Recently, Associate Professor Hanol Lee from our school, as the first author, co-authored and published a paper titled Educational Quality and Disparities in Income and Growth Across Countries in the Journal of Economic Growth, a leading authoritative journal in economics.

Paper Abstract

This paper demonstrates that educational quality significantly contributes to per capita income and its growth rate. The research team constructed a comprehensive educational quality database covering subjects across all age groups in 92 countries from 1970 to 2015, and analyzed how educational quality affects global income and growth disparities. To measure educational quality, the study uses secondary school student scores from international mathematics and science assessments, supplementing unobserved test scores by imputing values for individual countries in years without surveys. Wage regressions using individual income data reveal substantial returns to educational quality. By comparing educational quantity and quality across age groups, countries, and time periods, the study estimates human capital stocks. Drawing on this newly constructed human capital dataset, the paper explores the role of educational quality and human capital in explaining cross-country income gaps, confirming that educational quality exerts a significant positive effect on per capita income and economic growth.

Journal of Economic Growth is a leading publication in the fields of economic growth and comparative economic development. It specializes in high-quality research on income distribution, human capital formation, technological change, as well as the roles of geography, culture, institutions, and comparative economic development. Currently, Journal of Economic Growth ranks 3rd among all economics journals (Web of Science) and 5th (RePEc).

Author Biography

Research Institute of Economics and Management

Hanol Lee is an Associate Professor in the Department of Applied Economics at the Institute of Economics and Management, Southwestern University of Finance and Economics. He holds a PhD in Economics from Korea University. His research areas include machine learning, extreme weather events, human capital, education, growth and development, and applied econometrics. He has published numerous papers on education and human capital in authoritative international journals such as “Journal of Development Economics”, “Cities”, and “Women's Economics”. He also serves as an advisor and researcher at the Asian Development Bank, the Korea Development Institute, and the Institute of Asian Studies.