The Role of Cognitive Skills in Economic Development
2008/08/01 by Eric A. Hanushek, Eric A Hanushek, Ludger Woessmann · 28 citations
Social Sciences · Economics, Econometrics and Finance · #Poverty, Education, and Child Welfare #Economic Growth and Productivity #Intergenerational and Educational Inequality Studies
paper · doi:10.1257/jel.46.3.607
Abstract
The role of improved schooling, a central part of most development strategies, has become controversial because expansion of school attainment has not guaranteed improved economic conditions. This paper reviews the role of cognitive skills in promoting economic well-being, with a particular focus on the role of school quality and quantity. It concludes that there is strong evidence that the cognitive skills of the population—rather than mere school attainment—are powerfully related to individual earnings, to the distribution of income, and to economic growth. New empirical results show the importance of both minimal and high level skills, the complementarity of skills and the quality of economic institutions, and the robustness of the relationship between skills and growth. International comparisons incorporating expanded data on cognitive skills reveal much larger skill deficits in developing countries than generally derived from just school enrollment and attainment. The magnitude of change needed makes clear that closing the economic gap with developed countries will require major structural changes in schooling institutions.
Citations
Cited by
- Skill Substitution, Expectations, and the Business Cycle
- RETRACTED ARTICLE: Beyond GDP: national intelligence quotient as a catalyst for sustainable socioeconomic welfare
- Causal Analysis of Health, Education, and Economic Well-Being in India -- Evidence from the Young Lives Survey
- The economic costs of early vulnerability in Canada. [europepmc]
- Calculation of the disease burden associated with environmental chemical exposures: application of toxicological information in health economic estimation. [europepmc]
- Cognition, Health, and Well-Being in a Rural Sub-Saharan African Population. [europepmc]
- Association of Behavior in Boys From Low Socioeconomic Neighborhoods With Employment Earnings in Adulthood. [europepmc]
- Impacts of Nutrition Subsidies on Diet Diversity and Nutritional Outcomes of Primary School Students in Rural Northwestern China-Do Policy Targets and Incentives Matter? [europepmc]
- Time trends and determinants of breastfeeding practices among adolescents and young women in Nigeria, 2003-2018. [europepmc]
- Comorbid Learning Difficulties in Reading and Mathematics: The Role of Intelligence and In-Class Attentive Behavior. [europepmc]
- Who is teaching in Chinese primary schools? A profile of the primary education workforce in Chinese county areas. [europepmc]
- The Contribution of Personality and Intelligence Toward Cognitive Competences in Higher Education. [europepmc]
- Intergenerational transmission of lockdown consequences: prognosis of the longer-run persistence of COVID-19 in Latin America. [europepmc]
- School academic performance of children hospitalised with a chronic condition. [europepmc]
- Inequality of Opportunity in Tertiary Education: Evidence from Europe. [europepmc]
- Exploring the Dependence and Influencing Factors of Carbon Emissions from the Perspective of Population Development. [europepmc]
- Evaluation of employee occupational stress by estimating the loss of human capital in Japan. [europepmc]
- Adversity in Infancy and Childhood Cognitive Development: Evidence From Four Developing Countries. [europepmc]
- Is the SES and academic achievement relationship mediated by cognitive ability? Evidence from PISA 2018 using data from 77 countries. [europepmc]
- Is proactive telephone-based breastfeeding peer support a cost-effective intervention? A within-trial cost-effectiveness analysis of the 'Ringing Up about Breastfeeding earlY' (RUBY) randomised controlled trial. [europepmc]
- The effect of average scores in reading, mathematics and science on innovation and income: A quantitative analysis for a group of countries. [europepmc]
- Understanding the longitudinal trends (2005-2018) and multilevel risk factors of complementary feeding in Guinea. [europepmc]
- The Cognitive Footprint of Medication Use. [europepmc]
- What length of after-school Learning time best promotes the development of non-cognitive ability in adolescents? Evidence from China. [europepmc]
- Profiles of control, value and achievement emotions in primary school mathematics lessons. [europepmc]
- Examining the relationship between commuting time, academic achievement, and mental health in rural China: a cross-sectional analysis. [europepmc]
- Associations of genetic variants for educational success with risk and time preferences vary by childhood environment. [europepmc]
- Critical malnutrition thresholds and educational system constraints in Sub-Saharan Africa: implications for evidence-based nutrition policy. [europepmc]
Related