The Evolution of Everything: How New Ideas Emerge

by Matt Ridley

The countries with the most education simply do not show greater productivity growth than the ones with less. Each year spent in school or university should be enabling an employee to be more productive, but there is no sign of this in the economic statistics. As Wolf concludes: ‘If high-quality schooling is making any difference to the relative economic performance of countries, it is doing so in a very undramatic fashion, since its effects appear to be swamped or neutralized by other factors.’ Education clearly benefits the individual’s earning power, but it does not determine the growth rate of the whole economy. Far from seeing an economic dividend from education, Wolf finds that countries that boosted their education levels the most tended to grow more slowly than countries that neglected to increase their education spending so much. Her conclusion is stark: ‘The simple one-way relationship that so entrances our politicians and commentators – education spending in, economic growth out – simply doesn’t exist.’ She concedes of course that some education is necessary. Without good literacy and numeracy, it would not be possible for most well-paid jobs to exist. That is not the issue. Rather it is whether, beyond a certain level, more education – let alone more education spending – does more good. ‘The idea that having the most education will get you the most prosperity is a chimera,’ says Wolf. A great many jobs today are open only to graduates, although evidence suggest...