| The dissertation is composed of three essays that focus on empirical analysis of education in Thailand. The first essay investigates the factors that determine secondary education attainment and academic tracks at the upper secondary level. The study shows that household socioeconomic status, as measured by parental education, household expenditure, and household assets are the most crucial factor on school attendance. Girls are more likely to enroll in secondary schools than boys, and are more likely to choose the general track of upper secondary education. Children from credit-constrained households are more sensitive to the foregone income than those from unconstrained households. The estimated results of the opportunity cost of schooling on upper secondary attainment are used to conduct the cost-benefit analysis of a hypothetical conditional cash transfer (CCT) program for the upper secondary level. The benefit-cost ratio estimates range from 0.6 to 2.1, depending on the child's gender, discount rates, the returns to education, and the additional years of schooling if the CCT program is implemented. The second essay examines the effect of child's gender on the allocation of educational resources within household. Four main education expenditure categories are analyzed: total education expenditure, non-tuition expenditure, tuition expenditure, and private tutoring expenditure. The study finds that girls are more likely to receive more household education expenditure than boys with large differences for households in rural areas. The gender bias in favor of girls over boys is attributable to cultural preferences and economic motives. A daughter is imbued with filial obligation that she has a commitment to care for her parents in later of life. This is especially true for the youngest daughter. Also, daughters are more likely than sons to give a greater portion of their wage income to parents, thus the parents encourage their daughters to continue to high education level. The third essay evaluates the impact of expansion of education on wage inequality from 1990 to 2009. The study shows that expansion of education initially increases inequality during the 1990-2000 period and subsequently decreases inequality during the 2000-2009 period. It is likely that the promulgation of the 1999 National Education Act (NEA), which Thailand's educational policy focuses on improving access to secondary education for all Thai children, leads to a large increase in the proportion of the labor force with secondary education. Thus, it reduces wage inequality in the 2000s. |
