Re-thinking the received wisdom on education : alternative policy lessons

This technical report deals with secondary data analysis on the link between education investment, educational outcomes and socioeconomic indicators/outputs such as Research Excellence in Science & Technology, Global Innovation Index, Global Competitiveness Index, Human Development Index, and more generally, employment rates, educational attainment or per capita income. In this research (still ongoing) there is a reflection on the fact that while higher education attainment levels go hand in hand with various economic performance indicators, however, these indicators typically hide the differences that exist among countries; both in terms of job prospects of highly educated people and skill differences among those with the same level of education attained. Taking such differences into account, this research seems to show that the policy implications that follow from the received wisdom on education are questionable.