Selfish and Social Returns in The Case Against Education
My The Case Against Education (Princeton University Press, 2018), devotes Chapter 5 to education's selfish returns (more commonly known as "private returns") and Chapter 6 to education's social returns. Chapter 7 provides supplemental calculations.
This is where I show my work. Please email me comments, questions, and especially corrections.
Note: Earlier versions of Excel may have a file conversion issue that prevents them from calculating negative rates of return. If any reported returns appear as "#NUM," here's how to fix it.
The Selfish and Social Returns to Education, introductory slideshow.
Chapter 5
- Background files, including documentation of all variables and key assumptions, the derivation of students' probabilities of successfully completing years of education (Figure 5.6), and Meta spreadsheet for generating main variables for selfish returns.
- Selfish Return by Ability files (Figures 5.1, 5.2, 5.3, 5.5, 5.7)
- Naive Selfish Return files (Figure 5.4), spreadsheets for generating main variables for selfish returns assuming zero ability bias and 100% degree completion.
- Selfish Return by Major files (Figure 5.8)
- Selfish Return by College Quality files (Figure 5.9)
- Selfish Returns by Out-of-Pocket Cost files (Figure 5.10)
- Selfish Returns for School Lovers and School Haters files (Figure 5.11)
- Selfish Return by Sex files (Figure 5.12)
- Selfish Return for Married Men and Women files (Figure 5.13).
- Selfish Returns, Correcting for Workforce Participation files (Figure 5.15)
Chapter 6
- Additional Background files for generating main variables for social variables, including crime-related variables (Figure 6.3)
- Social Return with Cautious Signaling files (Figures 6.2, 6.4, 6.5); note that in earlier drafts of the book "Cautious Signaling" was called "Conservative Signaling."
- Social Return with Reasonable Signaling files (Figures 6.2, 6.6), spreadsheets for generating main variables for selfish returns assuming zero ability bias and 100% degree completion.
- Social Return with One-Third, One-Half, and Two-Thirds Signaling files (Figures 6.7, 6.8, 6.9, 6.10)
- Social Return by Sex with Reasonable Signaling files (Figure 6.11)