Government Education Expenditure and Economic Growth Nexus: Empirical Evidence from Vietnam

Government expenditure on education has attracted much attention because it plays an important role in the economic development. The question is whether government expenditure on education has a positive or negative impact on the economic growth and vice versa. This study aims to provide reliable estimates of the relationship between government expenditure on education and economic growth with empirical evidence in Vietnam for the period 2006–2019. The data was taken from the official statistics of the General Statistics Office of Vietnam. The authors have used the VAR model and Granger causal model to determine the relationship between government expenditure on education and the economic growth. Research results show that there is a two-way nexus between the economic growth and government spending on education with a lag of about two years. From the results obtained from this research, the authors have made some policy suggestions for the Vietnamese government as how to increase investment for education. If there is a one-way causal relationship between expenditure on education and the economic growth, the government can use spending as a growth factor. However, if there is a bi-directional relationship between the government expenditure on education and the GDP growth, the government needs to ensure that resources are appropriately managed and allocated effectively to promote growth. KCI Citation Count: 0