Human Learning and Modern Economic growth: What is the Connection?

Gianpaolo Mariutti ()
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Gianpaolo Mariutti: Department of Economics (University of Verona)

No 31/2015, Working Papers from University of Verona, Department of Economics

Abstract: This article connects economic growth and human learning in historical perspective. It does so by confronting figures for almost two centuries (1820-1990) of GDP per capita and formal learning (mainly literacy) for a group of countries (19) that are nowadays rich. In the last decades of this long period, the selected sample has been enlarged including also nowadays poor countries. Some regularities emerge from the empirical evidence. Human learning has become an essential factor of economic growth. It was not so at the beginning of the Industrial revolution, in the first decades of the XIX century. As time went by, it has moved from being a sufficient factor of economic growth, to a necessary factor of growth. This means that there no countries nowadays rich in income that were not before rich in literacy. The capital factor, by contrast, shows during the same time span a reverse pattern. Among other things this offers interesting hints to look critically and creatively at the theory of growth.

Keywords: Economic Growth; Human learning; Literacy; Long run (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I21 N10 O47 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 34
Date: 2015-12
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-his and nep-hpe
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