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

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

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

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

La production française au XVIIIe siècle : stagnation ou croissance ?

L’objet de cette communication est de présenter un programme de travail sur l’économie française au XVIIIe siècle destiné à répondre à la question suivante : stagnation ou croissance ? Cette question porte sur le revenu par habitant et non sur le revenu national ; elle a donc pour enjeu l’évolution du niveau de vie des Français de 1715 aux années 1780. Il s’agit de savoir s’il y a eu, pour la première fois dans l’histoire du pays, une croissance significative et, à long terme, du revenu par h..

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

A large-scale population-based study of the association of vitamin D receptor gene polymorphisms with bone mineral density.

Conflicting results have been reported on the association between restriction fragment length polymorphisms (RFLPs) at the vitamin D receptor (VDR) gene locus (i.e., for BsmI, ApaI, and TaqI) and bone mineral density (BMD). We analyzed this association in a large population-based sample (n = 1782) of men and women aged 55-80 years using a novel direct haplotyping polymerase chain reaction (PCR) test to monitor the three polymorphic sites simultaneously. The direct haplotyping test we developed demonstrated a larger degree of genetic polymorphism at the VDR gene locus than described until now. None of the individual RFLPs were associated with BMD at the proximal femur. By analyzing allele dose effects, we identified a VDR haplotype allele weakly associated with low BMD. This allele, as one representative of the group of b alleles, is different from the BsmI allele previously reported by other groups to be associated with low BMD. This suggests allelic heterogeneity at the VDR locus in relation to BMD. Our results indicate at most a small effect of the VDR genotype on BMD in this elderly population. Since anonymous polymorphisms were analyzed, alternative explanations for our results include linkage to another nearby bone-metabolism related gene