The effect of economic growth of women's education on human capital factors: The Turkish case for the period 1971-2013

Along with the general acceptance that education, one of the most important factors of human capital, has increased the welfare of the society, economists have increased the theoretical and empirical work they have done on this subject and turned to more specific areas. In this study, the effect of female education, which is one of the mentioned areas, on economic growth has been examined for Turkey. In order to investigate this relationship, ARDL bounds test and the Toda-Yamamoto causality test were conducted by using annual data of real GDP per capita and the schooling rates of women by various educational levels between 1971 and 2013. According to the findings, it is concluded that in both short and long term, there is a positive and statistically significant relationship only between higher school enrolment rate of women and economic growth. Moreover, result of the causality analysis suggests that there is bi-directional causality between real GDP per capita and higher school enrolment rate of women. These results support that women contribute to the growth of the country by improving their knowledge and ability values as the level of education increases.