2000/12/01 by Eric A. Hanushek, Dennis D Kimko · 3 citations
Economics, Econometrics and Finance · #Fiscal Policy and Economic Growth #Economic Growth and Productivity #Economic Policies and Impacts #Earnings #Economics #Immigration #Productivity #Quality (philosophy) #Labour economics #Test (biology) #Instrumental variable #Demographic economics #Earnings growth #Econometrics #Macroeconomics #Geography
paper · doi:10.1257/aer.90.5.1184
openalex publication_date 2000/12/01 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/29
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. (JEL O40, I20, J24)