Each of these perspectives has some merit as well as drawbacks, and it will be some time (if ever) when we will know which perspective is the correct one in explaining our recent economic experience. This state of affairs has led me to be skeptical of relying on gaps in general as well as optimal control exercises that are derived from specific models.
High population growth has given rise to a young dependent population and increased unemployment among the youth. The average years of schooling of labor force (3¼ years) remains quite low making it difficult to impart new skills to the burgeoning labour force. Raising this by 1½-2 years could have raised real per capita economic growth rate by about ½ percentage points per year.