Improving the Distribution of
Education for Self Reliance
Dr. Donald Holsinger
Professor Emeritus
BYU
October 18, 2007

The main asset of
most poor people istheir knowledge andskills. This we callhuman capital.
Investing in the humancapital of the poor isan effective way tohelp them and reducepoverty.

1

For economic growth to have animpact on poverty the principal
asset, human capital, needs tobe distributed equally
To be sustained, development
must be equitable and inclusive.

We believe that
inadequate attention
has been given to thedistributive effect ofpublic investments ineducation.

2

Research shows a weak relation between
public spending on education andoutcomes such as student learning or
mastery of the curriculum. (Filmer andPritchett 1999)

Public resources
subsidize education forthe comparativelywealthy.
2. The way we havelooked at thequantitative expansionof education has
masked the distributionof education.
1.

3

1.

Public resources subsidize education
for the wealthy.

••

Vietnamese demand higher
quality education and arewilling to pay for it.
Money begins to pour into
physical capital—
capital—e.g. theconstruction of new universities
and schools in urban centers.
This works against primary andlower secondary education of
the poor in rural areas.

4Enter the education Gini—a superior
measure of quantitative coverage.
Gini coefficients are familiar measures ofincome inequality.
Within a given population, Gini coefficients
indicate the distribution of a particularcharacteristic.
Gini coefficients vary from 0 (total equality) to
1 (total inequality).

Gini coefficients can be understoodgraphically by reference to the Lorenz
curve.
The Lorenz curve displays a diagonalrepresenting perfect equality.
The closer the curve is to the diagonal, themore equally the characteristic is distributedin the population. The further the curve fromthe diagonal, the larger the inequality in thepopulation.

5

The Gini coefficient is the area between
the curve and the diagonal as apercentage of the triangular area below
the diagonal.
 1  9 a −1
E gini =  ∑ ∑ xa za − zb xb µ  a =1 b =1

The higher the Gini, the more unequal
the distribution.

Acknowledged as the best distributive measureof education.
Makes explicit both absolute coverage and thedistribution.
Is negatively correlated with mean years ofschooling at -.84
Does not tell us where (at what education level)
inequality is located.
Does not tell us about the quality of education.

6

The total number of years of education in
the labor force and the equality ofdistribution of education in the labor force
are highly related, but not identical.
Although the education Gini coefficient
may be used for children of school age webelieve it is most appropriate as ameasure of the quality of the labor force.

Investments in education havefailed in many cases to produce
planned economic growth
because the distribution ofhuman capital was unequal.
Exclusive reliance onenrollment rates as a measureof quantitative expansion orsystem coverage has
desensitized planners to theissue of inequality.

7

The education Gini coefficient is a useful
tool for examining the distribution of
education in the labor force (or in studentage populations).

Public policy foreducation shouldmake use of theeducation Gini forplanning and progressevaluation purposes.

8Viet Nam

Gini Coefficient
16 - 18
19 - 21
22 - 24
25 - 27
28 +The Distribution of Education inSoutheast Asia and GDP per capita.
Country Name

Mean Years
SchoolingGini Coefficient

GDP per capita

Cambodia*1

3.29

0.51

253

Hong Kong

8.86

0.32

23095.38

Indonesia

4.6

0.41

979.86

Japan

8.98

0.25

43817.87

Korea

10.04

0.22

12174.05

Malaysia

60.42

4540.67

Philippines

6.93

0.33

1132.93

Singapore

5.64

0.44

26294.36

Thailand

5.48

0.39

2720.76

Viet Nam*2

7.34

0.24

211.18

Mean6.716

0.353

11522.01

9Lorenz curve and Gini coefficient
The Cumulative Proportion of Attainment

The Line of Absolute Equality

The Area
Between theLine of Absolute
Equality and theLorenz CurveAB

The Lorenz Curve
The Cumulative Proportion of the Population

Comparing Viet Nam andCambodia Lorenz curves
Cumulative Percentage of Education Attainment

100806040

Line of Equality
200020

40

6080

100

Viet Nam(0.24)
Cambodia(0.51)

Cumulative Percentage of the Population

10

Education Inequality andAcademic Achievement
What impact do efforts to achieve anequal distribution of primary school
completion rates have on student
learning?
This question has rarely been asked
and never satisfactorily answered.

Evidence from Viet Nam

Viet Nam presents an unusual opportunity
to examine the relationship between
education inequality and student learning.
Data for the education Gini werecalculated by Holsinger and students
Achievement data came from a WorldBank supported study of fifth grade mathand science achievement.

11

Theoretical Considerations


If by a theory we mean, for every X,
if Y, then Z, we would have for every
Vietnamese fifth grade student, ifs/he lives is a province with an equal
distribution of education, thenher/his score will be higher.
There is very little analytical work insupport of this proposition.

A moderately strong relationship
The simple bi-variate correlation isr=-.54
 It has a negative sign because of theway inequality is measured ( “0” isequal and “1” is unequal) The correlation of -.54 means that
Vietnamese provinces with highequality also have students whoachieve higher exam scores.
12Compare this correlation to the
Human Development Index (HDI)The Human Development Index (HDI) is acomparative measure of life expectancy,literacy, education, and standards of living
for countries worldwide. It is a standard
means of measuring well-being, especiallychild welfare.
 A rival or alternative explanation is thatprovinces with high education equality arealso high on the broader HDI and that thisfact, not equality of the distribution ofeducation attainment, is behind therelationship with learning achievment.
Education Gini and 5th grade
achievement
controlling for HDI level
Variable

Combinedscore

EducationGini

HDI rank
province

Mathscore

Reading
score

Combined Reading andMath Benchmark

1-.54-.461.92

Education Gini (inequalityscore)-.541.40-.54-.62

Human Development Index
provincial score-.46.40

1-.46-.48

Math Independent Benchark

1-.54-.461.92

Reading Independent
Benchmark.92-.62-.48.92

113

Equality Promotes Learning
The results for Viet Nam arepromising but we need to comparethem to other countries.
 Equality of the distribution of
education appears to be related tostudent achievement but the reasonsfor that relationship are still unclear.
Equality and Social Justice
Traditionally we have argued that
equal access to education
opportunity is an inherent good.
 The demands of social justice, as adevelopment objective, require
efforts to equalize completion rates
at the basic education level.
 Completion rates are much superior
to enrolloment ratios.
14

Education Gini
But even primary school completion
rates are averages at the country orprovincial levels.
 All statistical measures of central
tendency have an inherent weakness
in that they cover or hide variation.
 The education Gini exposes variationin the distribution and should beroutinely used to measure progressin education.
15