The Economic Importance of Education: Evidence from Africa Using Dynamic Panel Data Analysis

Abstract

The existing literature has dealt inadequately with the link between education and economic growth in developing countries, particularly for Africa which has experienced a massive growth of enrolment at all levels of education during the second half of the 20th century. Moreover, the issues of causality and dynamics have been largely ignored until lately. This paper investigates the empirical link between education and economic performance for the case of 40 African States for the time period 1980–2000 using both static and dynamic panel data analysis. Result from the analysis shows that education has been an instrumental element in the growth process, though to a lesser extent as compared to recent empirical works. The study also confirms the presence of dynamics in the education-growth debate and is in line with recent findings from other developing country cases.

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