Why Governments Should Invest More to Educate Girls.” World Development 30(2

Acknowledgments: I have benefitted from the comments of Lawrence Chickering on a previous draft of this paper and the suggestions of the editor and two anonymous referees of the Journal of World Development. I am grateful for the support of the Rockefeller Foundation, whose grant for research and training on the family in low income countries contributed to many of the ideas summarized here. I am responsible for any errors that remain. Women and men often receive the same percentage increase in their wage rates with advances in schooling. Because these returns decline with more schooling, the marginal returns for women will tend to exceed those for men, especially in countries where women are much less educated. The health and schooling of children are more closely related to their mother’s education than father’s. More educated women work more hours in the market labor force, broadening the tax base and thereby potentially reducing tax distortions. These three conditions, it is argued, justify the disproportionate allocation of public expenditures toward women’s education