An important first step in evaluating education policy is the measurement of private benefits to schooling. That is the central research question of this monograph. We do this by reviewing existing research on the financial rate of return to investment in education accruing to individuals. This research encompasses a wide array of issues from the types of measurements used to individual variation in educational benefits due to demographic and school quality differences.

Clearly, there are many and varied benefits to education that are enjoyed by individuals. The joys of reading Shakespeare or Angelou are real, but will remain unmeasured in this analysis. Our exclusion of these benefits is not because they are unimportant, but because it is very costly to measure them.  This analysis focuses on the benefits that can be directly estimated.

The Education Alliance Individual Returns to Educational Investment Research is presented in PDF format. To view the research you must have Adobe Acrobat® Reader® software. If you do not have Adobe Acrobat® software on your computer, click here to go to Adobe's web site for a free download.

Individual Returns to Educational Investment     File size is 137 kb.