Does Education Fuel Economic Growth? Reading Answers

Jan 23, 2023

Does Education Fuel Economic Growth? Reading Answers is an IELTS academic reading topic. Does Education Fuel Economic Growth? Reading Answers has 12 questions that are followed by a passage. This IELTS topic Does Education Fuel Economic Growth? Reading Answers has three types of questions. The IELTS reading questions are - choose the correct answer, one-word answer and select the correct paragraph. Candidates can get IELTS reading practice papers to practice more such questions.

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Section 1

Read the passage to answer the following questions

Does Education Fuel Economic Growth? Reading Answers

Over the last decade, a huge database about the lives of southwest German villagers between 1600 and 1900 has been compiled by a team led by Professor Sheilagh Ogilvie at Cambridge University’s Faculty of Economics. It includes court records, guild ledgers, parish registers, village censuses, tax lists and – the most recent addition – 9,000 handwritten inventories listing over a million personal possessions belonging to ordinary women and men across three centuries. Ogilvie, who discovered the inventories in the archives of two German communities 30 years ago, believes they may hold the answer to a conundrum that has long puzzled economists: the lack of evidence for a causal link between education and a country’s economic growth.
As Ogilvie explains, ‘Education helps us to work more productively, invent better technology, and earn more … surely it must be critical for economic growth? But, if you look back through history, there’s no evidence that having a high literacy rate made a country industrialise earlier.’ Between 1600 and 1900, England had only mediocre literacy rates by European standards, yet its economy grew fast and it was the first country to industrialise. During this period, Germany and Scandinavia had excellent literacy rates, but their economies grew slowly and they industrialised late. ‘Modern cross-country analyses have also struggled to find evidence that education causes economic growth, even though there is plenty of evidence that growth increases education,’ she adds.
In the handwritten inventories that Ogilvie is analysing are the belongings of women and men at marriage, remarriage and death. From badger skins to Bibles, sewing machines to scarlet bodices – the villagers’ entire worldly goods are included. Inventories of agricultural equipment and craft tools reveal economic activities; ownership of books and education related objects like pens and slates suggests how people learned. In addition, the tax lists included in the database record the value of farms, workshops, assets and debts; signatures and people’s estimates of their age indicate literacy and numeracy levels; and court records reveal obstacles (such as the activities of the guilds*) that stifled industry.

Previous studies usually had just one way of linking education with economic growth – the presence of schools and printing presses, perhaps, or school enrolment, or the ability to sign names. According to Ogilvie, the database provides multiple indicators for the same individuals, making it possible to analyze links between literacy, numeracy, wealth, and industriousness, for individual women and men over the long term.

Ogilvie and her team have been building the vast database of material possessions on top of their full demographic reconstruction of the people who lived in these two German communities. ‘We can follow the same people – and their descendants – across 300 years of educational and economic change,’ she says. Individual lives have unfolded before their eyes. Stories like that of the 24-year-olds Ana Regina and Magdalena Riethmiillerin, who were chastised in 1707 for reading books in church instead of listening to the sermon. ‘This tells us they were continuing to develop their reading skills at least a decade after leaving school,’ explains Ogilvie. The database also reveals the case of Juliana Schweickherdt, a SO-year-old spinster living in the small Black Forest community of Wildberg, who was reprimanded in 1752 by the local weavers’ guild for ‘weaving cloth and combing wool, counter to the guild ordinance’. When Juliana continued taking jobs reserved for male guild members, she was summoned before the guild court and told to pay a fine equivalent to one third of a servant’s annual wage. It was a small act of defiance by today’s standards, but it reflects a time when laws in Germany and elsewhere regulated people’s access to labour markets. The dominance of guilds not only prevented people from using their skills, but also held back even the simplest industrial innovation.

The data-gathering phase of the project has been completed and now, according to Ogilvie, it is time ‘to ask the big questions’. One way to look at whether education causes economic growth is to ‘hold wealth constant’. This involves following the lives of different people with the same level of wealth over a period of time. If wealth is constant, it is possible to discover whether education was, for example, linked to the cultivation of new crops, or to the adoption of industrial innovations like sewing machines. The team will also ask what aspect of education helped people engage more with productive and innovative activities. Was it, for instance, literacy, numeracy, book ownership, years of schooling? Was there a threshold level – a tipping point – that needed to be reached to affect economic performance?

Ogilvie hopes to start finding answers to these questions over the next few years. One thing is already clear, she says: the relationship between education and economic growth is far from straightforward. ‘German-speaking central Europe is an excellent laboratory for testing theories of economic growth,’ she explains. Between 1600 and 1900, literacy rates and book ownership were high and yet the region remained poor. It was also the case that local guilds and merchant associations were extremely powerful and legislated against anything that undermined their monopolies. In villages throughout the region, guilds blocked labour migration and resisted changes that might reduce their influence.

‘Early findings suggest that the potential benefits of education for the economy can be held back by other barriers, and this has implications for today,’ says Ogilvie. ‘Huge amounts are spent improving education in developing countries, but this spending can fail to deliver economic growth if restrictions block people – especially women and the poor – from using their education in economically productive ways. If economic institutions are poorly set up, for instance, education can’t lead to growth.’

Section 2

Solution and Explanation

Questions 14-18:
Does education fuel economic growth? Reading Passage has six sections, A-F.
Which section contains the following information?
Write the correct letter, A-F, in boxes 14-18 on your answer sheet.

an explanation of the need for research to focus on individuals with a fairly consistent income

Answer: A
Supporting Sentence: It includes court records, guild ledgers, parish registers, village censuses, tax lists and – the most recent addition – 9,000 handwritten inventories listing over a million personal possessions belonging to ordinary women and men across three centuries.
Keyword: ordinary women, men,
Keyword Location: Paragraph A, 2nd sentence
Explanation: The paragraph talks about court records, tax lists and inventories that lists over a million personal possessions. The author mentions that these belongings belonged to ordinary men and women. Hence, A is the correct answer.

examples of the sources the database has been compiled from

Answer: E
Supporting Sentence: The team will also ask what aspect of education helped people engage more with productive and innovative activities.
Keyword: team, ask for, aspect
Keyword Location: Paragraph E, 5th sentence
Explanation: The author in the fifth paragraph talks about the sources from which the data has been collected. The team asked for aspects like literacy, numeracy, book ownership etc. Other factors are also mentioned in the paragraph which means that this was the source from which the database has been compiled.

an account of one individual’s refusal to obey an order

Answer: D
Supporting Sentence: When Juliana continued taking jobs reserved for male guild members, she was summoned before the guild court and told to pay a fine equivalent to one third of a servant’s annual wage.
Keyword: Defiance, reserved, pay a fine
Keyword Location: Paragraph D, 6th sentence
Explanation: The author says that Juliana took jobs that were reserved for male guild members. She was also called to court for this and told to pay a fine. This is an act of defiance or refusal to obey order. Hence, the answer is D.

a reference to a region being particularly suited to research into the link between education and economic growth

Answer: F
Supporting Sentence: ‘German-speaking central Europe is an excellent laboratory for testing theories of economic growth,’ she explains.
Keyword: central Europe, laboratory
Keyword Location: Paragraph F, 3rd sentence
Explanation: The author in the last paragraph talks about a location to test the theories of economic growth. The passage talks about central Europe. Hence, the correct answer is F.

examples of the items included in a list of personal possessions

Answer: C
Supporting Sentence: From badger skins to Bibles, sewing machines to scarlet bodices – the villagers’ entire worldly goods are included.
Keyword: sewing machine, belongings
Keyword Location: Paragraph C, 2nd sentence
Explanation: The author in this paragraph provides examples of various items that were included in the list of personal belongings. Since these are mentioned in paragraph C, it is the correct answer.

Questions 19-22:
Complete the summary below.
Choose ONE WORD from the passage for each answer.
Write your answers in boxes 19-22 on your answer sheet

Demographic reconstruction of two German communities

The database that Ogilvie and her team has compiled sheds light on the lives of a range of individuals, as well as those of their 19. .………………………………….., over a 300-year period. For example, Ana Regina and Magdalena Riethmullerin were reprimanded for reading while they should have been paying attention to a 20. .…………………………………… There was also Juliana Schweickherdt, who came to the notice of the weavers’ guild in the year 1752 for breaking guild rules. As a punishment, she was later given a

…………………………………… Cases like this illustrate how the guilds could prevent
………………………….. and stop skilled people from working.

Question 19:

Answer: descendents
Supporting Sentence: We can follow the same people – and their descendants – across 300 years of educational and economic change,’ she says.
Keyword: descendants, people
Keyword Location: Paragraph D, 2nd sentence
Explanation: As per the paragraph, the author tells us that Ogilvie and her team came to know about the life and possession of the people. Not only that, they also could follow the life of the descendants. Hence, descendants is the correct answer.

Question 20:

Answer: sermon
Supporting Sentence: Stories like that of the 24-year-olds Ana Regina and Magdalena Riethmiillerin, who were chastised in 1707 for reading books in church instead of listening to the sermon.
Keyword: listening, Ana Regina, Magdalena Riethmullerin
Keyword Location: Paragraph D, 4th sentence
Explanation: The author as an example shared a story of Ana Regina and Magdalena Riethmullerin. It is stated that they were chastised because they were reading books instead of listening to sermons. This makes the sermon the correct answer.

Question 21:

Answer: fine
Supporting Sentence: When Juliana continued taking jobs reserved for male guild members, she was summoned before the guild court and told to pay a fine equivalent to one third of a servant’s annual wage.
Keyword: pay a fine, summoned
Keyword Location: Paragraph D, 7th sentence
Explanation: The paragraph talks about the punishment Juliana received when she continued taking jobs reserved for male guild members. She was called to court and was ordered to pay a fine. Hence fine is the correct answer.

Question 22:

Answer: innovation
Supporting Sentence: The dominance of guilds not only prevented people from using their skills, but also held back even the simplest industrial innovation.
Keyword: held back, innovation
Keyword Location: Paragraph D, last sentence
Explanation: As per the author, this punishment represented the dominance of guids. This prevented people from using their skills and simple innovations. Hence, innovation is the correct answer.

Questions 23 and 24:
Choose TWO letters, A-E.
Write the correct letters in boxes 23 and 24 on your answer sheet.
Which TWO of the following statements does the writer make about literacy rates in Section B?

Very little research has been done into the link between high literacy rates and improved earnings.
Literacy rates in Germany between 1600 and 1900 were very good.
There is strong evidence that high literacy rates in the modern world result in economic growth.
England is a good example of how high literacy rates helped a country industrialise.
Economic growth can help to improve literacy rates.

Question 23:

Answer: B
Supporting Sentence: During this period, Germany and Scandinavia had excellent literacy rates, but their economies grew slowly and they industrialised late.
Keyword: 1600, 1900, literacy rate
Keyword Location: Paragraph B, 4th sentence
Explanation: The author states that between 1600 and 1900, the economy of England grew. Also, during the same period, Germany and Scandinavia had very good literacy rates but the economy grew slowly. This is the same as stated in Option B.

Question 24:

Answer: E
Supporting Sentence: Modern cross-country analyses have also struggled to find evidence that education causes economic growth, even though there is plenty of evidence that growth increases education,’ she adds
Keyword: growth, increases, education
Keyword Location: Paragraph B, last sentence
Explanation: The author tends to say that modern analyses have not found evidence that education causes economic growth. However, there is plenty of evidence that education increases education. This means with economic growth, literacy rates will also grow. Hence, E is the correct answer.

Questions 25 and 26:
Choose TWO letters, A-E.
Write the correct letters in boxes 25 and 26 on your answer sheet.
Which TWO of the following statements does the writer make in Section F about guilds in German-speaking Central Europe between 1600 and 1900?

They helped young people to learn a skill.
They were opposed to people moving to an area for work.
They kept better records than guilds in other parts of the world.
They opposed practices that threatened their control over a trade.
They predominantly consisted of wealthy merchants.

Question 25:

Answer: B
Supporting Sentence: In villages throughout the region, guilds blocked labour migration and resisted changes that might reduce their influence.
Keyword: blocked, labour, migration
Keyword Location: Paragraph F, 6th sentence
Explanation: The author clearly states in the passage that guilds stopped migration of labours. This means they did not support or oppose people moving to other places or migrating for work.

Question 26:

Answer: D
Supporting Sentence: ‘Huge amounts are spent improving education in developing countries, but this spending can fail to deliver economic growth if restrictions block people – especially women and the poor – from using their education in economically productive ways.
Keyword: education, spent, developing countries
Keyword Location: last paragraph, 2nd last sentence
Explanation: The author says that guilds opposed practices and did not allow economic growth. With the restrictions that blocked people from using education, they proved unproductive in many ways.

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