Education as a dimension of human development: A Provincial-level Education Index for Ecuador

RESEARCH ARTICLE Education as a dimension of human development: A Provincial-level Education Index for Ecuador Marta Guijarro-Garvi1,2, Bele´n Miranda-EscolarID2,3*, Yira Tatiana Cedeño-Mene´ ndez4, Pedro Benito Moyano-PesqueraID2,3 1 Department of Economics, University of Cantabria, Santander, Spain, 2 Economics and Public Policy Research Group, University of Valladolid, Valladolid, Spain, 3 Department of Applied Economics, University of Valladolid, Valladolid, Spain, 4 Faculty of Economics, University Eloy Alfaro of Manabı´, Manta, Ecuador * belen@eco.uva.es Abstract This article deepens in the differences in educational development between the Ecuadorian provinces and in their evolution over time by estimating the Provincial-level Education Index. This index is built using the micro-databases of the two latest rounds of the Ecuador‘s Living Standards Measurement Survey (2005–2006 and 2013–2014). The results show an overall increase in the educational development of the Ecuadorian provinces, as well as a slight reduction in inequality. However, differences between them continue to exist. Underly- ing our results, which are consistent with the provincial production structure and socioeco- nomic context, some public policies seem to affect the educational sector, as their impact has been evidenced during the period covered in this research. Introduction In its first report on the Human Development Index, published in 1990, the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) considered health, education, and income as the three key

dimensions of human development. Also, the Human Development Index (HDI) as a “more genuine measure of socioeconomic progress” [1] was presented in said report. As does the human capital approach [2–7], the human development approach considers that education enhances the capital incorporated into the production process. In addition, educated individu- als obtain a greater monetary return, since, due to the close link between real capital and the formation of human capital, education increases productivity [8]. Generally, more years of schooling leads better paid jobs, lower risk of material deprivation, and higher levels of subjec- tive well-being [9]. Furthermore, education can be related to health through three interacting pathways: acquired health knowledge and its application in daily life; employment and income, and social and psychological factors, including sense of control and social status [10]. In general, people that have received more years of education have longer life expectancy and better PLOS ONE PLOS ONE | https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0270932 July 8, 2022 1 / 27 a1111111111 a1111111111 a1111111111 a1111111111 a1111111111 OPEN ACCESS Citation: Guijarro-Garvi M, Miranda-Escolar B, Cedeño-Mene´ndez YT, Moyano-Pesquera PB (2022) Education as a dimension of human development: A Provincial-level Education Index for Ecuador. PLoS ONE 17(7): e0270932. https://doi. org/10.1371/journal.pone.0270932 Editor: Simona Lorena Comi, University of Milano– Bicocca: Universita degli Studi di Milano-Bicocca, ITALY Received: January 16, 2022 Accepted: June 21, 2022

Published: July 8, 2022 Copyright: © 2022 Guijarro-Garvi et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. Data Availability Statement: All relevant data are within the article and its Supporting Information files. Funding: “Programa de Perfeccionamiento del Personal Acade´mico de la Universidad Laica Eloy Alfaro de Manabı´ ULEAM de Ecuador” (Development Programme for Academic Staff of the Eloy Alfaro Lay University at Manabı´ ULEAM in Ecuador) to take the Interuniversity Doctorate Programme in Economics at the Universities of