By: Hanushek, EA & Wößmann, L
Published by: Policy Research Working Papers, World Bank, 2007
Via: Eldis
What is the role of education and human capital in economic development? This paper argues that it is not the school attainment of the population, but the skills acquired through education that are essential to economic development. However, time spent in school will not deliver those skills unless the education is of sufficient quality. The study analyses international data to identify the relationship between economic growth and the quality of education, as measured by the population’s literacy and numeracy attainment, rather than by commonly used input measures of quality. It also considers the relative influence of a number of institutional factors also held to encourage growth, such as openness to trade and property rights.
The analysis finds that the quality of education has an effect on economic outcomes that is independent of the positive effects of other growth-enhancing policies and institutions. The authors conclude that, while resources are important, the key barrier to quality education is a lack of incentives for both students and school personnel to improve learning outcomes. They suggest that improving the quality of schools will require structural changes in institutions to improve those incentives through:
- strong accountability systems that accurately measure student performance
- local autonomy that allows schools to make appropriate educational choices
- choice and competition in schools so that parents can enter into determining school incentives
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