The Impact of Internet Access on Educational Inequality: A Case Study on the Selected West Asian Countries

An important part of an individual's human wealth, which directly affects his or her well-being and that of society, is formed through education. This requires an equal distribution of educational opportunities among the people. Today, with the change in educational processes due to the growth of communication technologies and the role of Covid 19, access to the Internet and government spending, along with other relevant factors in the literature have affected educational inequality. Based on the importance of education in economic development and progress, this study investigates the impact of Internet access on educational inequality in the selected West Asian countries during the period 2010-2019 using the panel Fully Modified Ordinary Least Squares method (FMOLS).The results of the model estimation show that public government expenditures, Internet access and investment have a negative and significant effect on educational inequality in the countries .This means that these variables lead to a more equal distribution of education among individuals. Another empirical finding is that income inequality and gender inequality both significantly increase educational inequality in West Asian countries.