IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jsusta/v11y2019i23p6707-d291272.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

The Effect of Parental Economic Expectation on Gender Disparity in Secondary Education in Ghana: A Propensity Score Matching Approach

Author

Listed:
  • Prince Donkor

    (School of Management and Economics, University of Electronic Science and Technology of China, Chengdu 611731, China
    Liberal Studies Department, Kumasi Technical University, P.O. Box 854, Kumasi 0023, Ghana)

  • Ya Ding

    (School of Management and Economics, University of Electronic Science and Technology of China, Chengdu 611731, China)

  • Gideon Adu-Boateng

    (Department of Social Studies, Prempeh College, P.O. Box KS 1993, Kumasi 0023, Ghana)

Abstract

Ghana, like most sub-Saharan African countries, continues to face gender disparity at the higher levels of the educational hierarchy. This paper seeks to investigate whether gender disparity in senior secondary schools in Ghana is influenced by the economic expectations that parents have for their children’s education. Using data from Ghana Living Standard Survey round 6 (GLSS 6), the study employs Propensity Score Matching in its analysis. Intra-household income inequality was used as a for measure parental expectations of the economic returns of education. The results revealed that, on the average, Ghanaian parents expect their male children to reap more economic benefits from education than girls. This attitude culminates in higher investment in boys’ education to the disadvantage of their female counterparts at senior secondary schools. It is therefore recommended that appropriate policies should be implemented to ensure that the barriers that prevent women from occupying high-earning positions in the labor market are expunged. With this, parents will believe that girls can have the same economic opportunities as boys and hence will invest equal resources in children’s education irrespective of their gender.

Suggested Citation

  • Prince Donkor & Ya Ding & Gideon Adu-Boateng, 2019. "The Effect of Parental Economic Expectation on Gender Disparity in Secondary Education in Ghana: A Propensity Score Matching Approach," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(23), pages 1-17, November.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:11:y:2019:i:23:p:6707-:d:291272
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/11/23/6707/pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/11/23/6707/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Oriana Bandiera & Ashwini Natraj, 2013. "Does Gender Inequality Hinder Development and Economic Growth? Evidence and Policy Implications," The World Bank Research Observer, World Bank, vol. 28(1), pages 2-21, February.
    2. Marco Caliendo & Sabine Kopeinig, 2008. "Some Practical Guidance For The Implementation Of Propensity Score Matching," Journal of Economic Surveys, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 22(1), pages 31-72, February.
    3. John Antonakis & Samuel Bendahan & Philippe Jacquart & Rafael Lalive, 2010. "On making causal claims : A review and recommendations," Post-Print hal-02313119, HAL.
    4. Joseph Clougherty & Tomaso Duso, 2015. "Correcting for Self-Selection Based Endogeneity in Management Research: A Review and Empirical Demonstration," Discussion Papers of DIW Berlin 1465, DIW Berlin, German Institute for Economic Research.
    5. Olivia Anku-Tsede, 2015. "Maternity Leave Policy and Work-Family Balance: Evidence from Working Mothers in Ghana," Business and Management Research, Business and Management Research, Sciedu Press, vol. 4(3), pages 1-7, September.
    6. Banks, Joanne & Maitre, Bertrand & McCoy, Selina & Watson, Dorothy, 2016. "Parental Educational Expectations of Children with Disabilities," Research Series, Economic and Social Research Institute (ESRI), number RS50, June.
    7. Zhan, Min, 2006. "Assets, parental expectations and involvement, and children's educational performance," Children and Youth Services Review, Elsevier, vol. 28(8), pages 961-975, August.
    8. Burgess, Simon, 2016. "Human Capital and Education: The State of the Art in the Economics of Education," IZA Discussion Papers 9885, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    9. Kim, Youngmi & Huang, Jin & Sherraden, Michael & Clancy, Margaret, 2017. "Child Development Accounts, parental savings, and parental educational expectations: A path model," Children and Youth Services Review, Elsevier, vol. 79(C), pages 20-28.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Fang, Shu & Huang, Jin & Wu, Shiyou & Jin, Minchao & Kim, Youngmi & Henrichsen, Courtney, 2020. "Family assets, parental expectation, and child educational achievement in China: A validation of mediation analyses," Children and Youth Services Review, Elsevier, vol. 112(C).
    2. Fang, Shu & Huang, Jin & Curley, Jami & Birkenmaier, Julie, 2018. "Family assets, parental expectations, and children educational performance: An empirical examination from China," Children and Youth Services Review, Elsevier, vol. 87(C), pages 60-68.
    3. Jones, A.M.; & Pastore, C.; & Rice, N.;, 2018. "Tracking pupils into adulthood: selective schools and long-term well-being in the 1958 British cohort," Health, Econometrics and Data Group (HEDG) Working Papers 18/32, HEDG, c/o Department of Economics, University of York.
    4. Champagne, Marie-Pier & Dubé, Jean & Barla, Philippe, 2022. "Build it and they will come: How does a new public transit station influence building construction?," Journal of Transport Geography, Elsevier, vol. 100(C).
    5. Daniela Ritter-Hayashi & Patrick Vermeulen & Joris Knoben, 2019. "Is this a man’s world? The effect of gender diversity and gender equality on firm innovativeness," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 14(9), pages 1-19, September.
    6. Buffart, Mickaël & Croidieu, Grégoire & Kim, Phillip H. & Bowman, Ray, 2020. "Even winners need to learn: How government entrepreneurship programs can support innovative ventures," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 49(10).
    7. Chowa, Gina A.N. & Elliott III, William, 2011. "An asset approach to increasing perceived household economic stability among families in Uganda," Journal of Behavioral and Experimental Economics (formerly The Journal of Socio-Economics), Elsevier, vol. 40(1), pages 81-87, February.
    8. Seow Eng Ong & Davin Wang & Calvin Chua, 2023. "Disruptive Innovation and Real Estate Agency: The Disruptee Strikes Back," The Journal of Real Estate Finance and Economics, Springer, vol. 67(2), pages 287-317, August.
    9. Raymundo M. Campos-Vázquez, 2013. "Efectos de los ingresos no reportados en el nivel y tendencia de la pobreza laboral en México," Ensayos Revista de Economia, Universidad Autonoma de Nuevo Leon, Facultad de Economia, vol. 0(2), pages 23-54, November.
    10. Andrea Pufahl & Christoph R. Weiss, 2009. "Evaluating the effects of farm programmes: results from propensity score matching," European Review of Agricultural Economics, Oxford University Press and the European Agricultural and Applied Economics Publications Foundation, vol. 36(1), pages 79-101, March.
    11. Paolo Naticchioni & Silvia Loriga, 2011. "Short and Long Term Evaluations of Public Employment Services in Italy," Applied Economics Quarterly (formerly: Konjunkturpolitik), Duncker & Humblot, Berlin, vol. 57(3), pages 201-229.
    12. Jean-Louis Combes & Alexandru Minea & Pegdéwendé Nestor Sawadogo, 2019. "Assessing the effects of combating illicit financial flows on domestic tax revenue mobilization in developing countries," CERDI Working papers halshs-02019073, HAL.
    13. Morgane Innocent & Agnès François-Lecompte & Nolwenn Roudaut, 2020. "Comparison of human versus technological support to reduce domestic electricity consumption in France," Post-Print hal-02450849, HAL.
    14. Jörg Prokop & Dandan Wang, 2022. "Is there a gender gap in equity-based crowdfunding?," Small Business Economics, Springer, vol. 59(3), pages 1219-1244, October.
    15. Dettmann, E. & Becker, C. & Schmeißer, C., 2011. "Distance functions for matching in small samples," Computational Statistics & Data Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 55(5), pages 1942-1960, May.
    16. Krishnan Nair & Waqas Haque & Steve Sauerwald, 2022. "It’s Not What You Say, But How You Sound: CEO Vocal Masculinity and the Board's Early‐Stage CEO Compensation Decisions," Journal of Management Studies, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 59(5), pages 1227-1252, July.
    17. Shvartsman, Elena & Beckmann, Michael, 2015. "Stressed by your job: What is the role of personnel policy?," Working papers 2015/15, Faculty of Business and Economics - University of Basel.
    18. Irene Bertschek & Joern Block & Alexander S. Kritikos & Caroline Stiel, 2024. "German financial state aid during Covid-19 pandemic: Higher impact among digitalized self-employed," Entrepreneurship & Regional Development, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 36(1-2), pages 76-97, January.
    19. Chavez, Daniel E. & Palma, Marco A. & Nayga, Rodolfo M. & Mjelde, James W., 2020. "Product availability in discrete choice experiments with private goods," Journal of choice modelling, Elsevier, vol. 36(C).
    20. Febi Jensen & Hans Lööf & Andreas Stephan, 2020. "New ventures in Cleantech: Opportunities, capabilities and innovation outcomes," Business Strategy and the Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 29(3), pages 902-917, March.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:11:y:2019:i:23:p:6707-:d:291272. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: MDPI Indexing Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.