I find it difficult to evaluate the causal education and growth link, for a number of reasons. Around the world, educational systems produce different types of "value-added" which may or may not be very productivity-enhancing in the context of their specific country. Also, empirically, I am skeptical that any cross-country growth regressions have very much to say about a "causal link".
However, there must be something to the argument (and evidence) that education causes higher wages, and thus higher productivity. The labor literature on this causal connection is enormous, though it is generally in the context of relatively wealthy countries. Still, some work exists for developing countries -- for example Esther Duflo has some nice papers on the effect of education on wages in Indonesia (about 8% per year, she says, which is similar to the US). Paul Quoting Bryan Caplan <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>: > Tyler Cowen at www.marginalrevolution.com alerted me to the following > very interesting piece debunking the supposed causal connection between > education and growth: > > http://www.spiked-online.com/Printable/0000000CA640.htm > -- > Prof. Bryan Caplan > Department of Economics George Mason University > http://www.bcaplan.com [EMAIL PROTECTED] > > "I hope this has taught you kids a lesson: kids never learn." > > --Chief Wiggum, *The Simpsons* >
