Endogenous growth: Contributions of education to economic development in Korea and policy implications

The central focus of this research is to explore the role of human capital as a source of economic growth in Korea. This paper considers the relation of education to per-capita growth in the medium term in seven East-Asian countries. This includes in addition to basic education the relation of higher education via secondary education and R&D capital, and the relation of technology developed through R&D via higher and secondary education, especially to per-capita growth in Korea. This thesis focuses on the returns to investment in education using both the marginal product of each educational level in the production function and the relation of these to the social rate of return based on microeconomic earnings data. It specifies a production function in using a total capital approach that includes physical, human, and knowledge capital formation as well as unimproved raw labor.