Schooling Quality and Economic Growth

Many studies of the determinants of economic growth rates across countries use a measure of schooling quantity, such as mean secondary school enrolment rates, to proxy for the rate of human capital accumulation. This approach ignores the contribution of schooling quality. We augment the growth model of Mankiw, Romer and Weil (1992) to include schooling quality, derive the relevant steady state income and growth rate equations, and then estimate the model. We find that differences in schooling quality across countries are probably more important than differences in schooling quantity in explaining variations in economic growth rates.