The role of higher education on economic development : theory and empirical evidence from the mena countries

Abstract EN

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the role of highereducation on economic development in the MENA countries.

The mainquestion this paper attempts to answer is whether higher educationcontributes to sustainable development in developing economies.

Althoughthe question has been extensively studied by the literature, the conclusionsare often found to be contrasting.

In other words, the body of empiricalevidence does not provide any conclusive positive role of higher education.

In this context, we revisit the evidence by (i) accounting for development pathof each economies and (ii) employing endogenous growth model.

In general, we find that the role of higher education on economic growth is differentacross countries depending on the country's position on economicdevelopment.