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

Federal Reserve institutes the third interest rate cut with a rare pause signal.

Daisy Harvey

2019-12-10 09:30:00 Tuesday ET

Federal Reserve institutes the third interest rate cut with a rare pause signal.

Federal Reserve institutes the third interest rate cut with a rare pause signal. The Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) reduces the benchmark interest rat

+See More

The new antitrust enforcement paradigm

Joseph Corr

2023-10-14 10:32:00 Saturday ET

The new antitrust enforcement paradigm

Jonathan Baker frames the current debate over antitrust merger review and enforcement in America. Jonathan Baker (2019)   The antitrust paradi

+See More

Federal Reserve raises the interest rate again in mid-2018 in response to 2% inflation and wage growth.

John Fourier

2018-07-09 09:39:00 Monday ET

Federal Reserve raises the interest rate again in mid-2018 in response to 2% inflation and wage growth.

The Federal Reserve raises the interest rate again in mid-2018 in response to 2% inflation and wage growth. The current neutral interest rate hike neither b

+See More

America expects to impose punitive tariffs on $7.5 billion European exports due to the recent WTO rule violation of illegal plane subsidies.

Apple Boston

2019-11-07 14:36:00 Thursday ET

America expects to impose punitive tariffs on $7.5 billion European exports due to the recent WTO rule violation of illegal plane subsidies.

America expects to impose punitive tariffs on $7.5 billion European exports due to the recent WTO rule violation of illegal plane subsidies. World Trade Org

+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 Cisco Systems (U.S. stock symbol: $CSCO).

Joseph Corr

2025-10-07 10:30:00 Tuesday 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 Cisco Systems (U.S. stock symbol: $CSCO).

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

Former White House chief economic advisor Nouriel Roubini discusses the major limits of central-bank-driven fiscal deficits.

Rose Prince

2019-12-25 19:46:00 Wednesday ET

Former White House chief economic advisor Nouriel Roubini discusses the major limits of central-bank-driven fiscal deficits.

Former White House chief economic advisor Nouriel Roubini discusses the major limits of central-bank-driven fiscal deficits. The International Monetary Fund

+See More