ABSTRACT
This chapter addresses two issues: Do gender differences in educational expansion have different effects on national economic growth? If so, what are the main mechanisms through which these differential effects occur? In past comparative research, these issues were either ignored or explained in relation to education’s impact on women’s participation in the labor force and reproductive behavior. The study presented here analyzed cross-national data on ninety-six countries from 1960 to 1985 and found clear evidence that in lessdeveloped countries, especially some of the poorest, educational expansion among schoolage girls at the primary level has a stronger effect on long-term economic prosperity than does educational expansion among school-age boys. This effect is not mediated by women’s rates of participation in the wage labor force or by fertility rates. These findings provide qualified support for institutional theories of education’s impact on society.
