to net to zero
Changing quality most important

18. Changing Outcomes
Resources
Bad policy
Mismeasurement of quality

19. Expenditure per Student and Student Performance across Countries

20. Changing Outcomes Resources Teacher quality Institutions
Bad policy
Mismeasurement of quality
Teacher quality
Institutions
Centralized exams
Accountability
Choice
Performance incentives
Nonschool policies

21. Conclusions School quality has big payoffs
Individual earnings and distribution
Economic growth
Improving quality deserves higher priority
Added importance of women
School quality is not easily changed
Information shortage critical
Student performance
Program feedback