Penn World Table (PWT) 7.0 is the newest PWT data set, based in part on benchmarked prices collected in 2005. In theory the data in PWT 7.0 should be more accurate than the data in PWT 6.3 since 1996 and similar in earlier years. I show that PWT 7.0 GDP/capita and price data for 1970 to 1996...

Institutionalists argue that there are proximate and fundamental causes of economic development. I apply this theory to examine whether national culture is the fundamental cause of student achievement across countries, while family, school, and school system characteristics are the proximate...

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...

This paper explains why different studies present widely-varying estimates of the effect of increased schooling on national income. It shows that when correctly-interpreted, these studies support the hypothesis that a one-year increase in average schooling attainment raises national income...

Construction prices in developing countries in ICP 2005 are lower relative to prices in developed countries than in earlier versions of the ICP. Our estimates of the Colombia/U.S. ratio of prices for office buildings demonstrate that the ICP 2005 price ratio for these countries is substantially...

Using the ICP 2011's cross-country data on input prices and project cost shares, I show that the construction prices in ICP 2011 are substantially underestimated in low and middle income countries. As a consequence, the PPP-adjusted construction in these countries is overestimated on average by...

Using the ICP 2011's cross-country data on input prices and project cost shares, I show that the construction prices in ICP 2011 are substantially underestimated in low and middle income countries. As a consequence, the PPP-adjusted construction in these countries is overestimated on average by...

Latin American students consistently score low on international tests of cognitive skills. In the PISA 2012 results, students in seven Latin American countries had an average score of 395, or about 100 points lower than the average score of 497 in four Scandinavian countries. We examine why...

This paper uses a new data set for cumulative national investment in formal schooling and a new instrument 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...

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 schooling...