The Rate of Return to Private Schooling

This paper examines the relationship between ?school quality? and earnings in the United Kingdom. The specific focus is on evaluating the effect that private schooling has on hourly wage rates. It is well known that private (i.e. fee-paying) schools compared to state schools score higher on most measures of school quality. Therefore by comparing individuals with private schooling to those with state schooling (and controlling for other variables) it is possible to indirectly evaluate the effect of school quality. Panel data from five waves of the British Household Panel Survey are used in the analysis.