The Impact of Socio-Economic Factors on Human Capital Investments A comparative study of the MENA Region

Abstract

The MENA region needs to diversify and move towards building knowledge-based economies so that their participation in the human capital of the world can be improved. At present, despite an above average allocation of public spending on the education sector, the returns in terms of jobs and educational quality are not seen. Several challenges like unemployment, poor quality of education, lack of private sector jobs, inability to leverage on technology for increasing the scope of education, war and immigrant crises, and centralized control over education are acting as barriers in the improvement of efficiency of educational systems and hence, the human capital. This paper provides an overview of the current status of key indicators in the region regarding the subject and examines possible relationships between the proxies. This study aims at examining critically how education systems have contributed to downturn in socioeconomic development in the MENA region. It also suggestsa framework based on possible solutions that can allow the region to finally realize the returns on its investments in the education sector. The dependent variable of this study was Human Quality Investment in MENA region while the explanatory variables were; use of technology in learning, centralized control, regional threat, common language, information technology in education, unemployment rate and quality of education.