Title: Education and economic growth: a co-integration approach

Authors: Derick Taylor Adu; Elisha Kwaku Denkyirah

Addresses: Department of Agricultural Economics and Agribusiness, University of Ghana, P.O. Box LG 68, Legon, Ghana ' Department of Agricultural Economics and Agribusiness, University of Ghana, P.O. Box LG 68, Legon, Ghana

Abstract: In the wake of numerous educational policies and huge education investments in Ghana, it is imperative to investigate the effect of education on economic growth. Using the autoregressive distributed lag approach to co-integration we find that in the short-run primary/basic education has a significant positive impact on economic growth. In the long-run, both primary and secondary educations have a positive impact on economic growth. Tertiary education has no significant effect on economic growth both in the short-run and long-run. Furthermore, government expenditure on education has no statistically significant effect on economic growth which could imply that the expenditure is not directed towards the quality of education but rather quantity (enrolment). We conclude that educational policies should focus not only on the basic and secondary education but also the tertiary education, incorporating research and development into the curricula, and government expenditure should be directed towards the quality of education.

Keywords: education; economic growth; policy; co-integration; Ghana.

DOI: 10.1504/IJEED.2017.088815

International Journal of Education Economics and Development, 2017 Vol.8 No.4, pp.228 - 249

Received: 31 Mar 2017
Accepted: 10 Jul 2017

Published online: 19 Dec 2017 *

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