Erola: Education: Investments on who and why? Presentation at TITA Annual Research Meeting, Turku 15.-16.9.2016.

1. EDUCATION:INVESTMENTS ON WHO AND WHY?
JANI EROLA, UNIVERSITY OF TURKU

2. Education is a classic example of social investments
Invest on human capital = invenst on growth

3. INVESTING
Intentional behavior
Aiming at a positive outcome
Does this by using resources more
than otherwise would be spent

4. INVESTMENT
A proportion spent
(vs. amount of spending without investing)

5. 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

6. SOCIAL INVESTMENTS ARE TARGETTED
TO INCREASE
Skills and capabilities
Employment
Social inclusion

7. SO IN TERMS OF EDUCATION...
Not much can be gained in elementary schooling
Especially so in Finland!
Small returns, bad investment!

8. ROOM IN PRE-PRIMARY
EDUCATION?

9. 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.

13. 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

14. DAYCARE A BAD INVESTMENT?

15. No, if that makes gains from parental education possible!
Enables educatated parents to work

16. HOW ABOUT
POST-ELEMENTARY
EDUCATION?

17. Elina Kilpi-Jakonen, Jani Erola & Aleksi Karhula:
Inequalities in the haven of equality? Upper secondary
education and entry into tertiary
education in Finland.
In “Secondary Education Models and Social Inequality: An
International Comparison”, ed. by Hans-Peter Blossfeld,
Sandra Buchholz, Jan Skopek & Moris
Triventi, Edward Elgar 2016.

20. INVESTMENT POINT OF VIEW
More investments on University education of those
coming from non-university background

21. BUT HOW DO YOU DO
THAT?

22. SUBSIDIZE COSTS?
All education is already free of charge + costs of living
subsidized
Evidence suggests parental income is not not the key
issue

23. Further evidence: expansion of higher education helps

24. But that is not targeted and will increase the educational
level of all
Falls outside social investment scope

25. (Perhaps) a solution: loopholes

26. THERE ARE A LOT OF LOOPHOLES !

27. 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)

28. Allocating resources to universal systems likely more
efficient for reaching the goals