Mostly summarized from Gregory Mankiw’s Principles of Economics, 5th Ed.
PART 9 The Real Economy in the Long Run
Chapter 25 of 36 Production and Growth
Section 13 of 23
…
1· saving and investment
2· investment from abroad
3· education
4· health and nutrition
5· property rights and political stability
6· free trade
7· research and development
8· population growth
…
3· education
Education is an investment in human capital.
It is at least as important as physical capital investment for a country's economic success.
In the United States, historically each year of school has raised a person's wage
by a ten percent average.
In less developed countries human capital is especially scarce.
The difference in wages between educated and uneducated workers within the country is larger than within developed countries.
…
Government policy can enhance a country’s standard of living by providing good schools and encouraging the population to take advantage of educational opportunities.
Investment in human capital has an opportunity cost.
When people are in school, they forego wages they could have earned.
In less developed countries children often quit school at an early age even though the benefit of more schooling is very high.
Typically it’s because their labor wages are needed to help support their family.
…
Many economists have argued human capital is especially important for economic growth because human capital creates positive externalities.
An externality is the effect of one person's actions on the well-being of another person.
An educated person might conceive new ideas about how to best produce goods and services and societal improvements in general.
The ideas enter society's knowledge pool and everyone can use and benefit from them.
These ideas are an external benefit of education because the return for society is in addition to the return for the individual.
This argument is a justification of subsidies to human-capital investment
in the form of public education.
…
One problem facing poor countries is brain drain due to the emigration of many of their most educated workers to rich countries where these workers can earn more and enjoy a higher standard of living.
This brain drain makes people remaining in the country poorer than if the educated stayed.
The brain drain problem is a dilemma for policymakers
On one hand the U.S. and other rich countries have the best systems of higher education.
Poor countries want to send their top students abroad to gain the best possible education.
On the other hand those students who have spent time in rich countries may choose not to return home.
This brain drain reduces the poor nation's human capital stock.
… …
the problem is a dilemma for policymakers
el problema es un dilema para responsables políticos (Spanish)
mondai wa seisaku ritsuan-sha ni jirenmadearu (Japanese)
問題は政策立案者にジレンマである
Comments
Post a Comment