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The economic impact of universities: Evidence from across the globe
ARTICLE

, London School of Economics and Centre for Economic Performance ; , MIT Department of Economics, United States

Economics of Education Review Volume 68, Number 1, ISSN 0272-7757 Publisher: Elsevier Ltd

Abstract

We develop a new dataset using UNESCO source materials on the location of nearly 15,000 universities in about 1,500 regions across 78 countries, some dating back to the 11th Century. We estimate fixed effects models at the sub-national level between 1950 and 2010 and find that increases in the number of universities are positively associated with future growth of GDP per capita (and this relationship is robust to controlling for a host of observables, as well as unobserved regional trends). Our estimates imply that a 10% increase in a region's number of universities per capita is associated with 0.4% higher future GDP per capita in that region. Furthermore, there appear to be positive spillover effects from universities to geographically close neighbouring regions. We show that the relationship between GDP per capita and universities is not simply driven by the direct expenditures of the university, its staff and students. Part of the effect of universities on growth is mediated through an increased supply of human capital and greater innovation. Furthermore, we find that within countries, higher historical university presence is associated with stronger pro-democratic attitudes.

Citation

Valero, A. & Van Reenen, J. (2019). The economic impact of universities: Evidence from across the globe. Economics of Education Review, 68(1), 53-67. Elsevier Ltd. Retrieved May 30, 2023 from .

This record was imported from Economics of Education Review on March 15, 2019. Economics of Education Review is a publication of Elsevier.

Full text is availabe on Science Direct: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.econedurev.2018.09.001

Keywords

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