Returns to investment in education: A global update

How to explain the surprising finding that more education did not lead to faster economic growth? Cross-national data on economic growth rates show that increases in educational capital resulting from improvements in the educational attainment of the labor force have had no positive impact on the growth rate of output per worker. In fact, contends Pritchett, the estimated impact of growth of human capital on conventional nonregression growth accounting measures of total factor productivity is large, strongly significant, and negative. Needless to say, this at least appears to contradict the current conventional wisdom in development circles about education's importance for growth. After establishing that this negative result about the education-growth linkage is robust, credible, and consistent with previous literature, Pritchett explores three possible explanations that reconcile the abundant evidence about wage gains from schooling for individuals with the lack of schooling impact on aggregate growth: - That schooling creates no human capital. Schooling may not actually raise cognitive skills or productivity but schooling may nevertheless raise the private wage because to employers it signals a positive characteristic like ambition or innate ability. - That the marginal returns to education are falling rapidly where demand for educated labor is stagnant. Expanding the supply of educated labor where there is stagnant demand for it causes the rate of return to education to fall rapidly, particularly where the sluggish demand is due to limited adoption of innovations. - That the institutional environments in many countries have been sufficiently perverse that the human capital accumulated has been applied to activities that served to reduce economic growth. In other words, possibly education does raise productivity, and there is demand for this more productive educated labor, but demand for educated labor comes from individually remunerative but socially wasteful or counterproductive activities - a bloated bureaucracy, for example, or overmanned state enterprises in countries where the government is the employer of last resort - so that while individuals' wages go up with education, output stagnates, or even falls. This paper - a product of the Poverty and Human Resources Division, Policy Research Department - is part of a larger effort in the department to investigate the determinants of economic growth.

Where Has All the Education Gone

ContextEvidence consistently indicates that depression has adversely affected
work productivity. Estimates of the cost impact in lost labor time in the
US workforce, however, are scarce and dated.ObjectiveTo estimate the impact of depression on labor costs (ie, work absence
and reduced performance while at work) in the US workforce.Design, Setting, and ParticipantsAll employed individuals who participated in the American Productivity
Audit (conducted August 1, 2001–July 31, 2002) between May 20 and July
11, 2002, were eligible for the Depressive Disorders Study. Those who responded
affirmatively to 2 depression-screening questions (n = 692), as well as a
1:4 stratified random sample of those responding in the negative (n = 435),
were recruited for and completed a supplemental interview using the Primary
Care Evaluation of Mental Disorders Mood Module for depression, the Somatic
Symptom Inventory, and a medical and treatment history for depression. Excess
lost productive time (LPT) costs from depression were derived as the difference
in LPT among individuals with depression minus the expected LPT in the absence
of depression projected to the US workforce.Main Outcome MeasureEstimated LPT and associated labor costs (work absence and reduced performance
while at work) due to depression.ResultsWorkers with depression reported significantly more total health-related
LPT than those without depression (mean, 5.6 h/wk vs an expected 1.5 h/wk,
respectively). Eighty-one percent of the LPT costs are explained by reduced
performance while at work. Major depression accounts for 48% of the LPT among
those with depression, again with a majority of the cost explained by reduced
performance while at work. Self-reported use of antidepressants in the previous
12 months among those with depression was low (<30%) and the mean reported
treatment effectiveness was only moderate. Extrapolation of these survey results
and self-reported annual incomes to the population of US workers suggests
that US workers with depression employed in the previous week cost employers
an estimated $44 billion per year in LPT, an excess of $31 billion per year
compared with peers without depression. This estimate does not include labor
costs associated with short- and long-term disability.ConclusionsA majority of the LPT costs that employers face from employee depression
is invisible and explained by reduced performance while at work. Use of treatments
for depression appears to be relatively low. The combined LPT burden among
those with depression and the low level of treatment suggests that there may
be cost-effective opportunities for improving depression-related outcomes
in the US workforce.

https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jama/articlepdf/196767/joc30290.pdf

Cost of lost productive work time among US workers with depression.

QUITE apart from the academic consideration that vital and medical statistics now form an obligatory part of the education of students seeking the University of London's diploma in public health, the demand for information about the methods of vital and medical statistics is increasing. The most casual reader of the newspapers is now aware that population problems are of serious practical importance and that the publications of the General Register Office cannot be ignored. It is scarcely an exaggeration to say that the recently issued preliminary report on the census of 1931 is one of the most sensational documents which has appeared for years, and that he who reads it intelligently will understand what is meant by saying that civilisation is in the melting pot. An Introduction to Medical Statistics. By Hilda M. Woods William T. Russell. Pp. x + 125. (London: P. S. King and Son, Ltd., 1931.) 7s. 6d.

/pdf/an-introduction-to-medical-statistics-58gm2cuxfv.pdf

An Introduction to Medical Statistics

https://journal.chestnet.org/article/S0012-3692(16)30215-X/pdf

Pulmonary Rehabilitation: Joint ACCP/AACVPR Evidence-Based Clinical Practice Guidelines

Utilizing data from 84 key Chinese higher education institutions, the present study attempts to examine the effectiveness of the Education Reform implemented in the mid-1980s in China. With focus on the research performance of the institutions, individual institution efficiency is computed by the method of data envelopment analysis. Regional differences in the efficiency of institutions are also addressed. It is found that research performance of institutions across regions has improved, although the institutions as a whole have remained inefficient from 1993 to 1995. Institutions located in the East region turn out to have out-performed those in the Central and the West regions. In addition, the decomposition of the group efficiency measure indicates that, for the 3 years under study, the 84 key institutions suffered from technical, allocative and reallocative inefficiency.

Measuring the Research Performance of Chinese Higher Education Institutions: An Application of Data Envelopment Analysis

Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) is a rapidly growing public health problem in the United States and elsewhere. Although direct costs of COPD are well documented, the impact of COPD and its severity on labor force participation is not well known. Using population-based data from the Third National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES III), we determined the adjusted relationship between COPD (and its severity) and labor force participation in the U.S. We used data from 12,436 participants involved in NHANES III; 1,073 of these participants (8.6% of the total) reported COPD. These participants were 3.9% (95% confidence interval, 1.3% to 6.4%) less likely to be in the labor force than those without COPD. Increasing severity of COPD was associated with decreased probability of being in the labor force (p for linear trend = 0.001). Mild, moderate, and severe COPD was associated with a 3.4%, 3.9%, and 14.4% reduction in the labor force participation rate relative to those without COPD. These data suggest that COPD has a considerable adverse impact on work force participation. Based on these data, we estimate that, in 1994, COPD was responsible for work loss of approximately $9.9 billion in the U.S.

The Impact of Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease on Work Loss in the United States

OBJECTIVE — The objective of this study was to estimate the
cost of productivity losses in the U.S. attributable to diabetes, with regard
to specific demographic and disease-related characteristics in the U.S. RESEARCH DESIGN AND METHODS — We used the 1989 National Health
Interview Survey, a random survey of individuals in the U.S. that included a
diabetes supplement. Data on individuals were obtained for labor force
participation, hours of work, demographic and occupational characteristics,
self-reported health status, and several variables that indicated the
presence, duration, and severity (complications) of diabetes. Using
multivariate regression analyses, we estimated the association of independent
variables (e.g., demographics, health, and diabetes status) with labor force
participation, hours of work lost, and the economic value of lost work
attributable to diabetes and its complications and duration. RESULTS — In general, the presence of diabetes and
complications were found to be related to workforce participation variables.
The magnitude of the lost-productivity costs depended on personal
characteristics and on the presence and status of diabetes. In general, the
loss of yearly earnings amounted to about a one-third reduction in earnings
and ranged from $3,700 to $8,700 per annum. CONCLUSIONS — Diabetes has a considerable net effect on
earnings, and the complications and duration of diabetes have compound
effects. Our findings have implications for the cost-effectiveness of diabetes
control; the presence of complicating factors is the single most important
predictive factor in lost productivity costs attributable to diabetes, and
thus the avoidance or retardation of complications will have an impact on
indirect health-related costs.

/pdf/productivity-losses-associated-with-diabetes-in-the-u-s-3snkd1rpcy.pdf

Productivity Losses Associated With Diabetes in the U.S.

The productive efficiency of Chinese hospitals

The role of training and its impact on company performance is studied in different types of enterprises in a transitional economy. A sample of manufacturing enterprises is drawn, using China as a case study. The findings indicate that training is perceived to be relatively important in non-state-owned enterprises (non-SOEs). Training objectives have three major dimensions, namely enhancing working relationships, tackling skill deficiencies and skills development. SOEs tend to focus more on skill development, while non-SOEs emphasize both enhancing working relationships and skills improvement. Comparing the expectations of training and the perceived achievement of training objectives, the gap is seen to be small within all types of enterprises, and training effectiveness is perceived to be similar. The production function estimation shows that there is a positive relationship between training expenditures and enterprise productivity.

Ying Chu Ng

Papers

Measuring the Research Performance of Chinese Higher Education Institutions: An Application of Data Envelopment Analysis

The Impact of Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease on Work Loss in the United States

Productivity Losses Associated With Diabetes in the U.S.

The productive efficiency of Chinese hospitals

Training and enterprise performance in transition: evidence from China