Is market potential robust in explaining regional educational levels in Europe?

Abstract

This article analyses the robustness of market potential as an explanatory variable of regional educational levels in the European Union. When included by its own, market potential is shown to be statistically significant and quantitatively important in explaining cross-region variation in educational levels. This finding is robust in controlling for a wide range of considerations, including other geographic and economic characteristics, showing that economic geography matters in determining educational attainment levels in Europe.

Acknowledgements

The author gratefully acknowledges financial support by Xunta de Galicia under the form of ‘Becas para estadias fora da Comunidade Autónoma de Galicia’ while working as a Visiting Scholar at the Department of Geography and Environment at LSE.

Notes

¹ Data collection includes three levels of educational attainment, Low level: at best lower secondary education level; Medium level: upper secondary education level; High level: higher education qualification.

² See Appendix for the list of regions.