Study on the returns to various types of investment in education and training

Practice Area:Education and Labour Markets
Client:EC DG Education Arts and Culture
Published: December, 2005
Tagged: EC/EEA qualitative analysis quantitative analysis

London Economics were commissioned to undertake a large-scale project for the EU Directorate General for Education, Arts and Culture on the rates of returns to the investment necessary to achieve the Lisbon educational targets using the European Labour Force Survey. The study computed the private and social costs of achieving the Lisbon targets for different types of education (secondary education, higher education and improving literacy rates) for all Member States.

In a similar way, the private and social benefits of education from achieving the targets were also calculated. As part of this analysis, we completed a systematic review of the academic literature on the economic returns to qualification attainment, which was peer reviewed by senior academics in the field to ensure the completeness and comprehensiveness of the analysis and the appropriate interpretation of the many findings.