Abstract for:
The Century of Education
Christian
Morrisson,
Fabrice
Murtin,
June 2009
Paper No' CEPDP0934:
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Keywords: Inequality; human capital, economic history, copula function
JEL Classification: D31; E27; F02; N00; O40
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This Paper is published under the following series:
CEP Discussion Papers
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Abstract:
This paper presents a historical database on educational attainment in 74 countries for the period
1870-2010, using perpetual inventory methods before 1960 and then the Cohen and Soto (2007)
database. The correlation between the two sets of average years of schooling in 1960 is equal to 0.96.
We use a measurement error framework to merge the two databases, while correcting for a systematic
measurement bias in Cohen and Soto (2007) linked to differential mortality across educational groups.
Descriptive statistics show a continuous spread of education that has accelerated in the second half of
the twentieth century. We find evidence of fast convergence in years of schooling for a sub-sample of
advanced countries during the 1870-1914 globalization period, and of modest convergence since
1980. Less advanced countries have been excluded from the convergence club in both cases.