treatment, usually requires a certain upfront cost with an uncertain future benefit. The investment in

education, or human capital, is no different. Over the span of many years, a student and her family invest

significant amounts of time and money into that student’s education. The idea is that higher levels of

educational attainment will eventually serve to increase the student’s future productivity and subsequent

ability to earn. Once the student crunches the numbers, does this investment pay off for her?

Almost universally, economists have found that the answer to this question is a clear “Yes.” For example,

several studies of the return to education in the United States estimate that the rate of return to a college

education is approximately 10-15%. Data in Table 13.2, from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics’ Usual Weekly

Earnings of Wage and Salary Workers, Fourth Quarter 2021,demonstrate that median weekly earnings are
{"creationdate": "2022-12-07T14:15:44-06:00", "upload_timestamp": "2026-02-07T15:24:38.309401", "total_pages": 597, "file_name": "Microeconomics3e.pdf", "producer": "Prince 14.2 (www.princexml.com)", "creator": "PDFMiner", "batch_upload": true, "moddate": "2022-12-07T14:23:05-06:00", "file_size_mb": 26.99, "title": "Principles of Microeconomics 3e", "file_type": ".pdf", "uploaded_via": "batch_uploader", "source": "downloads\\business\\economics\\Microeconomics3e.pdf", "file_hash": "830b81f41611ac67a490444dbb5d6aed292224606965b06965b914443c93331a", "source_file": "downloads\\business\\economics\\Microeconomics3e.pdf"}