Education, innovation and economic growth in Cameroon

The main objective of this paper is to evaluate technologically (innovation or imitation) the role of human capital in Cameroon as far as economic growth is concerned. Higher education is designed to be the main technological aspect of human capital. Theoretically, the stock of knowledge available in a country determines through innovation productivity growth. In that way, we use a Vector Error Correction model (VECM) to evaluate the impact of human capital on productivity growth. Productivity is approximated by the Total factors Productivity (TFP) evaluated by growth accounting method. Our estimates show that direct effect of human capital on TFP growth between 1960 and 2001 is greater than innovation capability (Higher education expenses) effect and less than imitation capability effect through imports. In contrary, indirect effect of human capital through foreign investments is the most important. For a given foreign investment, a 1\% increase in human capital stock in Cameroon improves productivity up to 28.5\%.