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

Berkeley professor and economist Barry Eichengreen reconciles the nominal and real interest rates to argue in favor of greater fiscal deficits.

Joseph Corr

2019-05-23 10:33:00 Thursday ET

Berkeley professor and economist Barry Eichengreen reconciles the nominal and real interest rates to argue in favor of greater fiscal deficits.

Berkeley professor and economist Barry Eichengreen reconciles the nominal and real interest rates to argue in favor of greater fiscal deficits. French econo

+See More

Netflix raises its prices by 13% to 18% for U.S. subscribers.

Chanel Holden

2019-01-25 13:34:00 Friday ET

Netflix raises its prices by 13% to 18% for U.S. subscribers.

Netflix raises its prices by 13% to 18% for U.S. subscribers. The immediate stock market price soars 6.5% as a result of this upward price adjustment. The b

+See More

Our fun podcasts deep-dive into the current global trends, topics, and issues in support of better stock market investment decisions.

Daphne Basel

2026-02-14 11:26:00 Saturday ET

Our fun podcasts deep-dive into the current global trends, topics, and issues in support of better stock market investment decisions.

Our AYA fun podcasts deep-dive into the current global trends, topics, and issues in macro finance, political economy, public policy, strategic management,

+See More

Netflix suffers its first major loss of U.S. subscribers due to the recent price hikes.

Rose Prince

2019-08-14 10:31:00 Wednesday ET

Netflix suffers its first major loss of U.S. subscribers due to the recent price hikes.

Netflix suffers its first major loss of U.S. subscribers due to the recent price hikes. The company adds only 2.7 million new subscribers in 2019Q2 in stark

+See More

Global climate change can cause an adverse impact on long-term real GDP economic growth.

Dan Rochefort

2019-10-27 17:37:00 Sunday ET

Global climate change can cause an adverse impact on long-term real GDP economic growth.

International climate change can cause an adverse impact on long-term real GDP economic growth. USC climate change economist Hashem Pesaran and his co-autho

+See More

Mitch Anthony explains why it is important for sales leaders to apply sound social skills and emotional competences to fulfill customer needs, wants, demands, desires, and other preferences.

Jonah Whanau

2025-07-12 11:35:00 Saturday ET

Mitch Anthony explains why it is important for sales leaders to apply sound social skills and emotional competences to fulfill customer needs, wants, demands, desires, and other preferences.

Mitch Anthony explains why it is now more important for top sales leaders to apply social skills and emotional competences to fulfill customer needs, wants,

+See More