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