Cognitive Skills and Economic Growth in Colombia. a Departmental Analysis

Abstract

This paper estimates the effects of cognitive skills on the economic growth of 22 Colombian Departments between 2000 and 2019. By building a database with key variables of a modern growth model, the heterogeneity of these effects is also estimated due to: a) different areas of knowledge evaluated in Saber 11 tests, and b) different groupings of Departments based on GDP growth rates per inhabitant and size of their economies. Results are obtained such as: i) human capital measured by cognitive skills has a great positive effect on the growth rate of the Departments; (ii) years of schooling show a positive effect on the rate of economic growth, although of a smaller magnitude than that observed in cognitive skills; (iii) skills in mathematics, language and sciences have greater positive effects on growth than others; (iv); the positive effects of different classes of cognitive skills on growth, in general, are greater in Departments with higher rates of growth than in economically larger Departments.