Economic Openness and Educational Expansion

This paper documents the vast expansion of schooling over the past several decades. It begins by considering international panel data and makes the observation that poor countries today have higher average education levels than countries at the same level of economic development used to have in the past. It is then argued that this trend can be attributed to the enhanced demand for schooling because of the increase in openness. The analysis of educational expansion in a cross-country framework and in China’s provinces provides support for the view that educational expansion is related to the economy’s openness.