Social Returns to Education: Evidence from Selected African Countries

Abstract

This paper investigates the social return to education in some African countries. To achieve this, we regress the per capita economic growth rate and its main variants on a set of 15 education indicators. We use the Barro and Lee (1994)’s econometric models, and apply the instrumental variables estimator. The empirical estimates establish three major results: (i) as expected, the accumulation of human capital through education is a significant determinant of economic growth; (ii) combined with any indicator of education, government spending, life expectancy at birth and labor force are not considered as growth factors in Africa; (iii) on the contrary, gross fix capital formation as a proxy of investment, the nominal bilateral exchange rate to the dollar, foreign direct investment and inflation rate are globally growth enhancing in Africa. But the performance and the quality of an education system depends on the magnitude of expenditure or investment in the sector.

Keywords: Social Returns, Education, African Countries.

DOI: 10.7176/DCS/9-12-08

Publication date: December 31^st 2019