Abstract
The purpose of this paper is to present new measures of the benefits from education. These measures are based on the incremental effect on human wealth of participation in formal schooling. We define human wealth as the sum of lifetime labor incomes for all individuals in the U.S. population. These incomes include the value of time spent working and the value of nonmarket labor activities, which are defined to include parenting and the enjoyment of leisure. Our estimates of lifetime labor incomes are drawn from an extensive data base on income from work. We have enlarged this data base to incorporate the value of nonmarket activities. We compare our estimates of investment in education and human wealth with estimates based on the expenditures of educational institutions. We find that these expenditures are very much smaller than the benefits of education.
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