The impact of higher education on Texas population and employment growth

Theories of human interactions suggest population growth is influenced by the extent of knowledge. Examining the population (and employment) growth rates of all 254 Texas counties over the 1990–2000 and 1980–1990 decades as dependent variables, the share of population with college degree or higher has a greater impact on growth more recently. The instrumental variables treatment of human capital with age and race characteristics leads to differences at the top end of education explaining population growth across Texas. These results are very robust to several control variables including demographic, migration, and regional factors.