Human capital investment or academic marginalism? Understanding the influence of political economy on higher education in post-socialist Europe

Abstract

The purpose of this study is to examine whether the human capital theory tenets hold in Central and Eastern European countries (CEEC) that transitioned from socialist regimes to a market-based economy. The modeling approach relied on 18 years (1994–2012) of country level data collected from the World Bank, in order to explore whether the increase in labor force with tertiary education (i.e. human capital) was associated with better economic outcomes in post-socialist European countries, measured by GDP per capita. Findings from the panel data estimations indicated that, despite of the rise of GDP, the increases in the proportion of labor force with post-secondary education were not associated with this economic growth in post-socialist countries, and that the opposite was true for other European countries. Given that these findings problematize the applicability of the human capital theory in CEEC region, the recently developed theory of academic marginalism is utilized to help further explore this issue.