Education

Abstract

This chapter investigates a set of “direct” benefits to education. Education provides an interesting and potentially enjoyable experience for students; it educates people as citizens and voters; it generates higher tax payments; it even reduces crime. And it provides for the individuals concerned a personal resource, interesting work, and additional capacity for enjoyment throughout their life. The measure of education the chapter uses in the British Cohort Study (BCS) is qualifications. The BCS tell us the highest qualifications that a person has achieved. There are altogether five levels of qualifications, but the chapter creates a single continuous variable, thus creating an index of qualifications for the BCS. In the household panel studies, the chapter measures education more simply by years of full-time education and confine the analyses to people under 65.