The effect of household wealth on educational attainment of children in Turkey

Elif Yiğit, Hacettepe University

The 2003 Turkey Demographic and Health Survey is used to analyze different patterns in the attainment and enrollment of children in education according to wealth of the households they are living in. The statistical technique of principal components is used to contruct a wealth index from household assets information collected in the questionnaire.Attainment profile shows the proportion of individuals that completed each grade or higher. The analysis take into account the gender, place of residence,region, NUTS 1 regions and five metropol cities. The basic education of 8 year is compulsory for all individuals age 6 and over. Therefore there is no differentiation among children of poor or rich households. The wealth gap in the completion of any grade after grade 8 is almost 0.5. The wealth gap in median grade completed is nearly 5 years between the poor and rich households' children. The drop-out rates of urban rich and rural poor households changes from 15 to 32 percent.