Reforms and education inequality in Ghana. Issue 2 (13th December 2022)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Afoakwah, Clifford; Deng, Xin; Onur, Ilke
• Is Part Of: Review of development economics. Volume 27:Issue 2(2023)
• Page Start: 853
• Page End: 878
• Publication Date: 2022-12-13
• Subjects: education inequality -- education reforms -- gender gap -- Kuznets curve -- sub‐Saharan Africa; Economic development -- Periodicals; 330
• DOI: 10.1111/rode.12961
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 1363-6669

Abstract

Abstract: We analyze the evolvement of education inequality and the gender gap in Ghana before and after two major education reforms. Using different measures of inequality, our findings suggest that the gender gap at the basic school level has closed following the introduction of the education expansion policies, but inequalities persist at the postbasic school levels and across regions. We further demonstrate that the educational expansion–schooling inequality nexus is best illustrated by an inverted U‐shaped Kuznets curve. We find that after an average of 6 years of schooling has been reached, inequality starts to decline, and gender equality can be achieved when the average years of schooling reach 9.