The Kuznets Curve of Education: A Global Perspective on Education Inequalities

This paper describes global trends in average educational attainment and in education inequality since 1870, improving the database released by Morrisson-Murtin (2009). Inequality in years of schooling is found to be rapidly decreasing, a direct consequence of the decline in illiteracy. Then, we turn to human capital inequality, and focus, among several other alternatives, on a Mincerian production function of human capital that accounts for diminishing returns to schooling. Within countries, we find evidence of an inverted U-shape curve for human capital inequality, namely a Kuznets curve of education. At the world level, human capital inequality has followed a similar pattern, first increasing from 1870 to 1970, then decreasing.Inequality, human capital, economic history, Kuznets curve.

The Century of Education

This paper presents a historical database on educational attainment in 74 countries for the period 1870-2010, using perpetual inventory methods before 1960 and then the Cohen and Soto (2007) database. The correlation between the two sets of average years of schooling in 1960 is equal to 0.96. We use a measurement error framework to merge the two databases, while correcting for a systematic measurement bias in Cohen and Soto (2007) linked to differential mortality across educational groups. Descriptive statistics show a continuous spread of education that has accelerated in the second half of the twentieth century. We find evidence of fast convergence in years of schooling for a sub-sample of advanced countries during the 1870-1914 globalization period, and of modest convergence since 1980. Less advanced countries have been excluded from the convergence club in both cases.Inequality, human capital, economic history, copula function

The Century of Education

This paper presents a historical database on educational attainment in 74 countries for the period 1870-2010, using perpetual inventory methods before 1960 and then the Cohen and Soto (2007) database. The correlation between the two sets of average years of schooling in 1960 is equal to 0.96. We use a measurement error framework to merge the two databases, while correcting for a systematic measurement bias in Cohen and Soto (2007) linked to differential mortality across educational groups. Descriptive statistics show a continuous spread of education that has accelerated in the second half of the twentieth century. We find evidence of fast convergence in years of schooling for a sub-sample of advanced countries during the 1870-1914 globalization period, and of modest convergence since 1980. Less advanced countries have been excluded from the convergence club in both cases.Education, school enrolment, inequality

Household Structures and Savings: Evidence from Household Surveys

This paper examines the relationship between household structures, the institutions that shape them and physical and human capital accumulation using household and individual data from China, Indonesia, Côte d'Ivoire and Ghana. Household structures differ greatly across countries and are very diverse within countries. In the two African countries studied a large share of the population live in extended households and/or polygamous ones. Such household structures are the exception or even absent in the Asian cases, where nuclear monogamous households prevail. This paper finds that polygamy is negatively related to capital accumulation. Wealth per capita is significantly lower in polygamous households even after controlling for income, age and literacy of the household head. A first analysis of the possible channels suggests that the larger size of polygamous households plays an important role. A similar result is found for education: enrolment rates are never higher but frequently lower in these households. The diversity across countries demonstrates that polygamy has very different meanings across societies. Extended households are also examined. The analysis shows that those households that accommodate inactive members of the extended kin group are wealthier than other, comparable households. This result is consistent with accommodation of kin group members acting as a vehicle for solidarity that could also be regarded as a private "tax on success". The implicit transfers embedded in such mechanisms, including fostering, are very high compared to monetary and in-kind transfers and have often been overlooked in the analysis of social relations. --household structure,saving,polygamy,fostering,Africa,capital accumulation

Tra Vandali e Bizantini: la prosperità dell’Africa (V-VII secolo) attraverso le fonti e la documentazione monetale

Superando il convincimento della vulgata della Scuola di Oxford, il saggio affronta, in una prospettiva Nord-Africana, la natura dell’economia e del commercio in epoca tardo antica e chiarisce come questi non fossero interamente organizzati e sostenuti dallo Stato. Infatti, attraverso l’analisi delle fonti letterarie e numismatiche, si esamina l’integrazione dell’Africa vandalica e bizantina nella rete degli scambi mediterranei. Ne deriva che la reinterpretazione vandalica del sistema romano di IV-V secolo e la struttura della coniazione bizantina nella zecca di Cartagine, sia negli aspetti quantitativi (offerta di moneta) sia nel suo uso largamente diffuso in Africa e al di là dell’Africa stessa (domanda e circolazione di moneta), possano fornire indicatori attendibili dei contatti e dell’interscambio delle merci africane verso la Spagna non meno che verso Costantinopoli. A Cartagine e nell’area bizantina nordafricana, almeno fino alla metà del VII secolo, il tessuto economico non presenta alcun elemento tale da far supporre un contesto regressivo, bensì in grado di mantenere le condizioni per una continuità culturale, anche di tradizione latina illustrata, ad esempio, dal poeta Corippo.Going beyond the current opinions of the Oxford School, this study looks at the economic and commercial activities in North Africa during the Late Roman and Early Byzantine period and shows that these were not organized and maintained entirely by the state. Through an analysis of literary and monetary sources it examines the integration of the local and the byzantine in Africa with the network of Mediterranean trade. These analyses permit a rough understanding of the Roman system in the IV-V centuries and the structure of the byzantine coinage of the Carthage mint, both quantitatively (the availability of money) and it’s widespread use in Africa and beyond (the demand for, and the circulation of coinage) so as to obtain reliable indicators of the exchange of African goods both no less with Spain than with Constantinople. Both in Carthage and byzantine north Africa, at least until the mid 7th century, there are no elements that lead us to think that the economic structure was in decline, in fact it seems to have even maintained the Latin tradition as shown, for example by the poet Corippo

The century of education

This paper presents a historical database on educational attainment in 74 countries for the period 1870-2010, using perpetual inventory methods before 1960 and then the Cohen and Soto (2007) database. The correlation between the two sets of average years of schooling in 1960 is equal to 0.96. We use a measurement error framework to merge the two databases, while correcting for a systematic measurement bias in Cohen and Soto (2007) linked to differential mortality across educational groups. Descriptive statistics show a continuous spread of education that has accelerated in the second half of the twentieth century. We find evidence of fast convergence in years of schooling for a sub-sample of advanced countries during the 1870-1914 globalization period, and of modest convergence since 1980. Less advanced countries have been excluded from the convergence club in both cases.education ; economic history ; database

Poverty and income distribution during adjustment : issues and evidence from the OECD project

Drawing lessons from country studies, the authors examine the effects of adjustment policies on the distribution of income in Chile, Cote d'Ivoire, Ecuador, Indonesia, Malaysia, and Morocco. After analyzing the issues that must be confronted in designing adjustment programs with a focus on poverty, they synthesize the main conclusions of the different country studies. With simulation exercises they explore the effects of the design of the adjustment packages on poverty and on the sustainability of the measures undertaken in these countries. These exercises show considerable diversity in the evolution of income distribution during adjustment. They also expose the fatal flaws of narrowly designed adjustment programs. Adjustment programs - whether focused on efficiency or on welfare - will fail when they do not recognize the interdependence of the three criteria of efficiency, welfare, and political feasibility. Adjustment programs must be carefully packaged to fit country circumstances, taking into account both the political and economic environments.Economic Stabilization,Inequality,Environmental Economics&Policies,Economic Theory&Research,Health Economics&Finance

Herbicide resistance in the Canadian prairie provinces : Five years after the fact

La résistance aux herbicides a été reconnue comme un problème pour la première fois dans les Prairies canadiennes, en 1988, quand une sétaire verte (Setaria viridis) résistante à la trifluraline a été détectée au Manitoba, puis une stellaire moyenne (Stellaria média) et un kochia à balais (Kochia scoparia) résistants au chlorsulfuron ont été identifiés en Alberta et en Saskatchewan, respectivement. Depuis lors, le nombre de mauvaises herbes résistantes s'est accru pour inclure la folle avoine (Avena fatua) résistante aux triallates, ainsi qu'aux aryloxyphénoxypropionates et aux cyclohexanediones (herbicides du groupe 1), la sétaire verte aux herbicides du groupe 1, la soude roulante (Salsola pestifer) et la moutarde des champs (Sinapis arvensis) résistantes au sulfonylurées et aux imidazolinones (herbicides du groupe 2), et finalement la moutarde des champs résistante aux herbicides régulateurs de croissance (herbicides du groupe 4). Les niveaux et patrons de résistance croisée aux molécules des groupes 1 et 2 diffèrent énormément entre les différentes populations, avec des facteurs de résistance (rapport de résistant à sensible [R:S]), obtenus à l'aide de courbes de réponse aux doses, se classant de 150. La résistance de la sétaire verte au groupe 1 et la résistance de la stellaire moyenne et du kochia à la classe 2 sont dues à des sensibilités réduites des enzymes-cibles: l'acétyl coenzyme-A carboxylase (ACCase) et l'acétolactate synthase (ALS), respectivement. Les mécanismes de résistance pour les autres espèces, incluant la folle avoine résistante aux inhibiteurs de rACCase (groupe 1) et aux triallate/difenzoquat (groupe 8) sont obscurs. À présent, le seul cas de résistance multiple dans l'ouest canadien est la sétaire verte résistante aux éléments chimiques des groupes 1 et 3 (inhibiteurs de l'ACCase et dinitroanilines). Les préoccupations à venir concernent la sévérité accrue de la résistance aux groupes 1 et 8 dans les Prairies, et la possibilité de sélectionner pour la résistance multiple chez les mauvaises herbes du type de la sétaire verte, contre lesquelles il existe peu d'alternatives efficaces.Herbicide resistance was first recognized as a problem on the Canadian Prairies in 1988 when trifluralin-resistant green foxtail (Setaria viridis) was reported in Manitoba, and chlorsulfuron-resistant chickweed (Stellaria media) and koehia (Kochia scoparia) in Alberta and Saskatchewan, respectively. Since then, the number of resistant weeds has increased to include wild oats (Avena fatua) resistant to triallate and to aryloxyphenoxypropionate and cyclohexanedione (group 1) herbicides, green foxtail to group 1 herbicides, Russian thistle (Salsola pestifer) and wild mustard (Sinapis arvensis) to sulfonylurea and imidazolinone (group 2) herbicides, and wild mustard to growth regulator (group 4) herbicides. The levels and patterns of cross-resistance to chemicals in groups 1 and 2 vary widely among different populations, with resistance factors [resistant to susceptible (R:S) ratios] derived from dose response curves typically ranging from 150. Group 1 resistance in green foxtail and group 2 resistance in chickweed and kochia populations are due to reduced sensitivities of the target enzymes, acetyl coenzyme-A carboxylase (ACCase) and acetolactate synthase (ALS), respectively. The mechanisms of resistance in the other species including wild oats resistant to ACCase inhibitors (group 1 ) and to triallate/difenzoquat (group 8) are unclear. At present, the only instance of multiple resistance in western Canada is green foxtail resistant to chemicals in both groups 1 and 3 (ACCase inhibitors and dinitroanilines). Future concerns focus mainly on the increasing seriousness of group 1 and 8 resistance across the Prairies, and on the possibility of selecting for multiple resistance in weeds such as green foxtail for which there are few remaining effective control options

Education inequalities and the Kuznets curves: a global perspective since 1870

This paper presents a new dataset on educational attainment (primary, secondary and tertiary schooling) at the world level since 1870. Inequality in years of schooling is found to be rapidly decreasing, but we show that this result is completely driven by the decline in illiteracy. Then, we turn to inequality in human capital and focus on a Mincerian production function that accounts for diminishing returns to schooling. It explains the negative cross-country correlation between Mincerian returns to schooling and average schooling contrary to other functional forms. As a result, we show that world human capital inequality has increased since 1870, but does not exceed 10% of world income inequality. Next, we analyse the relationships between the national distributions of income and schooling. We show that human capital within countries exhibits an inverted U-shaped curve with respect to average schooling, namely a "Kuznets curve of education". We find that the usual Kuznets curve of income inequality is significant both in pooled and fixed-effects regressions over the period 1870-2000, and is robust to the inclusion of other variables in the regression such as schooling and human capital inequality. However, the "Kuznets effect" associated to GDP per capita is four times smaller in magnitude than the externality of average schooling favouring the decrease of income inequality within countries since 1870.Ce papier présente une nouvelle base de données sur l'éducation (primaire, secondaire, supérieure) au niveau mondial depuis 1870. L'inégalité du nombre d'années étude a décru rapidement, mais nous montrons que ce résultat est entièrement gouverné par le déclin de l'illettrisme. Puis nous nous concentrons sur l'inégalité de capital humain en considérant une fonction de production prenant en compte les rendements décroissants de l'éducation. Ceux-ci expliquent la corrélation négative entre les rendements Mincériens de l'éducation et l'éducation moyenne, contrairement à d'autres formes fonctionnelles. Nous montrons que l'inégalité mondiale en capital humain a augmenté depuis 1870, mais n'excède pas 10% de l'inégalité mondiale des revenus. Puis, nous analysons la relation entre les distributions nationales de revenu et d'éducation. Nous montrons que le capital humain des pays suit une courbe en U inversée, sorte de courbe de Kuznets du capital humain. De plus, la courbe de Kuznets de l'inégalité des revenus est significative à la fois dans les régressions en coupe et en panel sur la période 1870-2000, et est robuste à l'inclusion d'autres variables explicatives comme l'éducation et l'inégalité du capital humain. Cependant, l'effet associé à la courbe de Kuznets à travers le PIB par tête est 4 fois inférieur en valeur absolue à l'externalité de l'éducation qui a entraîné la diminution de l'inégalité des revenus à l'intérieur des pays depuis 1870