ea_2015_1-2


 

UDC: 330.322.3:37 
338.1 

JEL: H52, J24, I21, I22 
COBISS.SR-ID: 216162828 

ORIGINAL SCIENTIFIC PAPER 
 

Analysis of the Impact of Public Education Expenditure on 
Economic Growth of European Union and BRICS 

Tomić Zoran, Faculty of Economics, University of Niš, Serbia12 
 
 
 

ABSTRACT – Knowledge is one of the key factors for the development and progress of each of the 
world economies. Starting with the industrial revolution, more attention and resources are invested in 
the development of the education system. Economies need to invest effort and resources in the 
education system that would allow for population to prepare for participation in the economic life of 
their country. This means that investing in youth education and training for work in the economy and 
development of young people in research, development and science would contribute to the 
development of new technologies and knowledge. Development of new technologies and knowledge 
contributes to increased competitiveness of country in the global market. This paper presents a 
comparative analysis of investment funds in the education systems of the European Union and 
BRICS, and it is shown that there is a positive correlation between public expenditure on education 
and the value of GDP of the country.   
 

KEY WORDS: education, economic growth, regression analysis, European Union, BRICS 

Introduction 

Education is the process of personality change in the desired direction by adopting 
different content depending on the age and needs of individuals. Education includes 
teaching, in addition to educational facilities, depending on the age and needs of individuals. 
Education is the process by which society transmits accumulated knowledge, skills and 
values from generation to generation. In the old societies, only a small number of people, 
especially those who had the money or the time, were educated. Then the religious 
dignitaries were often the only literate group, who used the knowledge to read and interpret 
religious texts. 

Education in its modern form involves teaching in specially constructed buildings. This 
form of teaching began to grow gradually, especially after the Industrial Revolution. The 
process of industrialization and urban expansion has caused the need for special education. 
People today are working in many professions and use a variety of expertise, so it is not 
possible to transfer knowledge from parent to child, as it was in old times.  

                                                      
1Kralja Petra Prvog num.3, 37000 Kruševac, zoranzoca@gmail.com 
2Scholarship holder from the Ministry of Education, Science and Technological Development of Serbia 



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Economic Analysis (2015, Vol. 48, No. 1-2, 19-38)
  

Knowledge is now the main source of long-term economic growth of each of the world 
economies. Modern tendencies of development in market economies show that education 
and investment in human resources are among the priorities of the national strategy and 
national policy, economic and technological progress. Trends in investment in human capital 
and knowledge lead to a revision of economic theory and models. Economists are still 
looking for the basics of economic growth. The traditional "production function" focused on 
labor, material, capital and energy as the main factors. Knowledge and technology are 
external factors that impact on production. Now analytical approaches have been developed 
so that knowledge can be included directly in the production function. Investment in 
knowledge may increase the production capacity more than any other factor of production 
and to transform them into new products and processes. Because these investments in 
knowledge characterized by an increase (rather than decrease) in rate of return on 
investment, they are the key to long-term economic growth.  

The state plays a very important role in the field of education. Education is a big item in 
the expenditure budget of modern states. Jadranka Đurović-Todorović and Marina Đorđević 
(2010) note that in some countries even though the state is able to provide funds for 
educational institutions, most of the education is provided by private schools, especially 
those belonging to churches. 

Education is subject to permanent change. The sudden change of paradigm leaves little 
time to adjust. However, there are a few problems in education changes, mostly relating to 
how to preserve the good values from the previous education system and how to align the 
education system with the needs of the modern economy and society. Today in Serbian 
education system a major challenge by Đurović-Todorović and Đorđević (2010) is 
harmonizing the educational profiles curricula with labor market needs. 

The aim of this paper is to find an empirical relationship between the values of GDP and 
public expenditure on education and to what extent public spending on education to 
economic growth in the example of the European Union and BRICS and to compare. 

Education as an important factor for economic growth and development of 
countries 

The importance of education for economic development was first spotted by father of 
economics, Adam Smith. Adam Smith represented the idea of specialization of labor. 
According to Smith, the amount of annual products of a nation depends on two factors: the 
amount of labor employed in the production and productivity of labor. According to Smith, 
the first factor is of lesser importance than the other factors, as can be seen from the fact that 
people in earlier times lived much poorer than modern people, even though the percentage 
of the employed labor was much higher. Smith primarily indicates the importance of the 
division of labor, as well as first-rate factor increase in national wealth. Obrad Blagojević and 
Marko Sekulić (1990) note that many economists believe that the idea of division of labor is 
one of his greatest contributions to economic science. 

From the above it can be concluded that it is necessary to invest resources to people who 
are employed to train and educate to work in certain professions. Therefore, it is very 
important to invest in education. Even in some texts, lectures or videos on the internet we 



  
Tomić, Z., Analysis of the Impact of Public Education, EA (2015, Vol. 48, No. 1-2, 19-38) 21 

can hear that the modern school was specifically made for the needs of industrialization. In 
fact, if you compare schools have classrooms that are like production facilities in the 
factories, the bell that marks the beginning and end of classes, such as in factories that marks 
the beginning and end of the work shift, the students are divided by grade, as in factories for 
the production facilities, and students in schools are doing exactly what their task is, as in 
factories where each plant has a specific role in the production process. 

Adolph Wagner was probably the first economist to recognize the positive correlation 
between economic growth and the growth of government activity. As Magnus Henrekson 
(1993) pointed out, Wagner saw three major reasons for the increasing role of the state. First, 
industrialization and modernization would lead to an increase in private activity. 
Expenditures for law and order, as well as contractual enforcement should be increased. 
Second, the increase in real income will lead to the expansion of income elastic of "cultural 
and social welfare" expenses. Wagner said that the education and culture are two areas in 
which the government is a better controller and executor than the private sector. Dipendra 
Sinha (1998) note that natural monopolies like railroads must be controlled by the 
government, because private companies are not able to run these monopolies effectively. For 
private companies it is impossible to raise huge finances that are necessary for the 
development of natural monopolies. 

Problem of the impact of public expenditure in education many theorists have dealt with, 
and this topic now occupies one of the main topics in economic research. A lot of empirical 
studies have attempted to examine the relationship between human capital investment and 
economic growth. Sayantan Ghosh Dastidar, Sushil Mohan and Monojit Chatterji (2013) in 
their work present that relationship is tested in countries such as the United States 
(Jorgenson and Fraumeni), and Pakistan (Aziz Khan and Aziz), Tanzania and Zambia (Jung 
and Thorbecke), Nigeria (Ogujiuba and Adeniii) and India (Chandra) and that results from 
these papers suggest that expenditure on education affects economy growth positively. 
Fiszbein and Psacharopoulos conducted a study to assess the effects of educational 
investment in Venezuela and found that investments in primary education had the largest 
impact on growth and investment in higher education yields the lowest among the three 
levels of education. Distidar,Mohan and Chatterji (2013) found in India that investing in 
education is a necessary but not a significant condition for achieving economic growth. 
Other factors have a significant impact on economic growth in addition to education. 
Oluwatobi Stephen and Ogunrinola Oluranti (2011) for Nigeria found that there is a positive 
relationship between the growth of expenditures for education and economic growth using 
an expanded model of economic reproduction, where they add to the analysis impact of 
costs of education and health care. Dipendra Sinha (1998) found in Malaysia that there is a 
long-term relationship between the cost of education and economic growth, but that there is 
no mutual relationship between the increase in the cost of education and economic growth. 
Avina Sabah Idrees and Muhammad Wasif Siddiqi (2013) based on panel analysis found that 
there is a positive relationship between the rising cost of education and economic growth, 
and there is the effect of reaching the developed economies based on the investment in 
education. In their analysis they observed countries UK, USA, Canada, Germany, France, 
Italy and Japan, on the one hand, and Pakistan, India, China, Turkey, Russia, Poland and 
South Africa, on the other hand. Abhijeet Chandra (2010) found that India’s boom in 
software industry experienced probably due to the huge investments in the 1950s and 1960s 



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Economic Analysis (2015, Vol. 48, No. 1-2, 19-38)
  

in education, particularly in technical sciences. There are also works like and Nurudeen 
Usman and Belgrave and Craigvell, which found that the impact of education expenditures 
on growth is negative. 

In addition to studying the impact of the increase in public expenditure of education to 
economic growth, there are works such as Michel Beine et.al. (2001) dealing with the 
problem of brain drain and its impact on economic growth. This is one of the big problems 
for the growth of the economy of countries like Serbia. 

Theories of economic growth and Lucas' model 

Dragan Kitanović and Nataša Golubović (2006) define economic growth as the increase of 
the potential products of an economy, and moving to the right of its production possibilities 
curve. Economic growth can be quantified, primarily by calculating the growth rate of gross 
domestic product, growth rate of GDP per capita, national income per capita and etc. The 
theory of economic growth has occupied an important place in classical economic theory. 
Within the classical aproach there are three main factors of economic growth: labor, land and 
capital. Economists of classical school did not take in account technological progress, as well 
as the development of human capital, which is one of the main objections to their theory. 
According to Marxist school on economic growth was influenced by a number of variables, 
but chief among them was the rate of profit. For Marx it was the constant tendency of capital 
accumulation and a steady increase in the organic composition of capital, which is not 
accompanied by a corresponding increase of workers income. 

Neoclassical growth model is based on the model of the economy in which production is 
carried out with the use of capital and labor. Also taking into account the progress of 
technology, but which has been conditioned by exogenously. This theory has experienced 
criticism primarily by post-Keynesians, but the biggest criticism was the observation of 
technological progress as exogenous factors of economic growth. Schumpeter was 
particularly emphasized the importance of investments to improve the quality of capital 
goods, ie. innovation. The implementation of "new combinations" of resources is the primary 
force that encourages economic growth. 

Keynes represented the view that public expenditure as an exogenous factor can be used 
as a policy tool to promote economic growth. Public expenditure can positively contribute to 
economic growth. Thus, the increase in government spending is likely to lead to increased 
employment, profitability and investment through multiple effects on aggregate demand. As 
a result, government spending increases aggregate demand, which causes increased 
production depending on the expenditure multiplier. 

The new theory is "endogenous growth theory" which differs from the neoclassical 
theory, because assuming that the technological change endogenously conditioned, able to 
explain the continued growth of per capita income in some countries, on the one hand, and 
persistent survival disparity in the level of pre capita income among countries, on the other 
hand. The basic model of "endogenous growth" according to Kitanović and Golubović (2006) 
includes human capital as a separate factor in the production function. Investment in 
education by the state, participating in the creation of an adequate educational program 
surely is a key factor for improving human capital, which leads to increased productivity 
and getting the necessary technological innovation to further economic growth. 



  
Tomić, Z., Analysis of the Impact of Public Education, EA (2015, Vol. 48, No. 1-2, 19-38) 23 

Lucas, along with Romero, is one of the creators of the theory of endogenous growth. In 
Lucas' model, human capital is seen as a factor of production and knowledge is central to 
accelerating economic growth. According to Lucas' model engine of economic growth is 
human capital. People can use their time for work and training (i.e., research and practice). 
The relationship between these activities to individuals in an economy to make depends on 
the institutional structure and characteristics of the labor market and the economy. 

In this paper we performed a quantitative analysis of the impact of public spending on 
education in the economic growth of the economy in the example of the European Union, 
USA and Japan, as the largest economies in the world. 

Model 

In research is used a model that is derived from the classical production function. In this 
case, the movement of the value of production in the economy depending on the cost of 
public education is observed.  

 
f(EDU)  =Y           (1) 

 
where Y is a production function of one of the country, and EDU represents public 
expenditure on education in the country. When this model is transformed into logarithmic 
from (1): 

 
µββ ++= )log(  )log( 10 EDUGDP        (2) 

 
where 0β  is constant intercept term, 1β  slope coefficient and µ is error. Slope coefficient tells 
us how much it will increase the value of GDP if we increase the value of public spending on 
education. This paper uses costs of the public sector, because the private sector costs difficult 
to measure and obtain the necessary data, and because in most countries the greatest interest 
in investing in education is the state, and it bears most of the costs. 

In this paper, the analysis is performed on the European Union and 28 member states, for 
BRICS countries and Serbia. It also provides an overview of information on investing 
countries in different levels of education. The regression analysis was applied, which was 
made in the program ORIGIN 9. 

Analysis of the model 

The analysis of public expenditure on education in the EU Member States and 
the European Union as a whole 

In the countries of the European Union knowledge-based economy is a strategic task. The 
Bologna declaration on higher education from June 1999 marked the beginning of a new 
enhanced European cooperation. Đurović-Todorović and Đorđević (2010) say that 
educational system of each country can be divided into three main sectors: 

 



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Economic Analysis (2015, Vol. 48, No. 1-2, 19-38)
  

• public education 
• private education in which the state participates with 50% and 
• private education (independent schools)  

In the European Union education is the responsibility of the Member States. EU 
institutions have importance in supporting of education. According to Article 165 of the 
Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union, the Community will contribute to the 
development of quality education by encouraging cooperation between Member States, 
through activities such as promoting the mobility of citizens, designing joint study 
programs, establishing networks, exchanging information or teaching languages of the 
European Union. The contract includes a commitment to promote lifelong learning for all 
citizens of EU.  

The EU funds educational, professional and public construction programs that encourage 
EU citizens to seize the opportunities offered by the EU to its residents to live, learn and 
work in other countries. The most famous of these is the Erasmus program, under which 
more than two million students have participated in the inter-university exchanges and 
mobility in the last 20 years. Since 2000, awareness of the importance of education and 
training in order to exercise economic and social objectives, the EU member states have 
started to work together to achieve a series of 13 specific objectives in the field of education. 
This is called the Education and Training 2010 program. Sharing good practices by 
participating in peer education activities, by setting benchmarks and monitoring progress of 
key indicators, the 28 member countries aim to respond to coherent common challenges, 
while retaining their individual sovereignty in the area of educational policy. The European 
Union is also a partner in a variety of intergovernmental projects, including the Bologna 
process which aims to create a European Higher Education Area by harmonizing academic 
degree standards and structures, as well as academic quality assurance standards across the 
EU Member States and in other European Countries3. 

Main education priorities of the EU countries are: 

• strengthening vocational education and training, 
• increase transparency of professional education and training through the 

implementation and rationalization of information networks, 
• improving policies, systems and practices in the approach to learning, the 

professional education and training, 
• promote cooperation in assurance of quality in education, 

• supporting the professional development of staff, etc. 
For the analysis of the European Union we used the data obtained from Euro Stat of the 

GDP values for the period from 2002 to 2011, as well as the amount of public expenditure on 
education for the period 2002 - 2011 expressed as a percentage of GDP. The used data are 
shown in table 1. 
 

                                                      
3  



  
Tomić, Z., Analysis of the Impact of Public Education, EA (2015, Vol. 48, No. 1-2, 19-38) 25 

Table 1.GDP and public expenditure on education for EU, 2002 - 2011 

Year 
GDP 

(in mil €) 

Public 
expenditure on 
education (% 

GDP) 

Public 
expenditure on 

primary 
education  
(% GDP) 

Public 
expenditure on 

secondary 
education  
(% GDP) 

Public 
expenditure on 

higher 
education  
(% GDP) 

2002 9,983,702.30 5.00 1.13 2.27 1.12 
2003 10,151,451.90 5.03 1.15 2.29 1.11 
2004 10,658,018.60 4.95 1.14 2.23 1.10 
2005 11,128,703.00 4.92 1.13 2.20 1.12 
2006 11,764,657.30 4.91 1.15 2.17 1.10 
2007 12,473,648.90 4.92 1.15 2.17 1.11 
2008 12,548,545.70 5.04 1.17 2.22 1.14 
2009 11,815,746.60 5.38 1.24 2.39 1.21 
2010 12,337,150.70 5.41 1.23 2.37 1.25 
2011 12,711,206.20 5.25 1.19 2.23 1.27 

Source: Euro Stat http://epp.eurostat.ec.europa.eu/portal/page/portal/eurostat/home/, data processed 
by author (accessed October 1, 2014) 
 

Based on the obtained data it can be concluded that by 2008 the average of 5% of GDP for 
education was used to finance in 28 countries members of the European Union. Since 2009, 
after the economic crisis, EU has increased the allocation of funds for education, which may 
be related to the importance of education to obtain the competitive advantage of the EU 
Member States in relation to the rest of the world economy to recover from the economic 
crisis. In addition that is the period when there was an increase in the unemployment rate in 
all EU member states. Most of the funds were allocated for secondary education (2.17 to 
2.39%), which indicates the importance of this level of education. At the secondary level of 
education young people gain expertise in areas that will be in their professional career to 
deal with, but also in that period they become capable of working. For basic and higher 
education almost the same amount of fund is used. The largest expenditure on secondary 
education can be explained by the fact that the present system of private financing of 
education of young people and that higher education is not compulsory. EU aims to reach by 
2020 40% of the population are higher educated, and therefore should not be surprising that 
there is a growing trend when it comes to public funding of higher education. 
 



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Economic Analysis (2015, Vol. 48, No. 1-2, 19-38)
  

Figure 1. Graphic of GDP amount and cost of education in the EU 28 per year 

2002 2004 2006 2008 2010 2012
0

140000

280000

420000

560000

10000000

12000000

14000000

16000000

18000000

20000000

GDP
Public education expenses
Public primary education expenses
Public secondary education expenses
Public higher education expenses

M
ill

io
n
 €

Year

 

Application of the model in case of the European Union and the member states 
of the European Union 

The analysis starts from the null hypothesis, which states that the total value of public 
education spending does not significantly affect the value of the observed GDP of the 
country. The analysis used the logarithmic values of the GDP of the European Union and the 
logarithm of the absolute value of the principal amount of expenditure for the period 2002 - 
2011. By applying multiple regression analysis of the model (2) we obtained the following 
values of the parameters: 
 

Table 2. The parameter values of the regression analysis for EU 28 

Parameter Value Error t-statistics Probability  

0β  2.58353 0.52380 4.93232 0.0012 

1β  0.77645 0.09082 8.54894 0.0000 
R 0.94939    

Source:Data processed by author from 
EuroStathttp://epp.eurostat.ec.europa.eu/portal/page/portal/eurostat/home/, (accessed October 1, 
2014) 
 

The obtained values tell us that there is a positive correlation between the observed value 
and the value of investments in education significantly affects the value of GDP for the EU28. 
The probability of t-value of the regression coefficient is 0.0000, which is less than the 
significance level of 0.05, which confirms that the costs of education significantly affect the 
value of the observed GDP of the country; in this case we reject the null hypothesis. The 
value of the parameter tells us that if there is an increase in expenditure on education by 1% 
would be an increase in log (GDP) of the EU 28 to 0.77%. The coefficient of determination 
further confirms the high correlation between the observed size and degree of correlation 
observed data. 

The following table gives a presentation of the obtained values of parameters for each 
member country of the European Union observed individually. We apply the same method 



  
Tomić, Z., Analysis of the Impact of Public Education, EA (2015, Vol. 48, No. 1-2, 19-38) 27 

and logarithmic values for the amount of the GDP of the public expenditure on education. 
Analysis was carried out in the program ORIGIN 9. 

 
Table 3. The values of the parameters of the regression analysis for the member states of the European 

Union 

Country/period Parameter Value Error t-statistics Probability  

Austria 
(1995-2011) 

0β  2.42007 0.59208 4.08741 0.0001 
1β  1.04697 0.06244 16.76707 0.0000 

R 0.97260    

Belgium 
(2001 - 2011) 

0β  5.17062 0.48839 10.58709 0.0000 

1β  0.75814 0.04947 15.32444 0.0000 
R 0.95899    

Bulgaria 
(1992 - 2011) 

0β  3.81162 0.38295 9.9532 0.0000 
1β  0.91115 0.05495 16.58232 0.0000 

R 0.98403    

Czech Republic 
(1996 - 2011) 

0β  3.41425 0.31093 10.98091 0.0000 
1β  0.97075 0.03766 25.77397 0.0000 

R 0.98963    

Denmark 
(1995 - 2011) 

0β  3.60350 0.44676 8.06584 0.0000 
1β  0.88539 0.04627 19.13432 0.0000 

R 0.98012    

Estonia 
(1993 - 2011) 

0β  2.57688 0.18457 13.96168 0.0000 
1β  1.05423 0.03076 34.27395 0.0000 

R 0.99284    

Finland 
(1991 - 2011) 

0β  2.02215 0.49168 4.11274 0.0006 
1β  1.07870 0.05435 19.84583 0.0000 

R 0.97672    

France 
(1991 - 2011) 

0β  2.63329 0.39265 6.70644 0.0000 
1β  1.01830 0.03456 29.46617 0.0000 

R 0.98923    

Greece 
(1995 - 2005) 

0β  5.53809 0.28939 19.1369 0.0000 
1β  0.74186 0.03426 21.65679 0.0000 

R 0.99054    

Netherland 
(1991 - 2011) 

0β  4.41575 0.29019 15.21652 0.0000 
1β  0.85233 0.02900 29.38867 0.0000 

R 0.98918    

Croatia 
(2002 - 2011) 

0β  4.83044 0.21221 22.76285 0.0000 
1β  0.77851 0.02882 27.01407 0.0000 

R 0.99456    



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Country/period Parameter Value Error t-statistics Probability  

Ireland 
(1995 - 2011) 

0β  4.67164 0.66186 7.05836 0.0000 
1β  0.80914 0.07614 10.62638 0.0000 

R 0.93954    

Italy 
(1991 - 2011) 

0β  0.91832 0.90234 1.01771 0.3216 
1β  1.19519 0.08236 14.51145 0.0000 

R 0.95773    

Cyprus 
(1995 - 2011) 

0β  5.05524 0.13218 38.24534 0.0000 
1β  0.65173 0.01991 32.72912 0.0000 

R 0.99307    

Latvia 
(1992 - 2011) 

0β  2.90361 0.19899 14.59143 0.0000 
1β  0.99763 0.03223 30.95326 0.0000 

R 0.99074    

Lithuania  
(1993 - 2011) 

0β  2.95616 0.18844 15.68783 0.0000 
1β  0.99680 0.02856 34.90756 0.0000 

R 0.99310    

Luxembourg 
(1995 - 2011) 

0β  0.99767 0.46843 2.12981 0.0546 
1β  1.33602 0.06783 19.69685 0.0000 

R 0.98488    

Hungary 
(1992 - 2011) 

0β  2.70274 0.42606 6.34349 0.0000 
1β  1.02995 0.05301 19.42903 0.0000 

R 0.97698    

Malta 
(1998 - 2011) 

0β  5.83850 0.30448 19.17522 0.0000 
1β  0.47900 0.05441 8.80325 0.0000 

R 0.93055    

Germany 
(1999 - 2011) 

0β  6.89314 0.86364 7.98151 0.0000 
1β  0.66907 0.07465 8.96261 0.0000 

R 0.93785    

Poland 
(1995 - 2011) 

0β  3.42800 0.27239 12.58510 0.0000 
1β  0.95149 0.02926 32.51554 0.0000 

R 0.99298    

Portugal 
(1995 - 2011) 

0β  2.29273 0.42223 6.93282 0.0000 
1β  1.00085 0.04746 21.08611 0.0000 

R 0.98355    

Romania 
(1999 - 2011) 

0β  4.40787 0.39950 11.03346 0.0000 
1β  0.86593 0.05117 16.92169 0.0000 

R 0.98465    

Slovakia 
(1993 - 2011) 

0β  2.57600 0.25723 10.01422 0.0000 
1β  1.08452 0.03613 30.01596 0.0000 



  
Tomić, Z., Analysis of the Impact of Public Education, EA (2015, Vol. 48, No. 1-2, 19-38) 29 

Country/period Parameter Value Error t-statistics Probability  
R 0.99070    

Slovenia 
(2001 - 2011) 

0β  1.94547 0.63310 3.07294 0.0133 
1β  1.12505 0.08501 13.23465 0.0000 

R 0.97526    

Spain 
(1992 - 2011) 

0β  3.21737 0.41869 7.68433 0.0000 
1β  0.98837 0.04041 24.46054 0.0000 

R 0.96917    

Sweden 
(1991 - 2011) 

0β  1.56319 0.42933 3.64099 0.0017 
1β  1.10939 0.04369 25.38963 0.0000 

R 0.98558    

United 
Kingdom 
(1991 - 2011) 

0β  3.80688 0.57116 6.66518 0.0000 

1β  0.92427 0.05102 18.11455 0.0000 
R 0.97225    

Source: Data processed by author from 
EuroStathttp://epp.eurostat.ec.europa.eu/portal/page/portal/eurostat/home/ (accessed October 1, 2014) 
 

Based on the analysis, it can be concluded that the conclusions that are valid for the 
European Union apply to the EU's member states. The correlation coefficients (R) range in 
values of 0.95 to finding indicating a high correlation observed data and the positive value of 
correlation suggests that changes in the value of public expenditure on education has a 
positive impact on the change in GDP observed countries. The values for all the countries 
under consideration are statistically significant because the probability of t-value is less than 
0.05.For countries such as Italy, Luxembourg probability value of t-value for the parameter 
βo is greater than 0.05. 

Analysis of public spending on education and model in the BRICS countries 

BRICS is the English abbreviation and economic term that refers to the growing 
development of the economic potential of Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa. 
Implicitly, concerns the economic alliance of these complementary economies. The term was 
introduced by Jim O'Neill of the Corporation for the global financial research Goldman 
Sachs, and was quickly accepted by the public, especially the media, to the extent that the 
majority of news sources from global finance used without much explanation. The meeting 
of officials of these countries, held in the summer of 2008 in Yekaterinburg, called the BRIC 
summit. The group originally consisted of Brazil, Russia, India and China. South Africa is a 
member of this group of 13 April 2011. 

Below will be analyzed for each country individually. 

In the analysis of the contribution of public expenditure in the case of Brazil was 
observed period from 2004 - 2011. 

 



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Table 4. GDP and public expenditure on education in Brazil, 2004 - 2011 

Year GDP (in mill. $) Public expenditure on education (% GDP) 
2004 663,760.34 4.0 
2005 882,185.70 4.5 
2006 1,088,916.82 5.0 
2007 1,366,824.00 5.1 
2008 1,653,508.56 5.4 
2009 1,620,188.06 5.6 
2010 2,143,067.87 5.8 

Source: The World Bank 
http://data.worldbank.org/indicator/NY.GDP.MKTP.CD/countries?display=default (accessed 
October 1, 2014) 

 
Figure 2. Graphic of GDP amount and cost of education in Brazil by year 

2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010
0

20000

40000

60000

80000

100000

120000
500000

1000000

1500000

2000000

2500000

M
ill

io
n
 $

Year

 GDP
 Public education expenses

 
In percentage terms, Brazil set aside 5.06% of GDP for education, which is the average of 

the European Union. In the reporting period it can be observed upward trend in 
expenditures for education, both in absolute terms and in percentage values of the GDP of 
Brazil. It can be said that investment in education is certainly one of the key factors that led 
Brazil to the sixth position in the development of economy in the world. 

The analysis used the logarithmic values of the GDP of Brazil and the logarithmic values 
of absolute principal amount of expenditure for the period 1995 - 2010. By applying multiple 
regression analysis and the model (2) in the above examples are obtained the following 
values of the parameters. 

 
Table 5. The values of the parameters of the regression analysis for Brazil 

Parameter Value Error t-statistics Probability  

0β  5.61954 0.15202 36.96493 0.0000 

1β  0.76147 0.01425 53.46357 0.0000 
R 0.99808    

Source: Data processed by author from  The World Bank 
http://data.worldbank.org/indicator/NY.GDP.MKTP.CD/countries?display=default (accessed October 
1, 2014) 



  
Tomić, Z., Analysis of the Impact of Public Education, EA (2015, Vol. 48, No. 1-2, 19-38) 31 

The obtained values tell us that there is a positive correlation between the observed value 
and the value of his investments in education significantly affects the value of GDP for 
Brazil. The probability of t-value of the regression coefficient is 0.0000, which is less than the 
significance level of 0.05, which confirms that the costs of education significantly affect the 
value of the observed GDP of the country. The value of the parameter tells us that if there is 
an increase in expenditure on education by 1% would be an increase in log (GDP) of Brazil 
by 0.76%. The coefficient of determination confirms that there is a positive correlation 
between the observed data. 

In the analysis of the contribution of public expenditure in the case of India was observed 
period from 2003 - 2006. 

 
Table 6. GDP and public expenditure on education in India, 2003 - 2006 

Year GDP (in mill. $) Public expenditure on education (% GDP) 
2003 618,356.47 3.6 
2004 721,585.61 3.3 
2005 834,215.01 3.1 
2006 949,116.77 3.1 

Source: Data processed by author from  The World Bank 
http://data.worldbank.org/indicator/NY.GDP.MKTP.CD/countries?display=default (accessed 
October 1, 2014) 

 

Figure 3. Graphic of GDP amount and cost of education in India by year 

2003 2004 2005 2006
0

10000

20000

30000

600000

700000

800000

900000

1000000

M
ill

io
n
 $

Year

 GDP
 Public education expenses

 
In percentage terms, India set aside of 3.3% of GDP for education, which is below the 

average of the European Union and Brazil. In the reporting period it can be observed 
upward trend in the expenditures for education in absolute terms. In the analysis of the 
applicability of the model were used logarithmic values of GDP India and logarithmic values 
of absolute principal amount of expenditure for the period 1997 - 2011. By applying multiple 
regression analysis and the model is presented by (2) in the above examples are obtained the 
following values of the parameters. 



32
  

Economic Analysis (2015, Vol. 48, No. 1-2, 19-38)
  

Table 6. The values of the parameters of the regression analysis for India 

Parameter Value Error t-statistics Probability  

0β  3.18113 0.85151 3.73588 0.0047 

1β  1.01915 0.08348 12.20772 0.0000 
R 0.97111    

Source: Data processed by author from The World Bank 
http://data.worldbank.org/indicator/NY.GDP.MKTP.CD/countries?display=default (accessed October 
1, 2014) 

 

The obtained values tell us that there is a positive correlation between the observed value 
and the value of his investments in education significantly affects the value of the GDP of 
India. The probability of t-value of the regression coefficient is 0.0000, which is less than the 
significance level of 0.05, which confirms that the costs of education significantly affect the 
value of the observed GDP of the country. The value of the parameter tells us that if there is 
an increase in expenditure on education by 1% would be an increase in log (GDP) of India 
for 1.02%. The coefficient of determination confirms that there is a positive correlation 
between the observed data. 

In the analysis of the contribution of public expenditure in the case of South Africa was 
observed period from 1999 - 2011. 

 
Table 7. GDP and public expenditure on education in South Africa, 1999-2011 

Year GDP (in mill. $) Public expenditure on education (% GDP) 
1999 133,183.58 6.0 
2000 132,877.64 5.6 
2000 118,478.99 5.3 
2001 111,100.86 5.2 
2002 168,219.32 5.1 
2003 219,092.94 5.3 
2004 247,051.56 5.3 
2005 261,007.04 5.3 
2006 286,171.83 5.2 
2007 273,141.75 5.1 
2008 284,183.10 5.5 
2009 365,208.43 6.0 
2010 403,894.32 6.2 
2011 133,183.58 6.0 

Source: Data processed by author from The World Bank 
http://data.worldbank.org/indicator/NY.GDP.MKTP.CD/countries?display=default (accessed 
October 1, 2014) 

 



  
Tomić, Z., Analysis of the Impact of Public Education, EA (2015, Vol. 48, No. 1-2, 19-38) 33 

Figure 4. Graphic of GDP amount and cost of education in South Africa by years 

 

1998 2000 2002 2004 2006 2008 2010 2012
0

5000

10000

15000

20000

25000

100000

150000

200000

250000

300000

350000

400000

450000

M
ill

io
n
 $

Year

 GDP
 Public education expenses

 
In percentage terms, South Africa invests 5.5% of GDP for education, which is the 

average of the European Union. In the reporting period it can be observed upward trend in 
the expenditures for education in absolute terms. In the analysis of the applicability of the 
model were used logarithmic values of the GDP of South Africa and the logarithmic values 
of absolute principal amount of expenditure for the period 1991 - 2011. By applying multiple 
regression analysis and the model (2) in the above examples are obtained the following 
values of the parameters. 

 

Table 8. The values of the parameters of the regression analysis for South Africa 

Parameter Value Error t-statistics Probability  

0β  3.04033 0.25257 12.03774 0.0000 

1β  0.98389 0.02680 36.70966 0.0000 
R 0.99448    

Source: Data processed by author from The World Bank 
http://data.worldbank.org/indicator/NY.GDP.MKTP.CD/countries?display=default (accessed October 
1, 2014) 

 

The obtained values tell us that there is a positive correlation between the observed value 
and the value of his investments in education significantly affects the value of GDP for South 
Africa. The probability of t-value of the regression coefficient is 0.0000, which is less than the 
significance level of 0.05, which confirms that the costs of education significantly affect the 
value of the observed GDP of the country. The value of the parameter tells us that if there is 
an increase in expenditure on education by 1% would be an increase in log (GDP) of South 
Africa by 0.98%. The coefficient of determination confirms that there is a positive correlation 
between the observed data. 

In the analysis of the contribution of public expenditure in the case of Russia was 
observed period from 2000 - 2006. 
 



34
  

Economic Analysis (2015, Vol. 48, No. 1-2, 19-38)
  

Table 9. GDP and public expenditure on education in Russia, 2000 - 2006 

Year GDP (in mill. $) Public expenditure on education (% GDP) 
2000 259.708,50 2.9 
2000 306,602.67 3.3 
2001 345,110.44 3.5 
2002 430,347.77 3.4 
2003 591,016.69 3.5 
2004 764,000.90 3.8 
2005 989,930.54 3.9 
2006 259,708.50 2.9 

Source: Data processed by author from The World Bank 
http://data.worldbank.org/indicator/NY.GDP.MKTP.CD/countries?display=default (accessed 
October 1, 2014) 

 
Figure 5. Graphic of GDP amount and cost of education in Russia by years 

2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006
0

5000
10000
15000
20000
25000
30000
35000

200000

400000

600000

800000

1000000

M
ill

io
n
 $

Year

 GDP
 Public education expenses

 
In percentage terms in Russia 3.4% of GDP is allocated for education, which is well below 

the EU average. In the observed period upward trend in the allocation of funds for education 
in absolute terms can be seen. In the analysis of the applicability of the model were used 
logarithmic values of GDP of Russia and the logarithmic values of absolute principal amount 
of expenditure for the period 2000 - 2008. By applying multiple regression analysis and the 
model (2) in the above examples are obtained the following values of the parameters. 

 
Table 10. The values of the parameters of the regression analysis for Russia 

Parameter Value Error t-statistics Probability  

0β  4.70764 0.19903 23.65263 0.0000 

1β  0.86191 0.02010 42.89189 0.0000 
R 0.99837    

Source:Data processed by author from The World Bank 
http://data.worldbank.org/indicator/NY.GDP.MKTP.CD/countries?display=default (accessed October 
1, 2014) 



  
Tomić, Z., Analysis of the Impact of Public Education, EA (2015, Vol. 48, No. 1-2, 19-38) 35 

The obtained values tell us that there is a positive correlation between the observed value 
and the value of his investments in education significantly affects the value of GDP for 
Russia. The probability of t-value of the regression coefficient is 0.0000, which is less than the 
significance level of 0.05, which confirms that the costs of education significantly affect the 
value of the observed GDP of the country. The value of the parameter tells us that if there is 
an increase in expenditure on education by 1% would be an increase in log (GDP) of Russia 
by 0.86%. The coefficient of determination confirms that there is a positive correlation 
between the observed data. 

In the analysis of the contribution of public expenditure in the case of China was 
observed period from 1992 - 1996. 

 
Table 11.GDP and public expenditure on education in China, 1992 - 1996 

Year GDP (in mill. $) Public expenditure on education (% GDP) 
1992 422,660.55 1.7 
1993 440,501.21 1.7 
1994 559,224.20 2.0 
1995 728,007.55 1.9 
1996 856,084.63 1.9 

Source: Data processed by author from The World Bank 
http://data.worldbank.org/indicator/NY.GDP.MKTP.CD/countries?display=default (accessed 
October 1, 2014) 

 
Figure6.Graphic of GDP amount and cost of education in China by years 

1992 1993 1994 1995 1996
0

2000
4000
6000
8000

10000
12000
14000
16000

300000

400000

500000

600000

700000

800000

900000

M
ill

io
n
 $

Year

 GDP
 Public education expenses

 
In percentage terms in China allocates an average of 1.84% of GDP for education. In the 

observed period can be observed upward trend in the allocation of funds for education in 
absolute terms. In the analysis of the applicability of the model were used logarithmic values 
of the GDP of China and the logarithmic values of absolute principal amount of expenditure 
for the period 1992 - 1999. By applying multiple regression analysis and the model (2) in the 
above examples are obtained the following values of the parameters. 
 



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Economic Analysis (2015, Vol. 48, No. 1-2, 19-38)
  

Table12. The values of the parameters of the regression analysis for China 

Parameter Value Error t-statistics Probability  

0β  4.98414 0.42257 11.79476 0.0000 

1β  0.89458 0.04467 20.02555 0.0000 
R 0.99382    

Source: Data processed by author from The World Bank 
http://data.worldbank.org/indicator/NY.GDP.MKTP.CD/countries?display=default (accessed October 
1, 2014) 
 

The obtained values tell us that there is a positive correlation between the observed value 
and the value of his investments in education significantly affects the value of GDP for 
China. The probability of t-value of the regression coefficient is 0.0000, which is less than the 
significance level of 0.05, which confirms that the costs of education significantly affect the 
value of the observed GDP of the country. The value of the parameter tells us that if there is 
an increase in expenditure on education by 1% would be an increase in log (GDP) of Russia 
by 0.89%. The coefficient of determination confirms that there is a positive correlation 
between the observed data. It is necessary to get to the more recent data and do further 
analysis to confirm the existing result. 

In a previous paper Zoran Tomic (2014) found for USA and Japan that null hypothesis is 
rejected, i.e. there is a positive correlation between public expenditure on education and 
GDP growth. In the case of the US 1% increase in the cost of education is achieved GDP 
growth of 0.78% and Japan with increasing the amount of expenditures of 1% leads to an 
increase in GDP by 0.81%. Based on this, we can see that the highest growth has India 
(1.02%). If we take into account the individual EU member Luxembourg has the highest 
growth of 1.33% to 1% of the additional costs in education. Brazil has the smallest growth 
with 0.77%, and from the EU is Malta with 0.47% growth. 

Conclusion 

Knowledge is a key factor for the improvement and development of each of the world 
economy. The significance of knowledge and education was spoken by Adam Smith, who 
represented need to divide the work among the people. Today, an important question arises 
about all these activities, education and the education system to economic growth and 
development of each country. Education and the education system helps and contributes to 
empower people to work in the economy, but also with the knowledge that they have and 
the resources contribute to the technological development that will allow the country's 
economy to develop and to have competitive an advantage. Also a big problem today is the 
problem of brain drain which is also a challenge for new research in this area. 

Based on the analysis for European Union, USA, Japan and BRIKS, it was found that 
there is a positive correlation between the amount of public expenditure on education and 
economic growth in these countries. It was found that among India in BRIKS group, Italy, 
Luxembourg and Slovenia within the EU, achieved the highest economic growth, because a 
1% increase in public expenditure on education comes up more than 1% growth in the value 



  
Tomić, Z., Analysis of the Impact of Public Education, EA (2015, Vol. 48, No. 1-2, 19-38) 37 

of log (GDP). Observed between groups of the European Union, USA and Japan, the largest 
growth is achieved in Japan with 0.87% growth in log (GDP), while the lowest growth is 
achieved in EU (as a group), where the increase in expenditure on education by 1%, the 
growth of log (GDP) for the 0.77%. In subsequent research should expand the number of 
countries that will be covered by the panel and perform analysis among the countries 
themselves on the contribution of public expenditure on education to economic growth. It 
was also found that most funds allocated for secondary education, which can be explained 
by the fact that post-secondary education young people are trained to work in the economy 
or for further education. 

Among the surveyed countries Malta achieved the lowest growth which can be best 
explained by the very size of economy, the structure of the economy, population size and so 
on. To further confirm the above results it is necessary to include additional information in 
the analysis (the period after 2011 and the period before 1991), which will provide direction 
for further research into this issue, as well as the inclusion of other factors that lead to 
economic growth of countries (health care costs, the costs of Science, etc.) and thus further 
develop the model. 

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Economic Analysis (2015, Vol. 48, No. 1-2, 19-38)
  

Conference SCIENCE AND HIGHER EDUCATION IN FUNCTION OF SUSTAINABLE 
DEVELOPMENT, Business and Technical College of Vocation Studies, Užice, Serbia. 

 
 
 

Analiza uticaja javnih troškova obrazovanja na privredni rast 
u Evropske unije i BRIKS zemalja 

 
 

REZIME – Znanje je jedan od ključnih faktora za razvoj i napredak svake odsvetskih ekonomija. 
Počevši sa industrijskom revolucijom, više pažnje i sredstava ulaže se u razvoj obrazovnog sistema. 
Ekonomije trebaju da ulože napor i sredstva u obrazovni sistemu koji bi omogućio stanovništvu da se 
što bolje pripremi za učešće u ekonomskom životu svoje zemlje. To znači da će ulaganje u obrazovanje i 
obuku za rad u privredi i razvoj mladih ljudiza istraživanja, razvoj i bavljenje naukom doprineti 
razvoju novih tehnologija i znanja. Razvoj novih tehnologija i znanja doprinosi povećanju 
konkurentnosti zemlje na globalnom tržištu. Ovaj rad predstavlja uporednu analizu ulaganja u 
obrazovnim sistemima Evropske unije i BRIKS-a, i takođe je pokazano da postoji pozitivna korelacija 
između javne potrošnje za obrazovanje i vrednost BDP-a zemlje primenom regresione analize. 

 

KLJUČNE REČI: obrazovanje, ekonomski rast, regresiona analiza, Evropska unija, BRIKS 
 
 
 

Article history: Received:  26 March, 2015 
Accepted:  3 April, 2015