Education and Economic Growth

TLDR: In this article, the authors focus on human capital as a determinant of economic growth and stress the distinction between the quantity of education, measured by years of attainment at various levels, and the quality measured by scores on internationally comparable examinations.

Abstract: the recognition that the dierence between prosperity and poverty for a country depends on how fast it grows over the long term. Although standard macroeconomic policies are important for growth, other aspects of \policy" | broadly interpreted to encompass all government activities that matter for economic performance | are even more signicant. This paper focuses on human capital as a determinant of economic growth. Although human capital includes education, health, and aspects of \social capital", the main focus of the present study is on education. The analysis stresses the distinction between the quantity of education | measured by years of attainment at various levels | and the quality | gauged by scores on internationally comparable examinations. The recognition that the determinants of long-term economic growth were the central macroeconomic problem was fortunately accompanied in the late 1980s by important advances in the theory of economic growth. This period featured the development of \endogenous-growth" models, in which the long-term rate of growth was determined within the model. A key feature of these models is a theory of technological progress, viewed as a process whereby purposeful research and application lead over time to new and better products and methods of production and to the adoption of superior technologies that were developed in other countries or sectors. One major contributor in this area is Romer (1990).