Can Equalising Educational Endowments Between Men and Women Create More Female Self-Employed Value in Nigeria?

This paper empirically investigates if women would be able to create more self-employed value if they had the same educational endowments as men in the unique gender disparity context of Nigeria. The paper uses probit and Blinder-Oaxaca multivariate decomposition models to empirically conduct this analysis in a developing country taking advantage of two rounds of survey data. The analysis confirms that women would be able to create more self-employed value, particularly higher education self-employed value, if they had the same educational endowments as men. The paper also highlights why gender parity does not exist in Nigeria and emphasizes the benefits of gender parity in this context.