The Conversation:
How universities boost economic growth
15 September 2016
In 1900, just 1% of young people in the world were enrolled at university. Over the course of the next century this exploded to 20%, as recognition of the value of such an education became widespread. And it turns out that the expansion of higher education from 1950 onwards was not just the product of growing wealth, it has also helped fuel economic growth around the world. These were the findings of my recent paper with colleague John Van Reenen, which analysed new data from UNESCO's World Higher Education Database of 15,000 universities across 78 countries. We examined the relationship between new universities and regional growth between 1950 and 2010.
This article was published online by The Conversation on September 15, 2016
Link to article here
Related publications
The Economic Impact of Universities: Evidence from Across the Globe, Anna Valero and John Van Reenen, Centre for Economic Performance Discussion Paper No.1444, August 2016