Does horizontal education inequality lead to violent conflict?

The study explored the extent to which education inequality across ethnic and religious groups affects the likelihood of violent internal conflict onset. Education, wealth, and conflict data were collected from 200+ databases for 100+ countries for 50+ years of time (1960-2013).

The study found that:

  • The likelihood of violent conflict doubles for countries with high levels of intergroup inequality in education, after controlling for known conflict risk factors, such as wealth, political regime, geography, etc.
  • The effect of ethnic and religious inequality is present since the year 2000. As educational access becomes more widespread, educational exclusion may be construed to carry more serious consequences for life prospects.
  • Greater equality between male and female decreases the likelihood of conflict by as much as 37 per cent.

Resource Info

Resource Type

Research Publication

Published

Published by

FHI360, United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF)

Topic(s)

Education for Peacebuilding