Title: Do schooling years improve the earning capacity of lower income groups?

Authors: Dawood Mamoon

Addresses: University of Management and Technology, C-II, Johar Town, Lahore, Pakistan

Abstract: The paper analyses the relationship between the popular Barro and Lee (2001) 'average years of schooling' with income inequality, wage inequality, and income deciles and income percentiles for the sample of developed and developing countries. The results suggest that countries where students complete higher numbers of years of schooling on average also perform better on relative incomes meaning that increase in average income comes from improvements in the earning capacity of the lower income groups or unskilled labour. The paper also finds that an educated population means that there is redistribution of income from the rich to the poor creating thriving middle class.

Keywords: education; income inequality wage inequality; earning capacity; lower income groups; schooling years; income redistribution; educated population.

DOI: 10.1504/IJEED.2012.044949

International Journal of Education Economics and Development, 2012 Vol.3 No.1, pp.1 - 9

Published online: 23 Aug 2014 *

Full-text access for editors Full-text access for subscribers Purchase this article Comment on this article