Economic growth and cognitive abilities in the Brazilian states

Abstract

Http://dx.doi.org/10.5007/2175-8085.2016v19n2p1

The importance of human capital over economic growth serves as the basis for an extensive theoretical and empirical literature on economics. However, from the empirical point of view, there is no consensus on the best indicators of human capital stock. The present work seeks to observe this relationship through the cognitive abilities of the inhabitants of the Brazilian states. For this, we use as regressors in a panel data with fixed effects, the performance of students in the fourth grade of elementary school and the third year of high school in the Saeb (Basic Education Assessment System) test between 1995- 2005, together with a variable traditionally used, average years of study for people 25 years of age or older. The results show that, mainly for the results of the third year and for the average years of study, there is a relation between the stock of human capital in the Brazilian states and the growth of its GDP per capita