Sample Economics Paper on Education and the Economy
Education has been one of the most important things over a decade now. Interestingly, education basics have been outlined to be the solution to many problems including our economy. However, various studies suggest that education is somehow associated with the growth of an individual. According to Easterly (2001), education is said to be useless if not used in the right way. In fact, education is capable of causing people miss out profitable goals. Notably, if some people were to skip schooling, they would have ended up victorious more than you can imagine.
Economic growth is one of the most crucial aspects that every nation tries to improve on a day to day basis but education seems to have failed to deliver the benefits expected worldwide. Important to mention, the easterly (2001) elaborate various reasons as to why education has failed to that extent. To begin with, educated people tend to fail in their duties with the essence of promoting the economy. For instance, foreign exchange industry which is controlled by well-educated people creates black market trading arrangements which lob the government profits or affect their working systems.
Secondly, the quality of education being offered nowadays is usually of low standards. Teachers are neither motivated nor paid well causing poor educational implications. Moreover, the students also are not provided with basic materials such as books to write on or pens to write with. Additionally, teaching posts are politically contested for in the better schools since educational materials are not supplied for in the poor schools. The other important reason why education has failed is that skill taught in school end up invaluable unless there is an investment somewhere demanding the skills. Moreover, George Mankiw (1992) argues that young workers are more educated than older people and should democratically have higher wages which are directly opposite.
The population is said to increase in an extraordinary manner, and according to the population specialists, devastations and famine will be experienced in the coming years. However, the Easterly seems not convinced with the prediction by pointing out that almost everyone can afford condoms since the condoms among other contraceptives are cheaper than having children. Noteworthy, he argues that most of the people having so many children in one way or another personally want to have the babies regardless of poverty.
Easterly also argues that the trending facts of a large number of unwanted births may be just a myth and points out that 90 percent of fertility which takes place across countries are accounted for by responsible individuals. Interestingly, Easterly also noted that population back in the 19th century grew rapidly, but the humanity managed to survive. He finds no empirical evidence associating population and per capita GDP growth. Additionally, technology has identified the tactical ways to produce more food on less land hence we should not be worried about population growth.
Noteworthy to mention, Easterly suggests that rich people invest more in education since they receive a higher rate of return per child hence the governments should come up with ways to invest in the children. Therefore, most of the population will gradually have fewer children and spend more of their resources to improve the life standards across the countries. Henceforth, our goals should not aim at ways to reduce our population but increase our living standards regardless of how many people are born.
Works Cited
Easterly, William. The elusive quest for growth: economists’ adventures and misadventures in the tropics. MIT press, 2001.
Mankiw, N. Gregory, David Romer, and David N. Weil.”A contribution to the empirics of economic growth.” The quarterly journal of economics 107.2 (1992): 407-437.