Please cite this paper as:

de la Fuente, A. and R. Donénech (2000), “Human Capital in Growth Regressions: How much Difference Does Data Quality Make?”, OECD Economics Department Working Papers, No. 262, OECD Publishing. doi: 10.1787/750033432084

OECD Economics Department Working Papers No. 262

Human Capital in Growth Regressions
HOW MUCH DIFFERENCE DOES DATA QUALITY MAKE?

Angel de la Fuente, Rafael Donénech

JEL Classification: I20, O30, O40

Unclassified
Organisation de Coopération et de Développement Economiques Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development

ECO/WKP(2000)35

OLIS : 12-Oct-2000 Dist. : 20-Oct-2000 ____________________________________________________________

______________________________ English text only

ECONOMICS DEPARTMENT

ECO/WKP(2000)35 Unclassified
HUMAN CAPITAL IN GROWTH REGRESSIONS: HOW MUCH DIFFERENCE DOES DATA QUALITY MAKE? ECONOMICS DEPARTMENT WORKING PAPERS NO. 262 by Angel de la Fuente and Rafael Donénech Most Economics Department Working Papers beginning with No. 144 are now available through OECD’s Internet Web site at http://ww.oecd.org/eco/eco.
English text only
96614
Document complet disponible sur OLIS dans son format d’origine Complete document available on OLIS in its original format

ECO/WKP(2000)35

ABSTRACT/RÉSUMÉ

We construct a revised version of the Barro and Lee (1996) data set for a sample of OECD countries using previously unexploited sources and following a heuristic approach to obtain plausible time profiles for attainment levels by removing sharp breaks in the data that seem to reflect changes in classification criteria. It is then shown that these revised data perform much better than the Barro and Lee (1996) or Nehru et al. (1995) series in a number of growth specifications. We interpret these results as an indication that poor data quality may be behind counterintuitive findings in the recent literature on the (lack of) relationship between educational