Essays on co-residing decision, public education expenditure, income inequality, and education policies

[摘要] The determinants of residing arrangements of senior citizens to explain household formation behaviour, the role of public education expenditure to change income distribution, and the success of educational policies to increase school attendance in Bangladesh are the research objectives of this thesis which consists of four independent essays. Theoretical models and empirical analysis have been conducted both in the first and second essays to find appropriate determinants of residing arrangements of senior citizens in developing and developed countries respectively. The results suggest that economic growth and religion determine co-residence arrangements in developing countries while life-cycle pensionable wealth and cultural factors determine solitary residing patterns in developed countries. The third essay investigates, theoretically and empirically, the impact of public education expenditure on income inequality. The findings show that public education expenditure reduces income inequality for developed OECD countries but increases for developing countries. Finally, the success issues of two education policies in Bangladesh – the “(Obligation to) Primary Education Act 1990" (PEA 1990) and the “Female Secondary School Stipend Program 1994" (FSSSP 1994), are theoretically and empirically evaluated. The results highlight that the PEA 1990 policy is not fully successful but the PEA 1990 and the FSSSP 1994 policies jointly make remarkable success in school attendance and literacy rates in the country.

[发布机构] University:University of Birmingham;Department:Birmingham Business School, Department of Economics

[关键词] H Social Sciences;HC Economic History and Conditions