<!-- Start of picture text --> Plcy, Research, and External Affairs|<br>Women In Development _J<br>WPS 468<br><!-- End of picture text -->

This paper -a product of the Women in Development Division, Population and Human Resources Department -is part of a larger effort in PRE to d.termrine if and how women's productivity (and thus family welfare) are improved when women are given more access to education, training, credit,'health care, and otherpublic resources. Copies are available free from the World Bank, 1818 H Street NW, Washington DC 20433. Please conract Maria Abundo, room S9-123, extension 36820 (55 pages, including tables).

Analyses of gender differences in investments in human capital typically emphasize farnily resources as the determining factor. These studies usually find that investments in male offspring are greater, that these differences narrow as the level of household wealth increases, and that equity is also affected by the composition of household wealth (proxied by the amount the mother earns and/or her educational level).

Gill addresses one drawback of these analyses: they do not explicitly consider the factors **that** determine the _demand_ for schooling and health - other than tastes - and why this differs for men and women. Gill uses the regional structure of the economy, proxied by the shares of services and industry in regional gross domestic product (GDP), as an indicator of the demand for educated workers. By examining whetherie level of schooling as a function of shares of services and industry differs for men and women, he looks for gender bias in the demand for schooling. Gill estimates schooling demand functions for males and females using household data from the Peruvian Living Standards Survey, and provincial data from the Peruvian census.

# Gill's primary findings are:

As services and industry increase as a share of GDP, relative to agriculture's share, the demand for schooling increases for both boys and girls. (Both industry and services reward education more than agriculture does. Parents form expectations about the sector their children are likely to work in as adults and choose levels; of schooling accordingly.)

* As services' share in GDP increases compared to agriculture (holding industry's share constant), girls' demand for schooling increases more than boys' demand for schooling.

An increase in industry's share in GDP relative to agriculture (holding services' share constant) is more closely associated with an increase in the demand for schooling of boys than of girls.

* A decrease in the supply price of schooling increases the level of schooling attained by both sexes, but the gain is larger for women.

* Increases in wealtd,. all else being eqZal, are associated with increases in both sexes' dtnand for schooling.

What are the policy implications of these findings? Some ways to increase educational levels, especially those of women, include (on the supply side) lowering the supply price of - schooling improving access to secondary - scniooling, for example and (on the demand side) expanding the services sector. The demand- side prescription contradicts the World Bank and IMF policy advice that developing countries foster the growth of tradables to service their extemal debt.

**The PRE Working Paper Scries disseminates tChe indings oe work under way** in tLe **Bank's Policy. Research, and Extemal Affairs Complex .An objective of the scrics is to get thlsefindings out quickly, cven if presentatiois are lesstlhan fully polished. 'Mc findings, interpretations, and conclusions** in **these papers do not necessarily represent official Bank policy.**

)roduc&d by **tlic PRE** Dissemination **Centcr**