International Inequality and Convergence in Educational Attainment, 1960–1990

Abstract

The paper examines the international inequality and convergence of educational attainment from 1960 to 1990. Despite the increasing trend in educational attainment, the gap in educational attainment between the developing countries and developed countries and that between males and females increased in the period. However, the relative dispersion of educational attainment—as measured by the coefficient of variation, the Gini coefficient, or the standard deviation of log average years of schooling—declined consistently during the period by either development or gender status. Decompositions of the Gini coefficient indicate that the development gap and the gender gap were the main components for world inequality in educational attainment in both 1960 and 1990. Educational attainment exhibited b‐ and s‐convergence over the period.