Does one size fit all? The impact of cognitive skills on economic growth

Nadir Altinok (1, 2) , Abdurrahman Aydemir (3)

1 IREDU - Institut de Recherche sur l'Education : Sociologie et Economie de l'Education [Dijon]
2 BETA - Bureau d'Économie Théorique et Appliquée
3 Sabanci University [Istanbul]

This paper tests for heterogeneous effects of cognitive skills on economic growth across countries. Using a new extended dataset on cognitive skills and controlling for potential endogeneity, we find that the magnitude of the effect is about 60 per cent higher for low-income countries compared to high-income countries, and it more than doubles when low TFP countries are compared to high TFP countries. There are also marked differences across ge- ographic regions. Using data on the share of the population with advanced and minimum skill levels, our results also indicate that high-income countries should focus on increasing the number of high skilled human capital, while countries from Sub-Saharan Africa would benefit more by investing in the development of basic skills.

Mots clés: Education; Development; Africa; Cognitive skills; Growth; Heterogeneity

Domaines: Education; Economies et finances

Nadir Altinok, Abdurrahman Aydemir. Does one size fit all? The impact of cognitive skills on economic growth. Journal of Macroeconomics, 2017, 53, pp.176-190. ⟨10.1016/j.jmacro.2017.06.007⟩. ⟨halshs-01671740⟩