Effect of Formal Education on Democracy in Selected Countries of OPEC and OECD

Literature of education economics contends that more schooling of a society helps to the strengthening and institutionalization of democracy. Accordingly, the purpose of this study is to study the effect of education on democracy in OPEC (as developing) and OECD (as developed) countries. This study uses panel data model and generalized method of moments (GMM) during the period 1970-2010. Alongside of education as the main variable, we used other variables such as urbanization, life expectancy and GDP per capita as control variables. The results suggest a positive impact of education on democracy in OECD countries but not in OPEC members. GDP per capita has positive and significant impact on democracy of OECD countries, while this effect for the countries of OPEC is negative.