What Explains the Gender Gap Reversal in Education? Theory and Evidence
The gender gap reversal in educational attainment is ubiquitous in high-income countries, as well as in a growing share of low- and middle-income countries. To account for the reversal, this paper proposes a theoretical framework in which the inter...
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World Bank, Washington, DC
2018
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| Online Access: | http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/659501516200427470/What-explains-the-gender-gap-reversal-in-education-the-role-of-the-tail-hypothesis http://hdl.handle.net/10986/29213 |
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okr-10986-292132021-06-14T10:10:14Z What Explains the Gender Gap Reversal in Education? Theory and Evidence Bossavie, Laurent Kanninen, Ohto EDUCATIONAL ATTAINMENT GENDER GAP STUDENT TESTING SCHOLASTIC ACHIEVEMENT TEST The gender gap reversal in educational attainment is ubiquitous in high-income countries, as well as in a growing share of low- and middle-income countries. To account for the reversal, this paper proposes a theoretical framework in which the interplay between the distributions of academic aptitudes and changes in the net benefits of schooling over time affect the gender composition of those getting more schooling. The framework is used to formulate and test alternative hypotheses to explain the reversal. The paper introduces the tail dynamics hypothesis, which builds on the lower dispersion of academic achievement among females observed empirically. It also studies the mean dynamics hypothesis, which is based on previous literature. Both hypotheses can explain the reversal in this framework. However, the assumption behind the tail hypothesis is better supported by the data. Its predictions are also consistent with gender differences in Scholastic Achievement Test score dynamics and in international test score distributions that cannot be explained by previous theories. 2018-01-23T16:22:44Z 2018-01-23T16:22:44Z 2018-01 Working Paper http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/659501516200427470/What-explains-the-gender-gap-reversal-in-education-the-role-of-the-tail-hypothesis http://hdl.handle.net/10986/29213 English Policy Research Working Paper;No. 8303 CC BY 3.0 IGO http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/igo World Bank World Bank, Washington, DC Publications & Research Publications & Research :: Policy Research Working Paper |
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Digital Repository |
| institution_category |
Foreign Institution |
| institution |
Digital Repositories |
| building |
World Bank Open Knowledge Repository |
| collection |
World Bank |
| language |
English |
| topic |
EDUCATIONAL ATTAINMENT GENDER GAP STUDENT TESTING SCHOLASTIC ACHIEVEMENT TEST |
| spellingShingle |
EDUCATIONAL ATTAINMENT GENDER GAP STUDENT TESTING SCHOLASTIC ACHIEVEMENT TEST Bossavie, Laurent Kanninen, Ohto What Explains the Gender Gap Reversal in Education? Theory and Evidence |
| relation |
Policy Research Working Paper;No. 8303 |
| description |
The gender gap reversal in educational
attainment is ubiquitous in high-income countries, as well
as in a growing share of low- and middle-income countries.
To account for the reversal, this paper proposes a
theoretical framework in which the interplay between the
distributions of academic aptitudes and changes in the net
benefits of schooling over time affect the gender
composition of those getting more schooling. The framework
is used to formulate and test alternative hypotheses to
explain the reversal. The paper introduces the tail dynamics
hypothesis, which builds on the lower dispersion of academic
achievement among females observed empirically. It also
studies the mean dynamics hypothesis, which is based on
previous literature. Both hypotheses can explain the
reversal in this framework. However, the assumption behind
the tail hypothesis is better supported by the data. Its
predictions are also consistent with gender differences in
Scholastic Achievement Test score dynamics and in
international test score distributions that cannot be
explained by previous theories. |
| format |
Working Paper |
| author |
Bossavie, Laurent Kanninen, Ohto |
| author_facet |
Bossavie, Laurent Kanninen, Ohto |
| author_sort |
Bossavie, Laurent |
| title |
What Explains the Gender Gap Reversal in Education? Theory and Evidence |
| title_short |
What Explains the Gender Gap Reversal in Education? Theory and Evidence |
| title_full |
What Explains the Gender Gap Reversal in Education? Theory and Evidence |
| title_fullStr |
What Explains the Gender Gap Reversal in Education? Theory and Evidence |
| title_full_unstemmed |
What Explains the Gender Gap Reversal in Education? Theory and Evidence |
| title_sort |
what explains the gender gap reversal in education? theory and evidence |
| publisher |
World Bank, Washington, DC |
| publishDate |
2018 |
| url |
http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/659501516200427470/What-explains-the-gender-gap-reversal-in-education-the-role-of-the-tail-hypothesis http://hdl.handle.net/10986/29213 |
| _version_ |
1764468776772829184 |