Education and development in the caribbean: a cointegration and causality approach

Abstract

This paper uses cointegration and vector error-correction models to analyse the causal relationship between education and development in Barbados, Jamaica, and Trinidad and Tobago using annual time series data from 1964 to 1998. Expenditure on education per capita is used as the proxy for education, while gross national income (GNI) per capita is the proxy for development. The empirical results provide some evidence of bi-directional causality in the short in Jamaica. There is no evidence of causation running from per capita expenditure on education to per capita gross national income in either the short or long run in Barbados, and Trinidad and Tobago. A major policy implication of the findings is that countries with higher per capita gross national income (GNI) seem to be spending more per capita on education.