…without university spending.

Inside Higher Ed takes on a study by Richard Vedder asserting that more state funding to higher education does not necessarily lead to higher growth, and in fact correlates negatively with high growth rates.

Ronald G. Ehrenberg, director of Cornell University’s Higher Education Research Institute, attempts to explain the negative correlation by suggesting that the poorest states are infusing the most funding into higher education in an effort to promote future growth.

To which Vedder replies that his group has “been very conscious of that question…we’re not looking at it just between states…We’re looking at it over a long period of time.”

And, from Vedder, the clincher: “Universities…do not necessarily promote economic growth and development, because resources have to be taken from the private sector or somewhere to pay for them.”

If it were that simple, the Soviet Union would be leading the economic parade today.

The implied point? Greater economic growth could have resulted from leaving these resources in private hands.