The role of education in economic growth (1980)

Abstract

In my speech “Technology education and capitalist industrialization: a study of the rise of technological power in Western Europe and America,” I dwelled on the relationship between education and economic growth in light of economic history. What I was driving at was that education is a major recourse for nations to groom technological personnel, and that only by putting a premium on education and the cultivation of talents can less developed nations boost their economic growth rates and catch up with and surpass the developed countries. As I put it in that speech, the role of education in economic growth has five aspects: “First, education provides society with a supply of researchers and designers who can venture into the unknown, innovating in science, renovating and transforming productive technology. Without such contingents, the best a nation can do is to tag along after other nations, but in that way you cannot score major breakthroughs in science and technology. “Second, education provides society with engineers and technicians who can master and apply advanced means of production. Without such technocrats, even if a nation has acquired sophisticated tools of production, it cannot put them to best use. “Third, education brings forth production and technology managers well adapted to society's level of industrialization. Without teams of such managers, the production process can be prone to colossal waste in human, material and financial resources, making it impossible to benefit from the superiority of advanced productive technology.