Determinants of Literacy in Africa - A panel data study

Sammanfattning: Adult literacy is often taken for granted in industrialized countries. Developing countries still struggles with a large portion of their population not being able to read or taking active part in the productive sector. The African continent have the highest numbers of illiteracy. The aim of this thesis is to look at the factors contributing to this fact and investigate which factors determinates adult literacy in Africa. Three economical theories provide a framework for the assignment: Human-capital theory, The New Institutional Economics and the Education production function, with a special emphasis on the colonial impact in Africa. Through the use of panel regressions is literacy explained by economic development, health status, quality of education and institutional variables. The estimated result shows that adult literacy is strongly affected by primary enrollment rates, government’s expenditure on education and fertility rates.