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The contribution of university rankings to country's GDP per capita

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  • Tan, Clifford

Abstract

I investigate the impact of country’s university performance in global university rankings on the country’s GDP per capita, and I found the relationship to be strong and statistically significant. Also, the relationship becomes much more significant when the ranking lists are expanded from top 100 to top 500. This suggests that as far as attaining a higher GDP per capita is concerned, it is far more pertinent for a country to have more decent universities (in the Top 500) than having only a few elite universities (in the Top 100) However, country’s university performance seems to have no effect on the GDP growth rate. Institutional factors are investigated too. Among the institutional factors, freedom from corruption appears to be the most significant factor in most cases.

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  • Tan, Clifford, 2013. "The contribution of university rankings to country's GDP per capita," MPRA Paper 53900, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    • Handle: RePEc:pra:mprapa:53900
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    More about this item

    Keywords

    GDP per capita; university ranking; ARWU; GDP growth; institution;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • I23 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Education - - - Higher Education; Research Institutions
    • I25 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Education - - - Education and Economic Development

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