Education and long-run development in Japan

Abstract

This paper’s main goal is to determine the relationship between various types or levels of education and economic growth in Japan in both the pre- and postwar periods. The data utilized represents average years of schooling at the primary, secondary, tertiary, and vocational educational levels. The results indicate that primary schooling is causal with respect to growth in both the pre- and postwar period. Secondary and tertiary education have a causal impact on growth in the postwar period with the evidence strongly supporting the multiple channels via which tertiary education influenced the postwar Japanese economy. Vocational education does not seem to have had a direct effect on growth in either period. There is evidence of some causal feedback from economic growth to education at all levels as well as for vocational education in both the prewar and postwar periods.