Human Capital and Growth : The Recovered Role of Education Systems

Dessus, Sebastien

World Bank, Washington, DC

关键词: AVERAGE PRODUCTIVITY;    AVERAGE SHARE;    CAPITA INCOME GROWTH;    CAPITAL ACCUMULATION;    CAPITAL FORMATION;   

DOI  :  10.1596/1813-9450-2632
RP-ID  :  WPS2632

学科分类：社会科学、人文和艺术（综合）

来源: World Bank Open Knowledge Repository

【 摘 要 】

Recent empirical studies questionconventional wisdom about the importance of education togrowth. These results partly reflect how internationaldifferences in the quality of education systems--defined bythe systems' ability to produce one marginal unit ofproductive human capital--are not taken into account. Theauthor estimates neoclassical growth models on panel data inwhich the elasticity of human capital depends stochasticallyon different characteristics of the education system. Amongcharacteristics that explain differences in quality areeducation infrastructure, the initial endowment of humancapital, and the ability to distribute educational servicesequally among potential students. Giving priority to primaryeducation for all rather than secondary education to a fewis more likely to foster growth (for the same fiscalburden). But parallel actions are also probably needed--forexample, promoting institutions that motivate skilledworkers to spend time on growth-promoting activities andencouraging the inflow of foreign technologies to maximizethe social return to public investment in education.