A CENSORED REGRESSION MODEL FOR THE EDUCATIONAL ATTAINMENT OF BOYS AND GIRLS IN TURKEY

Mehtap HISARCIKLILAR (University of Nottingham)

In many parts of the world, girls receive less education than boys, on the average; social structure, culture, religion, and the level of economic development jointly constitute barriers to the education of the girls. This study focuses on the educational attainment of the individuals in Turkey and it aims to analyse the effects of family background characteristics on the gender-based differences in educational achievement. The model estimated is based on an extension of an intra-household allocation model, which allows us to analyse the differences in educational investments for boys and girls in the family. Using 1988 Household Survey Data, a model for final educational achievement of the individuals is estimated by an ordered probit model incorporating both the random household effects and censoring in the data. The results suggest that family background characteristics, particularly the parents' education level, have a significant effect on the education of individuals, and that boys tend to receive more education than the girls in the family.