English Language and Economic Growth: Cross-Country Empirical Evidence

Abstract

This paper addresses the effect of English proficiency on economic growth empirically with Barro-type cross-sectional growth regression. The empirical results provide evidence of positive correlation between initial English proficiency and economic growth only for the countries in the Asia and Europe. Therefore, countries with higher levels of English proficiency among the fraction of its population are likely to grow faster. This paper suggests that the ability to absorb knowledge is positively related to the level of English proficiency. It implies that the level of English proficiency can be viewed as a component of human capital.