1. Rather than economic growth being a function of a good education system, mass education and particularly higher education are things countries can spend money on because they are comparatively wealthy. And having done this, it's by no means obvious these educated individuals contribute much or anything to economic growth. I'd cite myself as evidence to support this claim - being as I am reasonably well-educated but almost entirely unproductive.I don't know the answer to these questions but my prejudices incline me to believe that the role of education has indeed been over-rated. This for two reasons: I come from a long line of people who think education should be an end in itself. That this may be due to the fact I am personally economically useless is of course a possibility I take seriously. The other is, if our future economic prospects depends on the quality of our education system, we're up shit-creek without the proverbial paddle.
2. It is enormously difficult to disaggregate the contribution education makes. With economically-successful countries, is it their school system that is the key variable - or is this merely a sign that a country that has enough rule of law that allows the government to collect taxes and stuff like that?
"It has been the misfortune of this age, that everything is to be discussed, as if the constitution of our country were to be always a subject rather of altercation than enjoyment." - Edmund Burke anticipates the Neverendum
Thursday, September 14, 2006
Education and economic growth
Contrary to the received wisdom, Chris Dillow refers to some evidence that suggests education isn't nearly as important to economic growth as is often supposed. If I may, I'll paraphrase a couple of the points he includes in his piece as follows:
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
Blog Archive
-
▼
2006
(532)
-
▼
September
(34)
- Making apologies
- Reid vs Brown
- Citizenship lessons 'inadequate'
- Tests to reveal ASBO babies
- On republicanism
- Teacher's committees
- Focus group blues for Brown
- Unlevel playing fields
- Chavez boosts Chomsky book sales
- Jeremy Clarkson
- Plumbers doing poetry
- Win a weekend in Glasgow
- Sheridan: spanking new party gets off to a swingin...
- The path to the apocalypse
- Maddy fisks the Pope
- Youse are all Celts too
- Steele bollocks
- Hitchens talks Papal bull
- On being confrontational
- Pope is Catholic theologian scandal
- Pope comment 'linked to crusade'
- Somali cleric calls for pope's death
- Linkage
- Iraq conversions
- Glaswegian protestant defends Pope
- Healthy eating
- Education and economic growth
- Heads back call for school drug tests
- Sorry, still don't get it
- Islamism and the left
- For the virtues of faithlessness
- Plots
- Cream crackered
- Scream (slight return)
-
▼
September
(34)
Details
Media
British and Scottish Social
Elections and Voters
Quilted blogroll
- A Cloud in Trousers
- Bad Conscience
- Bloggers4Labour
- Butterflies and Wheels
- Chase me ladies, I'm in the Cavalry
- Christopher Hitchens
- Dave Hill
- Dave Osler
- EngageOnline
- Excuse me while I step outside
- Fat Man on a Keyboard
- Flying Rodent
- Freemania
- George Szirtes
- Labour and Capital
- Martin in the margins
- Mick Hartley
- Never Trust a Hippy
- Nick Cohen
- Normblog
- Obcene Desserts
- Olly's Onions
- Pickled Politics
- Rosie Bell
- Rullsenberg Rules
- Shiraz Socialist
- Simply Jews
- Slugger O'Toole
- Stumbling and Mumbling
- The gaping silence
- We'll Get it Right Next Time
- Whitehall 1212
Blogroll with aloe vera
British and Scottish Political
Miscellaneous International
- Amnesty International
- China links
- China Support Network
- CIA factbook
- Democracy Now
- Europa - EU Online
- Human Rights in China
- Human Rights Watch
- International Labour Organization
- Labour Friends of Iraq
- South Africa links
- Statistical Abstract of the US
- Tibet Administration in Exile
- US Elections Stats
- Whitehouse Homepage
No comments:
Post a Comment