The cross-national research reported in this study explores the effects of educational expansion on economic development in a wide range of national societies. By focusing upon the institutional character of schooling, it seeks to reframe the typical vision of the economic consequences of education as exclusively resulting from more productive individuals. The research is designed to estimate the direct aggregate-level effects of primary, secondary and tertiary education on economic growth in three historical periods (1930-1950; 1955-1970; 1965-1980), under different political and economic conditions, for nation-states located in different positions of the world-system and for Third World countries with varying degrees of economic dependence. The study also examines two additional issues: first, whether countries emphasizing vocational or technical education rather than academic or general education experienced different development trajectories and second, whether the relative expansion of educational opportunities for males and females has different long-term economic consequences.;Concerning the contribution of secondary education, the evidence tends to vary by historical period and by level of development. Secondary school expansion has its most pronounced impact in developed countries and in the period of worldwide economic growth (1955-1970). Interestly, there is no evidence that the economic effects of vocational or academic education differ in any way, thus lending some support to proponents of 'credentialling' theories.;On the other hand, education on the tertiary level, has little (and many times a negative) effect on economic growth. This is equally true in more-developed and less-developed countries and under a wide range of economic and political conditions. At this level, however, the interaction with gender reverses: female tertiary education has a stronger negative effect on economic development than male tertiary education.;Possible explanations and interpretations of all these findings as well as suggestions for further research are discussed in the final sections of the study.;The main finding emerging from this investigation is that mass educational expansion--especially at the primary level--has the strongest and most consistent positive impact on economic development. The effect of primary education continues to obtain when measures of economic dependence, labor market structure, state expansion, fertility, and political development are controlled. Especially important in accounting for this fact is the growing provision of educational opportunities for girls: female educational expansion on the primary level appears to have a much stronger effect on long-term economic development than does male primary educational expansion.
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