Investment in children and the youth in post-soviet oil economies: the case of Kazakhstan

Type Journal Article - Università Degli Studi Di Firenze Dottorato In Politica Ed Economia Dei Paesi In Via Di Sviluppo Ciclo XXII
Title Investment in children and the youth in post-soviet oil economies: the case of Kazakhstan
Author(s)
Publication (Day/Month/Year) 2008
URL http://www.aiel.it/Old/bacheca/BRESCIA/papers/mangiavacchi.pdf
Abstract
Kazakhstan’s economy has been driven by an oil boom in the recovery period of transition, with a good performance in terms of growth in the early 2000s. Child and youth wellbeing within the country, negatively affected by the radical changes recorded since the onset of transition, has been not improving at the same path. Public resources allocated to human capital development, as education and health sectors, suffered a big decline during the years of transition and at present have remained low. The aim of this work is to show the benefits of increasing education public expenditure, avoiding risks of “resource curse” and saving the objective of intergenerational allocation of oil revenues in the case of the Republic of Kazakhstan. We argue that such investment in human capital is likely to yield higher economic returns, improving therefore the welfare of the current and future generations. We also held that, within the whole expenditure on education, Kazakhstan should increase the share allocated to pre-primary programmes, prioritize vocational/technical programmes and improve the whole efficiency in spending.

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