Human Capital and Growth

The main policy implication that emerges from this study is that subsidised education without at the same time provision for the creation of growth-enhancing jobs can be good for the individual but bad for growth (and presumably public finances). There is evidence of very high private returns to education, in the form of higher wages for degree holders, but also evidence that these returns are not always matched by social returns in the form of higher output. Governments need to ensure that educated men and women have incentives to work in occupations that contribute to social welfare. Admittedly, some of those occupations, such as the running of social services or the looking after of sick people, do not show up in growth statistics. But they are as valuable as those that do ...