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Education attainment in the Middle East and North Africa : success at a cost

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  • Iqbal, Farrukh
  • Kiendrebeogo, Youssouf

Abstract

This paper reviews the experience of the Middle East and North Africa region in education attainment over the past four decades (1970-2010). It documents the following main findings: (a) all countries in the region experienced significant improvements in educational attainment over this period; (b) most countries in the region did better in this regard than comparators that had roughly the same education stocks in 1970; (c) collectively, the region achieved a greater percentage increase in education than other regions; (d) the region's better performance was in part because of higher rates of public spending on education, better food sufficiency status, and a lower initial stock of education in 1970 in comparison with most other developing country regions; and (e) the region had among the lowest payoffs to public spending in terms of increments in education stock; the impressive advance in education was achieved at high cost.

Suggested Citation

  • Iqbal, Farrukh & Kiendrebeogo, Youssouf, 2014. "Education attainment in the Middle East and North Africa : success at a cost," Policy Research Working Paper Series 7127, The World Bank.
    • Handle: RePEc:wbk:wbrwps:7127
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    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Barro, Robert J. & Lee, Jong Wha, 2013. "A new data set of educational attainment in the world, 1950–2010," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 104(C), pages 184-198.
    2. Clemens, Michael A. & Kenny, Charles J. & Moss, Todd J., 2007. "The Trouble with the MDGs: Confronting Expectations of Aid and Development Success," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 35(5), pages 735-751, May.
    3. Gupta, Sanjeev & Verhoeven, Marijn & Tiongson, Erwin R., 2002. "The effectiveness of government spending on education and health care in developing and transition economies," European Journal of Political Economy, Elsevier, vol. 18(4), pages 717-737, November.
    4. Robert J. Barro, 2013. "Education and Economic Growth," Annals of Economics and Finance, Society for AEF, vol. 14(2), pages 301-328, November.
    5. Baldacci, Emanuele & Clements, Benedict & Gupta, Sanjeev & Cui, Qiang, 2008. "Social Spending, Human Capital, and Growth in Developing Countries," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 36(8), pages 1317-1341, August.
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    Cited by:

    1. Mwafaq M. Dandan & Ana Paula Marques, 2017. "Education, Employment and Gender Gap in Mena Region," Asian Economic and Financial Review, Asian Economic and Social Society, vol. 7(6), pages 573-588, June.
    2. Saibal Ghosh, 2016. "Foreign banks in MENA countries: how important? How relevant?," Journal of Economic and Administrative Sciences, Emerald Group Publishing Limited, vol. 32(1), pages 77-98, May.

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Access&Equity in Basic Education; Education For All; Primary Education; Teaching and Learning; Disability;
    All these keywords.

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