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Does Education Matter for Income Inequality? Evidence from Sub-Saharan Africa

The issue of income equality has become of great concern on a global scale. Since the 2008 global financial crisis, economists and other socioeconomic analysts have observed the state of the income and wealth gap between the top ten percent rich and the lower forty percent poor of populations, and i...

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Main Author: Panton-Ntshona, Sherine
Other Authors: Alhassan, Abdul Latif
Format: Thesis
Language:English
Published: Graduate School of Business (GSB) 2022
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access_status_str Open Access
author Panton-Ntshona, Sherine
author2 Alhassan, Abdul Latif
author_browse Alhassan, Abdul Latif
Panton-Ntshona, Sherine
author_facet Alhassan, Abdul Latif
Panton-Ntshona, Sherine
author_sort Panton-Ntshona, Sherine
collection Thesis
description The issue of income equality has become of great concern on a global scale. Since the 2008 global financial crisis, economists and other socioeconomic analysts have observed the state of the income and wealth gap between the top ten percent rich and the lower forty percent poor of populations, and its far-reaching impact on the lives of ordinary people. Income inequality has become a global challenge and the effects are felt in both developed and developing countries. The socioeconomic disparity between the rich and poor is pronounced in developing countries, and recent trends of growing inequality are being observed in developed countries. This research examines the effect of education on income inequality and GDP per capita, using a panel dataset of 18 selected sub-Saharan countries for the period from 1994 to 2015. The panel models are estimated, using the fixed effects, random effects and generalised methods of moments estimation techniques. The results show that the relationship of education and its impact on income inequality is dependent on the level of education being assessed. High resource input in tertiary education increases income inequality, while high resource input in lower educational levels reduces income inequality. Overall, increases in government expenditure on education lead to increase in inequality and a fall in GDP per capita. These results show possible inefficiencies in the allocation of educational resources in sub-Saharan countries during the period of investigation. Government spending on education does not reduce inequality or boost income unless it is done efficiently. To reduce income inequality and increase average income, educational resources must be efficiently allocated with priority given to the educational levels of the highest proportions of the population.
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institution University of Cape Town (South Africa)
language eng
last_indexed 2026-06-10T12:34:08.683Z
license_str Not specified — see source repository
provenance_str_mv Harvested via OAI-PMH from UCTD — University of Cape Town Open Access Repository
publishDate 2022
publishDateRange 2022
publishDateSort 2022
publisher Graduate School of Business (GSB)
publisherStr Graduate School of Business (GSB)
record_format dspace
source_str UCTD — University of Cape Town Open Access Repository
spelling oai:open.uct.ac.za:11427/36142 Does Education Matter for Income Inequality? Evidence from Sub-Saharan Africa Panton-Ntshona, Sherine Alhassan, Abdul Latif Income inequality education inequality inequality sub-Saharan Africa The issue of income equality has become of great concern on a global scale. Since the 2008 global financial crisis, economists and other socioeconomic analysts have observed the state of the income and wealth gap between the top ten percent rich and the lower forty percent poor of populations, and its far-reaching impact on the lives of ordinary people. Income inequality has become a global challenge and the effects are felt in both developed and developing countries. The socioeconomic disparity between the rich and poor is pronounced in developing countries, and recent trends of growing inequality are being observed in developed countries. This research examines the effect of education on income inequality and GDP per capita, using a panel dataset of 18 selected sub-Saharan countries for the period from 1994 to 2015. The panel models are estimated, using the fixed effects, random effects and generalised methods of moments estimation techniques. The results show that the relationship of education and its impact on income inequality is dependent on the level of education being assessed. High resource input in tertiary education increases income inequality, while high resource input in lower educational levels reduces income inequality. Overall, increases in government expenditure on education lead to increase in inequality and a fall in GDP per capita. These results show possible inefficiencies in the allocation of educational resources in sub-Saharan countries during the period of investigation. Government spending on education does not reduce inequality or boost income unless it is done efficiently. To reduce income inequality and increase average income, educational resources must be efficiently allocated with priority given to the educational levels of the highest proportions of the population. 2022-03-16T07:00:33Z 2022-03-16T07:00:33Z 2021 2022-03-16T00:01:41Z Master Thesis Masters MCom http://hdl.handle.net/11427/36142 eng application/pdf Graduate School of Business (GSB) Faculty of Commerce
spellingShingle Income inequality
education inequality
inequality
sub-Saharan Africa
Panton-Ntshona, Sherine
Does Education Matter for Income Inequality? Evidence from Sub-Saharan Africa
thesis_degree_str Master's
title Does Education Matter for Income Inequality? Evidence from Sub-Saharan Africa
title_full Does Education Matter for Income Inequality? Evidence from Sub-Saharan Africa
title_fullStr Does Education Matter for Income Inequality? Evidence from Sub-Saharan Africa
title_full_unstemmed Does Education Matter for Income Inequality? Evidence from Sub-Saharan Africa
title_short Does Education Matter for Income Inequality? Evidence from Sub-Saharan Africa
title_sort does education matter for income inequality evidence from sub saharan africa
topic Income inequality
education inequality
inequality
sub-Saharan Africa
url http://hdl.handle.net/11427/36142
work_keys_str_mv AT pantonntshonasherine doeseducationmatterforincomeinequalityevidencefromsubsaharanafrica