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Determinants of Literacy in Africa - A panel data study

Pehrsson, Martin LU (2012) NEKM01 20121
Department of Economics
Abstract
Adult literacy is often taken for granted in industrialized countries. Developing countries still struggles with a large portion of their population not being able to read or taking active part in the productive sector. The African continent have the highest numbers of illiteracy. The aim of this thesis is to look at the factors contributing to this fact and investigate which factors determinates adult literacy in Africa. Three economical theories provide a framework for the assignment: Human-capital theory, The New Institutional Economics and the Education production function, with a special emphasis on the colonial impact in Africa. Through the use of panel regressions is literacy explained by economic development, health status, quality... (More)
Adult literacy is often taken for granted in industrialized countries. Developing countries still struggles with a large portion of their population not being able to read or taking active part in the productive sector. The African continent have the highest numbers of illiteracy. The aim of this thesis is to look at the factors contributing to this fact and investigate which factors determinates adult literacy in Africa. Three economical theories provide a framework for the assignment: Human-capital theory, The New Institutional Economics and the Education production function, with a special emphasis on the colonial impact in Africa. Through the use of panel regressions is literacy explained by economic development, health status, quality of education and institutional variables. The estimated result shows that adult literacy is strongly affected by primary enrollment rates, government’s expenditure on education and fertility rates. (Less)
Please use this url to cite or link to this publication:
author
Pehrsson, Martin LU
supervisor
organization
course
NEKM01 20121
year
type
H1 - Master's Degree (One Year)
subject
keywords
Adult literacy, Africa, panel data study, Colonial background, Human-capital theory
language
English
id
3051533
date added to LUP
2012-09-27 11:06:54
date last changed
2012-09-27 11:06:54
@misc{3051533,
  abstract     = {{Adult literacy is often taken for granted in industrialized countries. Developing countries still struggles with a large portion of their population not being able to read or taking active part in the productive sector. The African continent have the highest numbers of illiteracy. The aim of this thesis is to look at the factors contributing to this fact and investigate which factors determinates adult literacy in Africa. Three economical theories provide a framework for the assignment: Human-capital theory, The New Institutional Economics and the Education production function, with a special emphasis on the colonial impact in Africa. Through the use of panel regressions is literacy explained by economic development, health status, quality of education and institutional variables. The estimated result shows that adult literacy is strongly affected by primary enrollment rates, government’s expenditure on education and fertility rates.}},
  author       = {{Pehrsson, Martin}},
  language     = {{eng}},
  note         = {{Student Paper}},
  title        = {{Determinants of Literacy in Africa - A panel data study}},
  year         = {{2012}},
}