Testing the Association between State Capacity and Primary Schooling in the Middle East and North African (MENA) Region, 1971–2014

Abstract

Although the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region has exhibited substantial progress over the past 40 years in improving primary schooling, marked variations in these achievements are evident within the region. This is an interesting puzzle if we recognize the MENA region is highly homogeneous in terms of religion, politics and socio-economic structure. We argue that in this paper, differences in state capacity–the degree to which MENA states attains desired primary education goals–contribute to these variations. To substantiate our argument, we applied different state capacity indicators and tested their impacts on primary schooling for the period 1971–2014. Empirical findings largely support our observations and results still hold with alternative indicators and model specifications. These findings have policy and academic implications for the study of state capacity, primary education and the MENA region.