Education, Human Development and Economic Growth in Punjab: A Causal Analysis

This paper has evaluated the relative performance of 12 major districts of Punjab in terms of Human Development and Economic Growth and examined the two-way link between them during 1981-2001. Expectation of life at birth positively but non-significantly affected inter-district variations in EG. For EG induced HD, per capita NDP negatively and significantly affected inter district variations in literacy rate and positively and non-significantly affected inter-district variations of life expectancy. Classification of districts based on their performance on HD and EG reveals that out of 12 districts, only four districts were in the category of lopsided HD and six districts were in the category of virtuous cycle as per the indicators of HD (HDI, literacy rate and expectation of life at birth) in 2001. The results suggest that the policy should be such that HD induced growth process is strengthened for lifting the districts to the virtuous cycle category.