The Role of Higher Education Institutions: Recruitment of Elites and Economic Growth

29 Pages Posted: 29 Dec 2004

See all articles by Elise S. Brezis

Elise S. Brezis

Bar-Ilan University - Department of Economics; National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER)

François Crouzet

Université Paris IV Sorbonne

Date Written: December 2004

Abstract

The aim of this paper is to examine the evolution of recruitment of elites and to investigate the nature of the links between recruitment of elites and economic growth. The main change that occurred in the way the Western world trained its elites is that meritocracy became the basis for their recruitment. Although meritocratic selection should result in the best being chosen, we show that meritocratic recruitment actually leads to class stratification and auto-recruitment. We analyze the consequences of stratification resulting from meritocratic selection for the development of a country, and show that these consequences are dependent upon the type of technological changes occurring in the country.

Keywords: economic growth, education, elites, meritocracy, recruitment, social mobility, stratification

JEL Classification: I21, O15, O40

Suggested Citation

Brezis, Elise S. and Crouzet, François, The Role of Higher Education Institutions: Recruitment of Elites and Economic Growth (December 2004). Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=641302 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.641302

Elise S. Brezis (Contact Author)

Bar-Ilan University - Department of Economics ( email )

Ramat-Gan, 52900
Israel
972-3-5318946 (Phone)
972-3-5353186 (Fax)

National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER)

1050 Massachusetts Avenue
Cambridge, MA 02138
United States

François Crouzet

Université Paris IV Sorbonne ( email )

Paris Cedex 05
France

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