Education-growth nexus in middle-income countries: an empirical examination for schooling rates

Year 2018, , 560 - 570, 01.10.2018

Ümit Bulut , Ahsen Seda Kılıç Bulut

https://doi.org/10.24289/ijsser.455796

Abstract

The
goal of this paper is to examine the education-growth nexus for 5 middle-income
countries (Malaysia, Mexico, South Africa, Thailand, and Turkey) using
schooling rate as the indicator of education over the period 1987-2015. The
paper first performs cross-sectional dependence and heterogeneity tests and
then employs the bootstrap panel Granger causality test developed by Konya
(2006). According to the
findings, while there is unidirectional causality from schooling rate to GDP in
Thailand, there is unidirectional causality from GDP to schooling rate in South Africa.
The findings of the paper indicate that schooling rate is not a good proxy for
human capital. Theoretical and policy implications are discussed in the
conclusion part.

Keywords

middle-income trap, human capital, education, schooling rate, PISA test, panel data

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