Fiscal Decentralization and Gender Parity in Education: Empirical Evidence from Pakistan

Abstract

Purpose: Fiscal decentralization is an emerging phenomenon in Pakistan from the last few decades. A large number of studies have been investigated the socio-economic and political effects of fiscal decentralization in Pakistan. But none of the study has examined that how fiscal decentralization has affected gender parity in education in Pakistan. Design/Methodology/Approach: This study empirically investigated the dynamic relationship between fiscal decentralization and gender equality in education by employing different measures of fiscal decentralization and used autoregressive distributed lag model (ARDL) bounds test approach for cointegration testing for the period of 1975 to 2020.  The bounds tests suggest that the variables of interest are bound together in the long run when gender parity in education is dependent variable. Findings: The long run relationship is also confirmed by the significance of associated equilibrium correction. The robust analysis of this study suggest that fiscal decentralization is improving gender equality in education particularly education expenditure decentralization and revenue decentralization. Implications/Originality/Value: The results are important for fiscal policy formulation in public and social sector in Pakistan. Further, these results might be helpful for other developing countries that share a common experience in applying fiscal decentralization reforms and struggling to reduce gender disparity in education sector.