Do Female Enrolment Rates Cause Economic Growth in Pakistan?

There has been much discussion on the relationship between education and economic growth. A few studies have examined the increasing trend of female enrolment in educational institutions and economic growth. The objective of this paper is to empirically investigate four alternatives but equally plausible hypotheses. These are: i) GDP cause female enrolment proxies (the conventional view), ii) Female enrolment proxies cause GDP, iii) There is a bi-directional causality between the two variables and iv) Both variables are causality independent. In order to find the relationship between the two variables set, a time series Co-integration and Granger Causality Tests have been employed separately. Secondary data pertaining to Pakistan from 1966 2008 has been used for analysis. The empirical results moderately support the conventional view that GDP has significant long-run casual effect on the female enrolment proxies in Pakistan. The present study supports the unidirectional causality relationship between the GDP and female enrolment in the specific context of Pakistan.