A quantitative look at the economic impact of the European Union's educational goals

Periodical
Education Economics
Volume
28
Year
2020
Issue number
3
Page range
225-244
Relates to study/studies
PISA 2015

A quantitative look at the economic impact of the European Union's educational goals

Abstract

This paper quantifies the economic benefits of educational improvement covered by the educational goals of the European Union, providing disaggregated projections for each of the EU countries and comparative economic results for alternative policy goals. Increased student achievement by 25 PISA points across the EU would be expected to add euro71 trillion in present value to EU GDP over the status quo. By contrast, the more limited EU goal of reducing low achievement to 15 percent by country would have an impact of only euro5 trillion. Central to the analysis is careful attention to the dynamics of educational reform.