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Democracy and Education: Evidence from the Southern African Development Community

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  • Manoel Bittencourt

    (Department of Economics, University of Pretoria)

Abstract

In this paper we investigate whether democracy in the Southern African Development Community (SADC) has had any impact on education during the 1980-2009 period. The results, based on panel time-series analysis (we use the Pooled OLS, Fixed Effects and Fixed Effects with Instrumental Variables estimators), strongly suggest that democracy has played an important role in widening access to education in the region. These results are significant not only because democracy is in its infancy in the region and to make it work is an aim in itself in Africa, but also because education (a noble aim in itself) is an important determinant of growth and development. All in all, democracy, and the better governance that tends to be associated with it, is playing not only its expected redistributive role, but also an indirect, nevertheless significant and important, role on prosperity in the community.

Suggested Citation

  • Manoel Bittencourt, 2013. "Democracy and Education: Evidence from the Southern African Development Community," Working Papers 201387, University of Pretoria, Department of Economics.
    • Handle: RePEc:pre:wpaper:201387
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    2. Bonga-Bonga, Lumengo & Ahiakpor, Ferdinand, 2015. "Determinants of Economic Growth in Sub-Saharan Africa: The case of Ghana," MPRA Paper 66923, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    3. Nyongesa Destaings Nyenyi & Eunice Lubega Amlega & Odhiambo Scholastica, 2017. "The Relationship between Inflation and Economic Growth in East African Community Countries," Noble International Journal of Economics and Financial Research, Noble Academic Publsiher, vol. 2(12), pages 152-162, December.
    4. Tusawar Iftikhar Ahmad & Abdul Rehman & Abid Mehmood & Nosheena Sattar, 2022. "Nexus among Democracy, Human Resource Development, and Income Inequality: Three Stage Least Square Estimation for 47 Developing Economies," iRASD Journal of Economics, International Research Alliance for Sustainable Development (iRASD), vol. 4(4), pages 607-620, December.

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Democracy; education; SADC;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • H52 - Public Economics - - National Government Expenditures and Related Policies - - - Government Expenditures and Education
    • I25 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Education - - - Education and Economic Development
    • O11 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Economic Development - - - Macroeconomic Analyses of Economic Development
    • O55 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Economywide Country Studies - - - Africa

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