Education and Human Development: What are the questions?

Is progress in education synonymous with growth and human development? Do lags in educational progress lead to declines in economic attainment and prosperity? Does poor education widen the gap between rich and poor?

Even as the pace of technological change has been surprisingly steady, in periods when educational progress outpaces this change, inequality narrows. The market is flooded with skilled workers, so their wages rise modestly. In periods like the current one, when educational progress lags behind technological change, inequality widens. The relatively few skilled workers command higher prices, while the many unskilled ones have little bargaining power.

Is the source of educational decline falling school quality? Is it primarily about a shortage of funding or rising college tuition costs? Or does it begin more fundamentally at the level of family environments, which have deteriorated over the past 40 years? Some children are bathed in an atmosphere that promotes human capital development, but, increasingly, more are not. This panel addresses these complex issues.

Roger Benjamin, President and Chief Executive Officer, Council for Aid to Education
Anurag Behar, Chief Executive Officer, Azim Premji Foundation, Vice Chancellor, Premji University
James Heckman, Professor of Economics, University of Chicago
Richard Reeves, Fellow, Economic Studies and Policy Director, Center on Children and Families

Moderator: Perry Mehrling, Professor of Economics, Barnard College, Columbia University

Видео Education and Human Development: What are the questions? канала New Economic Thinking