Arbeitspapier
Flexibility at a Cost: Should Governments Stimulate Tertiary Education for Adults?
Most OECD countries experience high unemployment rates and declining growth in higher educational attainment. An often suggested government policy is therefore to allocate resources towards formal schooling for adults. However, returns on such investments are uncertain and the foregone earnings are potentially large. We use Swedish population register data from 1982 to 2011 to estimate average long run earnings returns on higher education for 29- to 55-year-olds who enrolled 1992-1993. We find substantial positive estimates, but these only fully emerge after approximately ten years. Nevertheless, calculations indicate that the benefits for society exceed the costs also under fairly pessimistic assumptions.
- Language
-
Englisch
- Bibliographic citation
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Series: IZA Discussion Papers ; No. 9047
- Classification
-
Wirtschaft
Fiscal Policies and Behavior of Economic Agents: General
National Government Expenditures and Education
Education and Research Institutions: General
Human Capital; Skills; Occupational Choice; Labor Productivity
Innovation; Research and Development; Technological Change; Intellectual Property Rights: General
- Subject
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adult education
human capital
earnings
- Event
-
Geistige Schöpfung
- (who)
-
Stenberg, Anders
Westerlund, Olle
- Event
-
Veröffentlichung
- (who)
-
Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA)
- (where)
-
Bonn
- (when)
-
2015
- Handle
- Last update
-
10.03.2025, 11:43 AM CET
Data provider
This object is provided by:
ZBW - Deutsche Zentralbibliothek für Wirtschaftswissenschaften - Leibniz-Informationszentrum Wirtschaft. If you have any questions about the object, please contact the data provider.
ZBW - Deutsche Zentralbibliothek für Wirtschaftswissenschaften - Leibniz-Informationszentrum Wirtschaft. If you have any questions about the object, please contact the data provider.
Object type
- Arbeitspapier
Associated
- Stenberg, Anders
- Westerlund, Olle
- Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA)
Time of origin
- 2015
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