this is an example rather than a reference.
(Is it? when did singapore start to invest a lot on education? WolframAlpha believes that the country had high growth since 1965[0], which would be the year of the independence)
I was more looking to something like books, articles, researches that would explain how _investments in education_ in eastern countries have been the most effective on growth, rather than everything else.
Or the opposite, say, the last 20 years of low growth in japan are due to disinvestments in education.
