Download - Education: Investments on who and why?
EDUCATION:INVESTMENTS ON WHO AND WHY?
JANI EROLA, UNIVERSITY OF TURKU
Education is a classic example of social investments
Invest on human capital = invenst on growth
INVESTINGIntentional behavior
Aiming at a positive outcome
Does this by using resources more than otherwise would be spent
INVESTMENTA proportion spent
(vs. amount of spending without investing)
SOCIAL INVESTMENT"...is about investing in people. It means policies
designed to strengthen people’s skills and capacities and support them to participate fully in employment and
social life."
http://ec.europa.eu/social/main.jsp?catId=1044
SOCIAL INVESTMENTS ARE TARGETTED TO INCREASE
Skills and capabilitiesEmployment
Social inclusion
SO IN TERMS OF EDUCATION...Not much can be gained in elementary schooling
Especially so in Finland!
Small returns, bad investment!
ROOM IN PRE-PRIMARY EDUCATION?
ALEKSI KARHULA, JANI EROLA, AND ELINA KILPI-JAKONEN:HOME SWEET HOME? LONG-TERM EDUCATIONAL OUTCOMES OF CHILDCARE
ARRANGEMENTS IN FINLAND.IN BLOSSFELD, H.-P., KULIC, N., SKOPEK, J. & TRIVENTI, M. (EDS): CHILDCARE, EARLY EDUCATION AND SOCIAL INEQUALITY – A CROSS-NATIONAL PERSPECTIVE. EDWARD
ELGAR.
It is good for kids to put them to daycare (around age 2 a safe bet)
However, the gains from investing on parental education would be clearly higher
DAYCARE A BAD INVESTMENT?
No, if that makes gains from parental education possible!
Enables educatated parents to work
HOW ABOUTPOST-ELEMENTARY
EDUCATION?
Elina Kilpi-Jakonen, Jani Erola & Aleksi Karhula:Inequalities in the haven of equality? Upper secondary
education and entry into tertiaryeducation in Finland.
In “Secondary Education Models and Social Inequality: An International Comparison”, ed. by Hans-Peter Blossfeld,
Sandra Buchholz, Jan Skopek & MorisTriventi, Edward Elgar 2016.
INVESTMENT POINT OF VIEWMore investments on University education of those
coming from non-university background
BUT HOW DO YOU DO THAT?
SUBSIDIZE COSTS?All education is already free of charge + costs of living
subsidizedEvidence suggests parental income is not not the key
issue
Further evidence: expansion of higher education helps
But that is not targeted and will increase the educational level of all
Falls outside social investment scope
(Perhaps) a solution: loopholes
THERE ARE A LOT OF LOOPHOLES !
CONCLUSIONS
Education is a classic case for social investments
However, investment argument easily leads to less than optimal outcomes (see daycare)
Or feasible targeted social investments are hard to come up with (see post-elementary)
Allocating resources to universal systems likely more efficient for reaching the goals