Investments in Women's Human Capital.

Abstract

How are human capital investments allocated between women and men? What are the returns to investments in women's nutrition, health care, education, mobility and training? Presenting 13 empirical analyses, this text explores the nature of human capital distributions to women and their effect on outcomes within the family. The first section considers the experiences of high-income countries, examining topics such as: the limitations of industrialization for the advancement of women; returns to secondary education for women; and state control of women's education and labour market productivity through the design of tax systems and the public subsidy of children. The remaining four sections investigate health, education, household structure and labor markets, and measurement issues in low-income countries, discussing issues such as: the effect of technological change on transfers of wealth to and from children in India; women's and men's responses to the costs of medical care in Kenya; the effects of birth order and sex on educational attainment in Taiwan; wage returns to schooling in Indonesia and in Cote d'Ivoire; and the increasing prevalence of female-headed households and the correlates of gender differences in wages in Brazil.