Page 13 - Education and Inclusive Growth --Jong-Wha Lee Korea University

Education and Inclusive Growthc159

As can be seen in Table 1, the average per worker GDP growth rate for the

99 countries over the entire sample period was 2.3% per year. The growth rate
was 1.9% in the 1980s, and since then has risen to about 2.2~2.4%.
The average per worker GDP growth rates over 1981–2014 was 1.6% for

the sample of 24 advanced countries and 3.1% for the sample of 75 developing
countries. In the advanced countries, the average per worker GDP growth rates
dropped from about 2.2% in the 1980s to about 2.0% in the 1990s and then

further to about 1.0% in the period of 2001–2014. The significant decline of
per worker GDP growth rate since the 2000s reflects the impacts of the global
financial crisis that hit advanced economies more severely since 2008. In

contrast, for developing countries the average per worker GDP growth rates
accelerated from 1.2% in the 80s to 2.8% in the 1990s and further to 4.1% in the
latest period.

Table 1 presents that the contribution of human capital accumulation
(increase in average years of schooling) to economic growth is sizeable
worldwide. The annual growth rate of per worker GDP explained by human
capital is estimated on average to be about 0.4% point from 1981 to 2014 for

the 99 countries in the world, amounting to about 18% of per worker growth
over the period. The contribution of human capital to per worker GDP growth

rate was greater in the 1980s and the 1990s, about 0.6% point (about 28~32%
of annual per worker GDP growth), and then declined to 0.35% point (about
14%) in the 2001–2014 period for the world. It is slightly larger in the group of
developing countries, about 0.45% point, compared to about 0.3% in the group

of advanced countries in the overall period.
Figure 5 depicts per worker output growth rates and its sources for the three

sub-periods and for the entire sample period. The growth accounting exercise
implies that human capital is a significant factor for economic growth, but its