Eric A. Hanushek

Measurement Matters: International Student Tests and Economic Growth

In a recent contribution to the International-Education blog, Eric A. Hanushek and Ludger Woessmann have examined the link between international student tests and economic growth. PISA scores are a good index of the future quality of the labor force in each country, and the quality of the labor force in turn has been shown to be a decisive factor in determining the long-run growth rates of nations. For the last quarter century, economists have focused on why some nations grow faster than others. Economic growth is what determines the future economic well-being of societies, and apparently small differences in growth rates have enormous implications for future income levels. Economic growth is tightly tied to the skills of a country’s population, and international tests such as PISA and TIMSS do a good job at measuring these important labor-force skills. Moreover, once measures of what students know are put into the growth models, years of school attainment offer no additional explanatory power. Measurement matters. This shifts the policy focus immediately from just school attainment to the more important issues of school quality.

Eric Hanushek has been a leader in the development of the economic analysis of educational issues. His research spans such diverse areas as the impacts of teacher quality, high stakes accountability and class size reduction on achievement and the role of cognitive skills in international growth and development. His pioneering analysis measuring teacher quality through student achievement forms the basis for current research into the value-added of teachers and schools.

Mr Hanushek works together with researchers in the ifo Center for the Economics of Education on several projects dealing with the influencing factors and impact of international differences in pupil performance. This work involves the conducting of econometric studies using the extensive data sets of several comparable international pupil performance tests such as PISA, PIRLS and TIMMS. For work on these projects, Mr Hanushek is a frequent guest at the ifo Institute and advises the center in all the educational-economic issues it examines. Together with the Ludger Woessmann, he is editing the forthcoming volumes of the Handbook of the Economics of Education.

A frequent guest at CESifo, Eric Hanushek is both Research Professor at the ifo Center for the Economics of Education as well as Director for the Economics of Education Area of the CESifo Research Network. He has also served on ifo’s Scientific Advisory Council. His visits to CESifo are aimed at increasing the interaction among researchers in the economics of education on both sides of the Atlantic. Mr Hanushek is a member of the National Academy of Education and a fellow of the International Academy of Education, the Society of Labor Economists and the American Education Research Association.

Eric Hanushek is the Paul and Jean Hanna Senior Fellow at the Hoover Institution of Stanford University. He is a Distinguished Graduate of the United States Air Force Academy and received his PhD in economics from MIT.