ABSTRACT
In this chapter we are concerned with identifying the current state of knowledge on the nature of the relationship between education, training and economic growth, with special reference to the economic development and transformation over recent decades of the Asian newly industrialised economies. There are a number of different theoretical approaches to economic development. While we are not concerned to rehearse the debates about the fundamental correctness of any one theoretical position, we do aim to review how some schools conceptualise the role of education and training. We then set out the basics of a model of the systemic relationship between skill formation and economic development in the context of ‘developmental states’. This model forms the framework for the political-economic analyses elaborated in subsequent chapters.
