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American Economic Review Vol. 90 No. 5 2000

Schooling, Labor-Force Quality, and the Growth of Nations

Eric A. Hanushek1; Dennis D. Kimko2

1 Hoover Institution, Stanford University, Stanford, CA 94305, and National Bureau of Economic Research. · 2 Institute for Defense Analyses, 1801 North Beauregard Street, Alexandria, VA 22311.

Abstract

Direct measures of labor-force quality from international mathematics and science test scores are strongly related to growth. Indirect specification tests are generally consistent with a causal link: direct spending on schools is unrelated to student performance differences; the estimated growth effects of improved labor-force quality hold when East Asian countries are excluded; and, finally, home-country quality differences of immigrants are directly related to U.S. earnings if the immigrants are educated in their own country but not in the United States. The last estimates of micro productivity effects, however, introduce uncertainty about the magnitude of the growth effects.

DOI
10.1257/aer.90.5.1184
Volume
90
Issue
5
Pages
1184-1208
Language
en
Sources
bibtex:phds-export.bib openalex crossref

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