The Importance of Institutionalised Education for Economic Growth

Abstract

This thesis addresses the question of whether formalised education and literacy are contributing factors to economic growth. Scotland, England, Japan and China in the 18th and 19th century are examined to compare and contrast the outcomes, and facets of education, and examine if these can provide a partial explanation of the economic divergence between Europe and Asia. The aspects studied are the sources of funding for education, the goal of education and literacy levels in each of the four case studies. A bastardised Boolean method is employed for the analysis while throughout the thesis the cases are explored in detail on each variable. The outcome of this analysis is that high rates of literacy and a loosely defined goal are the necessary conditions for economic growth and low levels of literacy and funding predominantly from private sources are determining conditions for lack of growth.