Does Schooling Contribute to Economic Growth? A comparative Study in Pakistan and Afghanistan

Abstract

This article is an effort to examine the impact of schooling on economic growth of Pakistan and Afghanistan over the period of 2002–2019. Based on the nature of the data, the Ordinary Least Squares (OLS) method is applied for the estimation of unknown parameters. The empirical results reveal that education by school enrolment has significantly positive impact on economic growth, and thereby contribute to the economic growth of Pakistan and Afghanistan. The other variables namely Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) and labor force have also a positive impact on economic growth of Pakistan while its impact is found negative in case of Afghanistan, while inflation rate and population growth have negative impact on economic growth of both Pakistan and Afghanistan. Thus, the negative relationship between education and economic growth suggests that the policy makers of both countries need to make such kind of sound policies, which further reduce the negative effect of school enrollment on economic and thereby further stimulate economic growth and improve social welfare.