Evidence across regions in the world reveals patterns in school enrollment ratios and literacy that are divided along gender lines. In the developing world, apart from most countries in Latin America and the Caribbean, enrollment ratios of girls lag behind those for boys at all levels of education. Worldwide literacy rates for adult men far exceed those for women. While educational progress has been enjoyed by both sexes, these advances have failed to eradicate the gender gap. Education enhances labor market productivity and income growth for all, yet educating women has beneficial effects on social well-being not always measured by the market. Rising levels of education improve women's productivity in the home which in turn can increase family health, child survival, and the investment in children's human capital. The social benefits from women's education range from fostering economic growth to extending the average life expectancy in the population, to improving the functioning of political processes. This paper reviews recent empirical research that analyzes the benefits of women's education, describes the importance of women's education for country-level measures of economic development, and examines the implications of a gender gap in education for aggregate social well-being.Female education, gender differences, economic development,

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JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact support@jstor.org.. University of Wisconsin Press andThe Board of Regents of the University of Wisconsin System are collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to The Journal of Human Resources. ABSTRACT This paper investigates the factors underlying cognitive achievement among young children using a Becker-Tomes model of intergenerational transmission adapted to incorporate transmission of a family's cultural orientation toward achievement. The model relates a child's achievement to parental income and cognitive skills as well as to grandparent's income and education.Using data on PPVT scores for children born to women in the National Longitudinal Surveys of Youth, we find large and significant positive effects of the mother's AFQT score, her schooling, and the grandparents' schooling. We also find that increases in the mother's hours at work bear significant negative effects on her child's achievement. This effect is only partially compensated for by higher money income among these young children. A mother's welfare dependence is associated with a reduction in her child's PPVT score, an effect that is not explained by poverty persistence. Evidence that welfare participation signals transmission of low achievement orientation while variables such as maternal education signal positive values is reinforced through the use of a mediating variable measuring the time a mother spends reading to her children. M. PMAll use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions 1. Storfer (1990), for example, attributes the relatively high test scores of Jews to the "material and educational emphasis provided in traditional Jewish homes." Similarly, the scholastic success of Japanese children has been attributed to the strong role played by the kyoiku mama or "education mother" as the Japanese mother is often termed (Reischauer 1980 and also Fuchs 1983). This content downloaded from 195.78.108.85 on Fri, 9 May 2014 15:39:40 PM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions 2.In 1988, 42 percent of all first births in the U.S. were to a mother who was either unmarried, a teenager, or a high school dropout; eleven percent were at risk for all three disadvantages (Zill 1992). In 1992, 13 percent of families with children in the U.S. were on welfare compared to only 4 percent in 1967. 3. Extensive work participation of mothers is associated with higher income and a sharply lower incidence of poverty. The poverty rate for intact families with a child under age six was 2.2 percent when the mother worked full-time year-round and 16 percent when the mother did not work at all. Among single-mother families with a child under six, the poverty rate was 13 percent when the mother worked full-time year-round; 87 perc...

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JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact support@jstor.org.. University of Wisconsin Press and The Board of Regents of the University of WisconsinSystem are collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to The Journal of Human Resources. ABSTRACT This paper extends previous work on labor supply in Japan by treating the simultaneous labor force participation and hours of work decisions for Japanese wives, both employees and family workers. It estimates a trichotomous participation model for a sample from the Tokyo Metropolitan Area, and then estimates hours and wage equations, and aggregate labor supply elasticities. The empirical results generally confirm the economic model's theoretical predictions. Although the estimated aggregate wage and income elasticities for employees are somewhat higher than previous estimates for the U.S., they are of the same order of magnitude. However, the level of the husband's income has an unexpected positive effect on the annual hours that employees work and the elasticities estimated for family workers are usually large.