Working Papers
Evolution of Inequality of Opportunity in Education in The Jordanian Case: From 2008 to 2017
No.
1480
Publisher
ERF
Date
August, 2021
Topic
I. Health, Education, and Welfare
O. Economic Development, Technological Change, and Growth
Using data from the Household Expenditure and Income Surveys (HIES), we examine the status of inequality of opportunity in education in Jordan at different points in time. Through our analysis, we track the changes in trends in inequality of opportunity of education and decompose inequality into the contributions of different circumstances using the Shapley decomposition. We find that inequality in education opportunities at the completed primary level for youth is still high. As for secondary completion rates, wide inequality gaps have persisted between 2008 and 2013, but then sharply fell in 2017. In addition, similar to other Arab countries, inequality of opportunities at the above secondary level has worsened over time. When investigating the main factors driving such inequalities, we find that family wealth is among the most important determinant for the opportunity of attending or completing an educational level over time, followed by the parents’ level of education, more specifically the mother’s.
Research Fellows
Rana Hendy
Assistant Professor of Economics and Director of...
Authors
Nejla Ben Mimoune
Research Assistant, Brookings Doha Center, Doha, Qatar