Economics of Education à la Euro

Abstract

This article provides a pot pourri of issues and themes related to education in Europe and examines how the 'economics of education' may contribute to understand and, it is to be hoped, solve a particular social problem that prima facia may appear to be in the education domain. The level of exposition is such as to be accessible to educationists, while remaining at the forefront of research mainly carried out by economists. In order to facilitate the exposition, a contrast is made between the strawperson called an educationist and someone else who also wears the economist's hat. The ultimate aim of the article is to underline the need for a multidisciplinary approach to the understanding of education problems in which the education economist is an indispensable member of the team. The article then goes on to try to define 'economics of education' as an enlargement of the issues that concern the educationist. This is followed by a brief history of the economics of education in Europe. Then, a series of issues in Europe, ranging from basic to tertiary education, is presented and attempts to insert an economic dimension to their consideration are made. This is followed by a list of themes on which, in my opinion, research is lagging behind in Europe in comparison to the US, thus providing a guide for future research. The last section draws the conclusions.