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Mass education or a minority well educated elite in the process of development: The case of India

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  • Amparo Castello-Climent
  • Abhiroop Mukhopadhyay

    (Indian Statistical Institute, New Delhi)

Abstract

This paper analyses whether in developing countries mass education is the key or a highly well educated elite should be more bene?cial for growth. Using the Indian census data as a benchmark and enrollment rates of di!erent levels of schooling we compute annual attainment levels for a panel of 16 Indian states from 1961 to 2001. Results show that one standard deviation increment in the share of population with tertiary education is 3 times more bene?cial for growth than a one standard deviation increment in literacy. Using simulations we consider two alternate policies: one that doubles the increments to the literacy rates (relative to its baseline rate of increase) and another that doubles the annual increments to the share of adult population with tertiary education. We show that at the end of 35 years, the state following the latter policy has a per capita GDP 1.5 time more than the state that emphasizes the former.

Suggested Citation

  • 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.
    • Handle: RePEc:alo:isipdp:10-08
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    1. Rajarshi Singh, 2017. "Democratization of Knowledge: Vernacular Education Planning in the Indian Context," Journal of Developing Societies, , vol. 33(1), pages 126-149, March.

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Distribution of education; attainment levels; economic growth; panel data;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • I28 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Education - - - Government Policy
    • O11 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Economic Development - - - Macroeconomic Analyses of Economic Development
    • O50 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Economywide Country Studies - - - General

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