Students´ test scores at ages 9 to 15 are a measure of their skills as workers five to 55 years later. Using historic data on test scores and school attendance, I calculate the share of workers in 2005 that could have scored above 400 and above 600 in 45 countries. I find that the share above...

This paper presents evidence that students´ test scores at ages 9 to 15 are not a good proxy for a nation´s stock of human capital. Across countries test scores rise with increases in human capital up to $40,000/adult (2000$), but then decline as human capital increases up to $125,000/adult....

This paper challenges Hanushek and Woessmann’s [2008] contention that the quality and not the quantity of schooling determines a nation’s rate of economic growth. I first show that their statistical analysis is flawed. I then show that when a nation’s average test scores and average...

The marginal product of human capital in Mankiw, Romer, and Weil´s [1992] augmented Solow model measures the direct and two external effects of human capital created from schooling on national income. If this model is valid, its estimates of the share of this marginal product accruing to...

This article presents revised estimates of the external rates of return on investment in schooling provided in Schooling and National Income: How Large Are the Externalities?" The analysis is based on data for the same set of countries, but it incorporates methodological improvements that yield...

The economics literature identifies three effects of schooling on national income; the direct effect on the earnings of the workers who receive the schooling and the external effects on workers´ earnings and on physical capital due to schooling´s spillover effect on the productivity of these...

En este trabajo se utilizan los resultados obtenidos por los estudiantes en las áreas de matemáticas y lenguaje de las pruebas ICFES Saber 11º del segundo semestre de 2009, como medio para identificar los determinantes del rendimiento académico en Colombia. Para ello, se utiliza el modelo...

This article presents revised estimates of the external rates of return on investment in schooling provided in “Schooling and National Income: How Large Are the Externalities?” The analysis is based on data for the same set of countries, but it incorporates methodological improvements that...

This paper uses a new data set for cumulative national investment in formal schooling and a newinstrument for schooling to estimate the national return on investment in 61 countries. These estimates are combined with data on the private rate of return on investment in schooling to estimate the...

In 1960 Theodore Schultz expounded a human capital theory of economic growth that includes three elements: 1) Countries without much human capital cannot manage physical capital effectively, 2) Economic growth can only proceed if physical capital and human capital rise together, and 3) Human...