THE EFFECTS OF EDUCATION QUALITY ON ECONOMIC GROWTH: THE PISA ASSESSMENTS APPROACH

Education, as a part of human capital, represents an opportunity to increase productivity, to build stronger social infrastructures and to ensure a long-term economic growth. Therefore, it can be understood that education and investments represents an opportunity to improve the national welfare. However, not all spending on schools are a productive investment that will produce the returns estimated. In order to maximize the benefits, it is necessary to achieve high quality levels on education for accelerating the economic growth and ensure economic stability This paper reassesses the relationship between the distribution of quality of education and the economic growth from an institutional perspective, establishing a causal relationship between PISA(1) assessments, high quality education and the economic Gross domestic product (GDP) growth. In other words, the main goal is to proof that better national educational system promotes a better national economic performance in aggregate terms, explaining why it is so profitable to invest in education.