The Vital Link of Education and Prosperity

One metric of the failure of American public education is that only 32% of US high-school students are proficient in math. According to Eric A. Hanushek and Paul E. Peterson's calculations, raising student test scores in the US up to the level in Canada would dramatically increase economic growth. They estimate that the additional growth dividend is equivalent to adding an average 20% to the paycheck of every worker for every year of work over the next 80 years.

Mr Hanushek, will be again visiting CESifo from 11 to 19 October, is most widely known for his analysis of the determinants of student achievement. His early analyses documented the inconsistent relationship between school resources and student outcomes. The overall finding was initially very controversial and led to many subsequent studies. Currently, available research leads to the widely accepted conclusion that how money is spent is much more important than how much money is spent. His research related to the high cost and the general ineffectiveness of class size reduction was particularly controversial and entered into a variety of on-going policy debates.

No stranger to CESifo, Mr Hanushek is both research professor at the Ifo Center for the Economics of Education as well as director of the Economics of Education Area of the CESifo Research Network. He has also served on Ifo’s Scientific Advisory Council. His frequent visits to CESifo are aimed at increasing the interaction among researchers in the economics of education on both sides of the Atlantic.

Eric Hanushek is a senior fellow at the Hoover Institution of Stanford University. He received his PhD in Economics from MIT and is a distinguished graduate of the United States Air Force Academy.