Education expenditure and economic growth relationship: An application on Turkey and G8 countries

Education transforms human beings who are inexperienced and lacking skills into a more productive human capital by equipping them with the skills necessary for both the traditional economy and the modern economy. For this reason, education is an important variable that ensures the economic growth of developed and developing countries and the sustainability of this growth. Therefore, many developed and developing countries allocate a large part of their national income to their educational investments. For this purpose, the relationship between education and economic growth has been tried to be studied on the most developed eight countries of the world and on Turkey. In this context, OECD data and reports have been tabulated and interpreted in order to determine the effect of education on the economy. When Turkey's share of GDP for education is compared with that of G8 countries, it has been determined that Turkey's education expenditures have not been able to reach the average of G8 countries. Although the share allocated for education among GDP which increases as a result of the high growth rates experienced in the country's economy in the years to be evaluated, it is still low in terms of its ratio. The study also emphasizes the importance of spending on education to ensure sustainable growth for the Turkish economy and to increase global competitiveness.