Working Paper No. 1408

Test Scores and Economic Growth: Update and Extension

Working Paper
Reference
Heller-Sahlgren, Gabriel and Henrik Jordahl (2021). “Test Scores and Economic Growth: Update and Extension”. IFN Working Paper No. 1408. Stockholm: Research Institute of Industrial Economics (IFN).

Authors
Gabriel Heller-Sahlgren, Henrik Jordahl

Research indicates that education quality – measured by test scores in international student surveys – predicts economic growth. In this paper, we extend previous findings up to 2016 and analyse test scores of upper-secondary school students only. We find that the positive relationship between growth and test scores holds in both cases. The share of top-performing students exhibits a stronger correlation with economic growth than does the share of students who meet basic requirements.