College education offers a hefty 8.8% pay premium for each marginal increase in the number of years of intellectual attainment.

Fiona Sydney

2018-04-29 13:44:00 Sun ET

College education offers a hefty 8.8% pay premium for each marginal increase in the number of years of intellectual attainment in contrast to the 5.6%-6% long-run average U.S. equity premium.

World Bank economists George Psacharopoulos and Harry Patrinos investigate 1,120 studies across 139 countries to derive an average annual rate of return on each marginal increase in the basic level of educational attainment. This 8.8% pay premium far exceeds the U.S. stock market return about 5.6%-6% per annum over the past 5 decades. The pay premium excludes social gains such as positive social interactions and low mortality rates in close association with better education. Also, the pay premium is higher for girls and college graduates (in direct comparison to postgraduates). This premium is higher in low-income countries primarily as these countries recruit a smaller share of international citizens with higher education.

In accordance with the law of lower marginal value, this pay premium dwindles for each extra year of educational attainment. Psacharopoulos and Patrinos posit a current race between education and technology. This race suggests that high-tech advances accelerate to favor high-skill workers to the detriment of low-skill workers. The normative implication for public policy is that the government should subsidize college education or even graduate school attendance. This subsidization serves as a worthy socioeconomic investment in human capital.

 


If any of our AYA Analytica financial health memos (FHM), blog posts, ebooks, newsletters, and notifications etc, or any other form of online content curation, involves potential copyright concerns, please feel free to contact us at service@ayafintech.network so that we can remove relevant content in response to any such request within a reasonable time frame.

Blog+More

Stock Synopsis: With a new Python program, we use, adapt, apply, and leverage each of the mainstream Gemini Gen AI models to conduct this comprehensive fundamental analysis of Meta Platforms (U.S. stock symbol: $META).

Daisy Harvey

2025-09-21 12:32:00 Sunday ET

Stock Synopsis: With a new Python program, we use, adapt, apply, and leverage each of the mainstream Gemini Gen AI models to conduct this comprehensive fundamental analysis of Meta Platforms (U.S. stock symbol: $META).

Stock Synopsis: With a new Python program, we use, adapt, apply, and leverage each of the mainstream Gemini Gen AI models to conduct this comprehensive fund

+See More

Business entrepreneurs dare to dream, remain true and authentic to themselves, and try to make a great social impact in the world.

Charlene Vos

2020-07-05 11:31:00 Sunday ET

Business entrepreneurs dare to dream, remain true and authentic to themselves, and try to make a great social impact in the world.

Business entrepreneurs dare to dream, remain true and authentic to themselves, and try to make a great social impact in the world. Alex Malley (2014)

+See More

MIT professor and co-author Daron Acemoglu suggests that economic prosperity comes from high-wage job creation.

Fiona Sydney

2019-05-19 19:31:00 Sunday ET

MIT professor and co-author Daron Acemoglu suggests that economic prosperity comes from high-wage job creation.

MIT professor and co-author Daron Acemoglu suggests that economic prosperity comes from high-wage job creation. Progressive tax redistribution cannot achiev

+See More

Federal Reserve's interest rate hike may lead to an economic recession as credit supply growth ebbs and flows through the business cycle.

Monica McNeil

2018-06-14 10:35:00 Thursday ET

Federal Reserve's interest rate hike may lead to an economic recession as credit supply growth ebbs and flows through the business cycle.

The Federal Reserve's current interest rate hike may lead to the next economic recession as credit supply growth ebbs and flows through the business cyc

+See More

Tony Robbins recommends portfolio optimization only once a year.

Laura Hermes

2017-02-19 07:41:00 Sunday ET

Tony Robbins recommends portfolio optimization only once a year.

In his recent book on personal finance, Tony Robbins recommends that each investor should rebalance his or her investment portfolio *only once a year* to in

+See More

U.S. federalism and domestic institutional arrangements

Olivia London

2023-12-10 09:23:00 Sunday ET

U.S. federalism and domestic institutional arrangements

U.S. federalism and domestic institutional arrangements A given country is federal when both of its national and sub-national governments exercise separa

+See More