Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-jn8rn Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-31T15:34:40.404Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

As Higher Education Expands, is it Contributing to Greater Inequality?

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  26 March 2020

Martin Carnoy
Martin Carnoy*
Affiliation:
Stanford University
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

This paper reviews the various elements that enter into the relation between higher education expansion and income distribution. Contrary to the prevailing ideology, the paper suggests that under certain conditions the mass expansion of higher education can contribute to greater income inequality. These conditions are related to three important variables not usually considered in the education-income distribution model: rising returns to university education relative to secondary and primary education, decreasing public spending differences between higher and lower levels of education, and increasing spending differences between elite and mass universities. All three appear to be increasingly common features of educational expansion in developing countries, including large ones such as China, Russia, Brazil, and India, although researchers are just beginning to observe such changing patterns of spending within higher education systems. The paper discusses the role that such payoffs and government education spending patterns can play in contributing to changes in income distribution using suggestive data from the developing countries.

Keywords

Higher educationincome distributionD31J23O15
Type
Research Articles
Information
National Institute Economic Review , Volume 215 , January 2011 , pp. R34 - R47
Copyright
Copyright © 2011 National Institute of Economic and Social Research

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Footnotes

∗

This paper was prepared for the LLAKES (Centre for Learning and Life Chances in Knowledge Economies and Societies) International Conference, July 5–6, at the University of London. Many thanks to Andy Green and the LLAKES staff for putting together this important conference.

References

Adelman, I. and Morris, C.T. (1973), Economic Growth and Social Equity in Developing Countries, Stanford, CA, Stanford University Press.Google Scholar
Allen, J. (2001), ‘The effects of a country's economic and educational context on the rates of return to education: a global meta-analysis’, unpublished Master's monograph, School of Education, Stanford University.Google Scholar
Becker, G. and Chiswick, B.R. (1966), ‘Education and the distribution of earnings’, American Economic Review, 56, 1-2, pp. 358–69.Google Scholar
Bourguignon, F. (2003), ‘The growth elasticity of poverty reduction: explaining heterogeneity across countries and time periods’, Washington, DC, World Bank Working Paper 28104.Google Scholar
Bourguignon, F. (2004), ‘The poverty-growth-inequality triangle’, World Bank, Washington, DC, mimeo.Google Scholar
Bowman, M.J. (1945), ‘A graphical analysis of personal income distribution in the United States’, American Economic Review, 35, 4, pp. 604–28.Google Scholar
Carnoy, M. (1972), ‘The political economy of education’, in LaBelle, T. (ed.), Education and Development in Latin America and the Caribbean, Los Angeles, CA, UCLA Latin American Center.Google Scholar
Carnoy, M. (1994), Faded Dreams: The Politics and Economics of Race in America, Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Carnoy, M. (1995), ‘Rates of return to education’, in The International Encyclopedia of Education, Oxford, Pergamon.Google Scholar
Carnoy, M., Lobo, J., Toledo, A. and Velloso, J. (1979), Can Educational Policy Equalize Income Distribution in Latin America? Westmead, Saxon House with International Labour Office.Google Scholar
Carnoy, M., Loyalka, P., Wang, R., Tilak, J., Dossani, R., Dobravskaya, M. and Froumin, I. (forthcoming, 2011), ‘Higher educational change in the BRICs, Stanford University (mimeo).Google Scholar
Chiswick, B.R. (1971), ‘Earnings inequality and economic development’, Quarterly Joumal of Economics, 85, pp. 21–39.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
CRESUR (2004), Las lecciones de la reforma educativa en el Cono Sur, Buenos Aires, Ministry of Education/Inter-American Development Bank.Google Scholar
De Gregorio, J. and Lee, J-W. (1999), ‘Education and income distribution: new evidence from cross-country data’, Centro de Economía Aplicada, Departamento de Ingeniería Industrial, Facultad de Ciencias Físicas y Matemáticas, Universidad de Chile, Serie Economia, No. 55.Google Scholar
Deininger, K. and Squire, L. (1996), ‘A new data set measuring income inequality’, World Bank Economic Review, 10, 3, pp. 565–91.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
DiNardo, J., Fortin, N. and Lemieux, T. (1996), ‘Labor market institutions and the distribution of wages, 1973-1992: a semiparametric approach’, Econometrica, 64, 5, pp. 1001–44.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Farber, H.S. and Western, B. (2002), ‘Ronald Reagan and the politics of declining union organization’, British Journal of International Relations, 40, 3, pp. 385–401.Google Scholar
Fields, G.S. (1980), ‘Education and income distribution in developing countries: a review of literature’, in Education and Income, World Bank Staff Working Paper no. 402.Google Scholar
Freeman, R.B. (ed.) (1994), Working Under Different Rules, New York, Russell Sage Foundation.Google Scholar
Knight, J.B. and Sabot, R.H. (1983), ‘Educational expansion and the Kuznets effect’, American Economic Review, 73, pp. 1132–6.Google Scholar
Katz, L. (1999), ‘Technological change, computerization, and the wage structure’, Harvard University, mimeo.Google Scholar
Krugman, P. (2007), The Conscience of a Liberal, New York, W.W. Norton.Google Scholar
Kuznets, S. (1955), ‘Economic growth and income inequality’, American Economic Review, 45, pp. 1–28.Google Scholar
Mincer, J. (1958), ‘Investment in human capital and personal income distribution’, The Journal of Political Economy, 66, 4, pp. 281–302.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Murphy, K. and Welch, F. (1989), ‘Wage premiums for college graduates’, Educational Researcher, 18, 4, pp. 17–26.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Nam, Y.-S. (1994), ‘Women, schooling, and the labor market: changes in the structure of earnings inequality by gender in Korea, 1976-1991’, unpublished PhD dissertation, Stanford University School of Education.Google Scholar
Oaxaca, R. (1973), ‘Male-female wage differentials in urban labor markets’, International Economic Review, 14, 3, pp. 693–709.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
OECD (2008a), Latin American Economic Outlook 2009, Paris, OECD.Google Scholar
OECD (2008b), Education at a Glance: Educational Indicators, Paris, OECD.Google Scholar
Psacharopoulos, G. (1985), ‘Returns to education: a further international update and implications’, Journal of Human resources, 20, 4, pp. 583–604.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ram, R. (1984), ‘Population increase, economic growth, educational inequality, and income distribution: some recent evidence’, Joumal of Development Economics, 14, pp. 419–28.Google ScholarPubMed
Ram, R. (1989), ‘Economic development and income inequality: an overlooked regression constraint’, Illinois State University, mimeo.Google Scholar
Ram, R. (1990), ‘Educational expansion and schooling iInequality: international evidence and some implications’, The Review of Economics and Statistics, 72, 2, pp. 266–74.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Thomas, V., Wang, Y. and Fan, X. (2003), ‘Measuring education inequality: Gini coefficients of education for 140 countries (196-2000)’, Journal of Educational Planning and Administration (New Delhi), 17, 1.Google Scholar
Tinbergen, J. (1972), ‘The impact of education on income distribution’, Review of Income and Wealth, 18, pp. 255–65.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Tinbergen, J. (1975), Income Distribution: Analysis and Policies, Amsterdam, North-Holland Publishing Company.Google Scholar
Winegarden, C.R. (1979), ‘Schooling and income distribution: evidence from international data’, Economica, 46, pp. 83–7.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
World Bank (1999), Peru: Education at the Crossroads, Report No. 19066-PE, Hunan Development Department, December 30, Volume I, p. 21.Google Scholar
Zhang, J., Zhao, Y., Park, A. and Song, X. (2005), ‘Economic returns to schooling in urban China, 1988 to 2001’, Journal of Comparative Economics, 33 (4), pp. 730–52.CrossRefGoogle Scholar