The Impact of Higher Education on Economic Growth: A Panel Data Analysis for a Group of African Countries

Abstract

The relationship between human capital and economic growth has evoked an abundant empirical literature from the early 1990s with opposing results. In fact, most of the contributions of theoretical analyzes have affirmed that human capital plays a positive and significant role in economic growth. For our part, we plan to assess this relationship from a higher education perspective and its quality in growth and development this time around. In this regard, we tend to break down in time series the relationship between higher education and economic growth for a group of African countries which includes (Morocco, Tunisia, Senegal and Niger), covering the period 2002-2018. To do this, we opted for a panel econometric model of the type with individual fixed effects that is more suited to the structure of our data. The results we have obtained attest that the greater the stock of human capital composed by individuals arriving at university, the higher the level of GDP per head and that the latter is impacted according to the level of quality of the systems of education higher education and the economy of countries.

Keywords: human capital, economic growth, panel, GDP per capita