Browse > Article
http://dx.doi.org/10.5392/JKCA.2011.11.1.329

The Relationship Between English Language Proficiency and the National Economic Performance: Focusing on non-English-Speaking OECD Countries  

Kim, Seon-Jae (배재대학교 전자상거래학과)
Lee, Young-Hwa (선문대학교 영어학과)
Publication Information
The Journal of the Korea Contents Association / v.11, no.1, 2011 , pp. 329-339 More about this Journal
Abstract
This study aims at investigating how English proficiency affects economic development of a country by analyzing the relationships among English proficiency, economic activities (amount of trade, R&D investment, etc), and the rate of economic growth, focusing on twenty-one non-English-speaking OECD countries. Ordinary Least Square (OLS) and Seemingly Unrelated Regression Estimation (SURE) were used for the data analysis in the study. The findings reveals that there existed little statistical significance to support the fact that English proficiency was directly related to the economic development in a positive way in many countries except Mexico, the Czech Republic, Finland, and Poland. However, English proficiency indirectly influenced the economic development in the way of increasing the amount of trade. These results can lead to the conclusion that English proficiency is not a sufficient element but a necessary one. Furthermore, it is expected that English proficiency can positively affect the economic development when it plays a part as sufficient complementary goods which make up for physical capital, technology accumulation, political stability, and worthy government.
Keywords
English Language Proficiency; TOEFL; Economic Growth; OECD; SURE;
Citations & Related Records
Times Cited By KSCI : 1  (Citation Analysis)
연도 인용수 순위
1 J. B. De Long, "Productivity Growth, Convergence, and Welfare: Comment," American Economic Review, 78(December), pp. 1138-1154, 1988.
2 Dean T. Jamison, Eliot A. Jamison, Ludger Woessmann, and Eric Hanushek, “Education and Economic Growth," Education Next. 8(2), pp.62-70, Spring 2008.
3 Grin, Francois, "English as economic value: facts and fallacies, World Englishes, Vol.20, No.1, pp.65-78, 2001.   DOI   ScienceOn
4 Hall and Jones, “Why Do Some Countries produce so Much More Output Per Worker than Other?", Quarterly Journal of Economics, Vol.114, No.1, pp.83-116, 1999.   DOI   ScienceOn
5 Heckman, James and Klenow, Peter, “Human CapitalPolicy,"http://www.klenow.com/HumanCapital.pdf, 1997.
6 C. Jones, "R&D-Based Models of the Economics of Religion," Journal of Economic Literature, 36, Sep. pp.1465-1496, 1995.
7 W. Keller, "Geographic Localization of International Technology Diffusion," American Economic Review, Vol.92, No.(1), pp.120-142, 2002.   DOI
8 N. Mankiw, D. Romer, and D. Weil, "A contribution to the empirics of economic growth," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, 107. pp.407-437, 1992.   DOI   ScienceOn
9 P. Romer, "Endogenous technological change," Journal of Political economy, Vol.98, No.5, pp.71-103, 1990.   DOI   ScienceOn
10 R. M. Solow, "A contribution to the theory of economic growth," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, 70. pp.65-94, 1956.   DOI   ScienceOn
11 J. Temple, "The new growth evidence," Journal of Economic Literature, 37, March, pp.112-156, 1999.   DOI   ScienceOn
12 http://www.oecd.org/statsportal/
13 http://www.imf.org/external/index.htm
14 김선재, 이영화, 임광혁, “인적자본형성으로서의 교육투자와 경제성장과의 관계: OECD 비영어권 국가들을 중심으로,” 한국콘텐츠학회논문지, 제10권, 제3호, pp.315-325, 2010.   과학기술학회마을   DOI
15 통계청, 국제통계연감, 1969-2008.
16 W. Baumol, "Productivity Growth, Convergence, and Welfare," American Economic Review, 76(December), pp.1072-1085, 1986.
17 B. Balassa, "The purchasing power parity doctrine: a reappraisal," Journal of Political Economy, 72. pp.584-596, 1964.   DOI   ScienceOn
18 G. Beker, E. Glaeser, and K. Murpy, "Population and economic growth," The American Economic Review, 89, pp.145-149, 1999.   DOI   ScienceOn
19 Crystal, David, English as a Global Language, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1997.
20 A. Chong, "Is it Possible to Speak English Without Thinking American?" On Globalization and the Determinants of Cultural Assimilation, Inter-American Development Bank, 2006.
21 http://ecos.bok.or.kr/
22 http://kosis.kr/index.jsp