Abstract
The research aims to explore the effect of gender equality in education (measured by the ratio of the average years of female schooling to the average years of male schooling) on income distribution (measured by the income share held by the poorest 40% as a ratio of the income share held by richest 20%) in middle-income countries. Other explanatory variables that were used in the analysis are per capita GDP (PPP), unemployment rate, and population growth rate. Panel data from 19 middle-income countries for the period from 2000 to 2020 has been used. Fixed Effects Model and Seemingly Unrelated Regression Model (SURs) technique were applied to estimate the effect of gender equity in education and other explanatory variables on income distribution. Empirical evidence revealed that gender equity in education plays an important distributive role in favor of the poor. Per capita, GDP has a non-linear effect on income distribution. Unemployment rate and population growth have a distributive effect on the interest of the poor. The policy implications deduced are that income inequality can be reduced by narrowing the gender gap in education.
