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

Apple enters a multi-year content partnership with Oprah Winfrey to provide new original online video and TV programs.

Daisy Harvey

2018-06-10 19:41:00 Sunday ET

Apple enters a multi-year content partnership with Oprah Winfrey to provide new original online video and TV programs.

Apple enters a multi-year content partnership with Oprah Winfrey to provide new original online video and TV programs in direct competition with Netflix, Am

+See More

White House economic advisor Gary Cohn resigns due to his opposition to President Trump's protectionist tariff stance.

Peter Prince

2018-03-02 12:34:00 Friday ET

White House economic advisor Gary Cohn resigns due to his opposition to President Trump's protectionist tariff stance.

White House top economic advisor Gary Cohn resigns due to his opposition to President Trump's recent protectionist decision on steel and aluminum tariff

+See 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 Intuit (U.S. stock symbol: $INTU).

Dan Rochefort

2025-10-12 13:32:00 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 Intuit (U.S. stock symbol: $INTU).

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

European economic integration seems to have gone backwards primarily due to the recent Brexit movement.

Daisy Harvey

2019-10-19 16:35:00 Saturday ET

European economic integration seems to have gone backwards primarily due to the recent Brexit movement.

European economic integration seems to have gone backwards primarily due to the recent Brexit movement. Brexit, key European sovereign debt, and French and

+See More

Federal Reserve reduces the interest rate by another quarter point to the target range of 1.75%-2% in September 2019.

John Fourier

2019-10-07 12:35:00 Monday ET

Federal Reserve reduces the interest rate by another quarter point to the target range of 1.75%-2% in September 2019.

Federal Reserve reduces the interest rate by another key quarter point to the target range of 1.75%-2% in September 2019. In accordance with the Federal Res

+See More

JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon sees great potential for 10-year government bond yields to rise to 5%.

Olivia London

2018-08-05 12:34:00 Sunday ET

JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon sees great potential for 10-year government bond yields to rise to 5%.

JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon sees great potential for 10-year government bond yields to rise to 5% in contrast to the current 3% 10-year Treasury bond yie

+See More