Educational Inputs and Outcomes Before the Transition from Communism

Beirne, John; Campos, Nauro F.

doi:10.2139/ssrn.955829

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Educational Inputs and Outcomes Before the Transition from Communism

IZA Discussion Paper No. 2502

31 Pages Posted: 11 Jan 2007

See all articles by John Beirne

Nauro F. Campos

University College London; University of Michigan at Ann Arbor - The William Davidson Institute; IZA Institute of Labor Economics

There are 2 versions of this paper

Date Written: December 2006

Abstract

Conventional wisdom suggests that the stocks of human capital were one of the few positive legacies from communism. However, if factories under communism were so inefficient, why would the education system not have been? Using the education production function approach and new data on educational inputs and outcomes from 1960 to 1989, we find evidence suggesting that the official human capital stocks figures were "over-estimated" during the communist period. In other words, we find that the official human capital stock numbers are significantly higher than those predicted not only in relation to countries at similar levels of development, but also on the basis of educational systems with comparable features and efficiency levels.

Keywords: human capital, education, transition economies

JEL Classification: O11, J24, P27, P39

Suggested Citation: Suggested Citation

Beirne, John and Campos, Nauro F., Educational Inputs and Outcomes Before the Transition from Communism (December 2006). IZA Discussion Paper No. 2502, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=955829 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.955829