Did Nations that Boosted Education Grow Faster?

[Quantum Windbag]

We keep hearing from every politician on the planet how an investment in education is an investment in the future. What, exactly, happens to the economy when a nation increases the average years its citizens spend in school?

As it turns out, nothing.

It turns out that quite a few people have done research into the topic, and they all reached the same conclusion.

On average, no relationship. The trendline points down slightly, but for the time being let's just call it a draw. It's a well-known fact that countries that started the 1960's with high education levels grew faster (example), but this graph is about something different. This graph shows that countries that increased their education levels did not grow faster.

And it's not just me saying this: Here's James Hamilton and Josefina Monteagudo, who ran a more sophisticated version of the same test:

Another troubling aspect of our results is that investment in human capital [measured via secondary education] seems to have nothing to do with changes in growth rates over time.
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Lant Pritchett's paper on the topic is summed up by the title: "Where has all the education gone?"

Did Nations that Boosted Education Grow Faster? , Garett Jones | EconLog | Library of Economics and Liberty

 

[treadlightly]

What kind of growth is important? How is growth of the mind monitored?