“If [Obama] succeeds in persuading more of the next generation to continue beyond high school…there’s a strong chance the rate of economic growth will be bolstered for decades to come,” says Justin Wolfers in his January 9, New York Times Upshot column, “Obama’s college proposal is also a bid to rev the economy.”
“Economists believe that there are really only three ways to raise living standards over the long run: to invest more in education, to invest more in machines, or to innovate so that the same people and machines can more effectively be combined to produce more output,” writes Wolfers. “Mr. Obama’s proposal is an effort to revive education as one of the drivers of economic growth.”
Justin Wolfers is a professor of public policy and economics at the University of Michigan and a senior fellow with the Peterson Institute for International Economics.