La Revue des Sciences Commerciales
Volume 16, Numéro 2, Pages 71-83
2017-06-30

The Role Of Higher Education On Economic Development: Theory And Empirical Evidence From The Mena Countries

Authors : Malki Issam .

Abstract

Abstract: The purpose of this paper is to investigate the role of higher education on economic development in the MENA countries. The main question this paper attempts to answer is whether higher education contributes to sustainable development in developing economies. Although the question has been extensively studied by the literature, the conclusions are often found to be contrasting. In other words, the body of empirical evidence does not provide any conclusive positive role of higher education. In this context, we revisit the evidence by (i) accounting for development path of each economies and (ii) employing endogenous growth model. In general, we find that the role of higher education on economic growth is different across countries depending on the country’s position on economic development.

Keywords

Economic growth, neoclassical growth model, income convergence, relative clubs of convergence, panel data.