Schooling, Labor-Force Quality, and the Growth of Nations
Eric A. Hanushek, Dennis D. Kimko
American Economic Review · 2000 · Volume 90 · Issue 5
Abstract
Direct measures of labor-force quality from international mathematics and science test scores are strongly related to growth. Indirect specification tests are generally consistent with a causal link: direct spending on schools is unrelated to student performance differences; the estimated growth effects of improved labor-force quality hold when East Asian countries are excluded; and, finally, home-country quality differences of immigrants are directly related to U.S. earnings if the immigrants are educated in their own country but not in the United States. The last estimates of micro productivity effects, however, introduce uncertainty about the magnitude of the growth effects.
Keywords
Measurement of Economic Growth, Aggregate Productivity, Cross-Country Output Convergence, Human Capital, Skills, Occupational Choice, Labor Productivity, Economic Development: Human Resources, Human Development, Income Distribution, Migration
Enable JavaScript for citation tools and additional paper interactions.