The Economic Impact of Universities: Evidence from Across the Globe

83 Pages Posted: 30 Aug 2016

See all articles by Anna Valero

Anna Valero

Center for the Protection of Human Rights (CPHR) - LSE

John Van Reenen

London School of Economics - Centre for Economic Performance (CEP); Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS); Centre for Economic Policy Research (CEPR)

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Date Written: August 2016

Abstract

We develop a new dataset using UNESCO source materials on the location of nearly 15,000 universities in about 1,500 regions across 78 countries, some dating back to the 11th Century. We estimate fixed effects models at the sub-national level between 1950 and 2010 and find that increases in the number of universities are positively associated with future growth of GDP per capita (and this relationship is robust to controlling for a host of observables, as well as unobserved regional trends). Our estimates imply that doubling the number of universities per capita is associated with 4% higher future GDP per capita. Furthermore, there appear to be positive spillover effects from universities to geographically close neighboring regions. We show that the relationship between growth and universities is not simply driven by the direct expenditures of the university, its staff and students. Part of the effect of universities on growth is mediated through an increased supply of human capital and greater innovation (although the magnitudes are not large). We find that within countries, higher historical university presence is associated with stronger pro-democratic attitudes.

Keywords: growth, Human Capital, innovation, Universities

JEL Classification: I23, I25, J24, O10, O31

Suggested Citation

Valero, Anna and Van Reenen, John Michael, The Economic Impact of Universities: Evidence from Across the Globe (August 2016). CEPR Discussion Paper No. DP11462, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=2831965

Anna Valero (Contact Author)

Center for the Protection of Human Rights (CPHR) - LSE ( email )

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John Michael Van Reenen

London School of Economics - Centre for Economic Performance (CEP) ( email )

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Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS) ( email )

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Centre for Economic Policy Research (CEPR)

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United Kingdom

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