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Where Has All the Education Gone?

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  • Lant Pritchett

Abstract

Cross-national data show no association between increases in human capital attributable to the rising educational attainment of the labor force and the rate of growth of output per worker. This implies that the association of educational capital growth with conventional measures of total factor production is large, strongly statistically significant, and negative. These are "on average" results, derived from imposing a constant coefficient. However, the development impact of education varied widely across countries and has fallen short of expectations for three possible reasons. First, the institutional/governance environment could have been sufficiently perverse that the accumulation of educational capital lowered economic growth. Second, marginal returns to education could have fallen rapidly as the supply of educated labor expanded while demand remained stagnant. Third, educational quality could have been so low that years of schooling created no human capital. The extent and mix of these three phenomena vary from country to country in explaining the actual economic impact of education, or the lack thereof.

Suggested Citation

  • Lant Pritchett, 2001. "Where Has All the Education Gone?," The World Bank Economic Review, World Bank, vol. 15(3), pages 367-36-391.
    • Handle: RePEc:oup:wbecrv:2001:15:3:367--391
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    Cited by:

    1. Amparo Castello-Climent & Abhiroop Mukhopadhyay, 2010. "Mass education or a minority well educated elite in the process of development: The case of India," Discussion Papers 10-08, Indian Statistical Institute, Delhi.
    2. Weldeegzie, Samuel, 2023. "The persistent effect of conflict on educational outcomes: Evidence from Ethiopia," International Journal of Educational Development, Elsevier, vol. 103(C).
    3. Alexeev, Michael & Natkhov, Timur & Polishchuk, Leonid, 2024. "Institutions, abilities, and the allocation of talent: Evidence from Russian regions," Journal of Comparative Economics, Elsevier, vol. 52(1), pages 271-296.
    4. Sandra Kurniawati & Daniel Suryadarma & Luhur Bima & Asri Yusrina, "undated". "Pendidikan di Indonesia: Biaya Tinggi, Hasil Tidak Pasti?," Working Papers 3547, Publications Department.
    5. Juan Manuel Ocegueda Hernández & Marco Tulio Ocegueda Hernández, 2024. "La calidad del capital humano y el crecimiento económico de México/The quality of human capital and economic growth in Mexico," Estudios Económicos, El Colegio de México, Centro de Estudios Económicos, vol. 39(2), pages 311–348-3.

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