An International Perspective on Schooling Investments in the Last Quarter Century in Some Fast-Growing East and Southeast Asian Countries

Abstract

Cross-country comparisons suggest no simple patterns in how schooling investments in seven successful Asian developing countries differed from other countries, and that some differences are sensitive to whether there are controls for per capita income and / or adult literacy. Neither in 1965 before a quarter century of rapid growth, nor in 1987 after rapid growth, did these countries have unusually great schooling investments. They favored females relatively at the primary level in 1965, and relatively at both primary and secondary levels in 1987. In 1965-1987 these countries had some of the largest relative increases in schooling investments, but also some of the smallest.