Where Has All the Education Gone?

Cross-national data show no association between increases in human capital attributable to the rising educational attainment of the labor force and the rate of growth of output per worker. This implies that the association of educational capital gr...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Author:	Pritchett, Lant
Format:	Journal Article
Language:	English en_US
Published:	Washington, DC: World Bank 2014
Subjects:	ACCOUNTING FRAMEWORK ADULT LITERACY AGGREGATE LEVEL AGGREGATE OUTPUT AGGREGATE PRODUCTION FUNCTION AGRICULTURE ARITHMETIC AVERAGE GROWTH AVERAGE INCOME AVERAGE LEVEL BASIC EDUCATION CAPITA INCOME CAPITAL ACCUMULATION CAPITAL STOCK CHILD SURVIVAL COGNITIVE SKILLS CONSTANT RETURNS CONSTANT RETURNS TO SCALE CONVENTIONAL WISDOM CONVERGENCE DEBATE CONVERGENCE HYPOTHESIS COUNTRY DATA DATA SETS DEPENDENT VARIABLE DEVELOPING COUNTRIES DEVELOPING COUNTRY DEVELOPMENT ECONOMICS DEVELOPMENT OF KNOWLEDGE DEVELOPMENT REPORT DEVELOPMENT STRATEGY DISCOUNTED VALUE DISEQUILIBRIUM ECONOMIC COOPERATION ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT ECONOMIC GROWTH ECONOMIC IMPACT ECONOMIC LIFE ECONOMIC LITERATURE ECONOMIC PERFORMANCE ECONOMIC RESEARCH ECONOMIC THEORY ECONOMICS ECONOMICS LETTERS ECONOMICS OF EDUCATION EDUCATED WORKERS EDUCATION EXPENDITURES EDUCATION INVESTMENTS EDUCATIONAL ATTAINMENT EMPIRICAL ESTIMATES EMPIRICAL RESULTS ENROLLMENT RATE ESTIMATED COEFFICIENT EXCHANGE RATE EXTERNALITY FACE VALUE FEMALE EDUCATION FUNCTIONAL FORM GDP GDP PER CAPITA GROSS DOMESTIC PRODUCT GROWTH ACCOUNTING GROWTH DEBATE GROWTH IMPACT GROWTH LITERATURE GROWTH MODEL GROWTH MODELS GROWTH OF DEMAND GROWTH PROSPECTS GROWTH RATE GROWTH RATES GROWTH REGRESSION GROWTH REGRESSIONS GROWTH THEORY HUMAN CAPITAL INCOME REDISTRIBUTION INDEPENDENT VARIABLE INDUSTRIALIZATION INSTITUTIONAL ENVIRONMENT INVENTORY LABOR FORCE LABOR MARKET LEARNING LIVING STANDARDS MARGINAL RETURN MARGINAL RETURNS MEAN INCOME MERIT GOOD MODERN ECONOMIC GROWTH MONETARY ECONOMICS NATIONAL ACCOUNTS NATIONAL INCOME NEGATIVE EFFECT NEGATIVE EXTERNALITIES NEGATIVE IMPACT OPPORTUNITY COST OUTPUT GROWTH OUTPUT PER CAPITA OUTPUT RATIO PER CAPITA INCOME POINT ESTIMATE POLICY RESEARCH POLITICAL ECONOMY POLITICAL INSTABILITY POSITIVE EXTERNALITIES PRIMARY EDUCATION PRIMARY ENROLLMENTS PRIMARY SCHOOL PRIMARY SCHOOLING PRODUCTION FUNCTION PRODUCTION FUNCTIONS PRODUCTIVITY GROWTH PUBLIC ENTERPRISES PUBLIC POLICY PUBLIC SECTOR PUPIL RATIO RATE OF RETURN RATE OF RETURN TO CAPITAL READING REAL WAGES REASONING RELATIVE WAGE RENT SEEKING RETIREMENT RETURN TO EDUCATION RETURNS TO EDUCATION SCHOOL QUALITY SCHOOLING SCHOOLING QUALITY SCHOOLS SECONDARY ENROLLMENT SECONDARY ENROLLMENT RATES STANDARD DEVIATION STRUCTURAL BREAK TECHNICAL CHANGE TECHNICAL PROGRESS TECHNOLOGICAL ADVANCES TECHNOLOGICAL PROGRESS TFP TOTAL FACTOR PRODUCTIVITY TOTAL LABOR FORCE UNEMPLOYMENT
Online Access:	http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/2001/09/17737514/all-education-gone http://hdl.handle.net/10986/17434

Description
Summary:	Cross-national data show no association between increases in human capital attributable to the rising educational attainment of the labor force and the rate of growth of output per worker. This implies that the association of educational capital growth with conventional measures of total factor production is large, strongly statistically significant, and negative. These are 'on average' results, derived from imposing a constant coefficient. However, the development impact of education varied widely across countries and has fallen short of expectations for three possible reasons. First, the institutional/governance environment could have been sufficiently perverse that the accumulation of educational capital lowered economic growth. Second, marginal returns to education could have fallen rapidly as the supply of educated labor expanded while demand remained stagnant. Third, educational quality could have been so low that years of schooling created no human capital. The extent and mix of these three phenomena vary from country to country in explaining the actual economic impact of education, or the lack thereof.

Where Has All the Education Gone?

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