Oil Wealth Fails to Raise Native Scores

Comparing native (non‑immigrant) PISA results across Gulf monarchies and nearby Arab countries shows massive GDP differences from oil wealth but little corresponding advantage in native student performance. Controlling for immigrant pupils (who score higher) is essential to avoid misleading conclusions about wealth and education. — If exogenous resource wealth does not translate into better native educational outcomes, development policy and arguments that economic growth alone will raise cognitive/education metrics need rethinking.