Journal of Economics and Development Studies

Government Spending on Education and Closing the Gender Gap: The Case of Developing Economies
Noha Emara, Ph.D; Azza Hegazy

Abstract
Gender equality in education is considered one of the most challenging of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) for developing economies to reach. Using panel least square with regional dummies for a sample of developing countries over the period 1990 to 2014, the study estimates the factors responsible for narrowing down the gender gap in education at the primary, secondary, and tertiary levels. Among other factors, the study focuses on the response of the gender gap in education to economic growth, information communication technology, openness, and public spending on education, the size of the female population, and regional dummies. We estimate the impact of each factor on closing the gender gap in education and predict the ability of these countries to close the gap by 2030, the conclusion of the SDGs, if they depend solely on government spending on education and no other factor. The results show that almost all developing countries in the sample will be able to bridge the educational gap for the three levels of education by 2030. For the few off-track countries, increasing government spending alone will not close the gender gap in education; they must implement other measures such as expanding the use of telephones, cell phones, and internet in order to accelerate the closure of the gender gap in education.

Full Text: PDF     DOI: 10.15640/jeds.v7n2a1