tailieunhanh - Adult education and income growth the case of Vietnam

This paper investigates the effect of adult education on income growth in developing countries worldwide with an emphasis on the case of Vietnam. The Vector Autoregressive model for panel data (Panel VAR) is employed to examine any possible two-way causality between a pair of variables. | UEH-JED January 2012 | 27 Adult Education and Income Growth The Case of Vietnam TAM BANG VU* & ERIC IKSOON IM** ABSTRACT This paper investigates the effect of adult education on income growth in developing countries worldwide with an emphasis on the case of Vietnam. The Vector Autoregressive model for panel data (Panel VAR) is employed to examine any possible two-way causality between a pair of variables. The results show that adult education raises income growth in Vietnam more than in other developing countries. On the reverse causality, we find that the effect of income growth on adult education is lower in Vietnam than in other countries. We also find that the effect of income growth on male education is less than that of the female education in Vietnam. Keywords: Adult education, income growth, developing countries, Vietnam. 1. INTRODUCTION Adult education has made great contributions to economic development worldwide, especially in terms of increasing employment and productivity. In Vietnam, it was considered one of the most important aspects of Vietnam’s education during the difficult years of wars. The government’s encouragement and propaganda among people nationwide resulted in a very high literacy rate in Vietnam during these years. Since economic reform of 1986, adult education has received less attention due to people’s focus on pursuing economic prosperity. Acutely aware of this problem, Vũ (2011) writes his article ―Three Wishes for the New Year‖ (Ba điều ước nguyện đầu Xuân) several days before his last journey to the eternity, ―do not forget that the duty to fight against illiteracy (giặc dốt) is still very important.‖ Literature on adult education worldwide is very scarce, and papers on adult education and income growth is even more difficult to find. Martin (2004) shows that urban adult education programs have proliferated in many urban centers, including new and previously unknown forms of learning * Tam Bang Vu (Vũ Băng Tâm): .