Give it time: Education affects economic growth in the long run

Venue

Meeting Room 2^nd floor, Department of Sociology and Social Research – via Verdi 26, Trento
Ore: 14.00

Speaker

• Dr. Gabriele Marconi – Center for European Policy Studies

Abstract 

Using a data set for a panel of 118 countries, this chapter shows that variation in the level of education of national populations ages 45 to 64 is positively associated with economic growth. An increase of 1% in the share of individuals in this age group who attended secondary education is associated with a 1.1% increase in GDP per capita. In contrast, variation in the level of education in younger cohorts is not positively associated with economic growth. These results suggest that investment in education benefits society, but only in the long-term. Several possible explanations for this finding are discussed.