Is College a Worthwhile Investment?
综述了大学教育回报的现有证据，基于最新数据计算了个人投资大学的收益，并分析了不同群体和院校特征下的回报差异，结论是大学平均而言是值得的投资。
This article surveys the existing evidence on the return to a college education and offers new calculations based on recent data. We focus on an individual’s decision and outline the standard conceptual framework used by economists to analyze investments in education. We then compare alternative estimates of the value of a college education in the literature and reconcile them with our own preferred estimates. We also conduct a selective review of the literature seeking to estimate the causal effects of college on pecuniary and nonpecuniary outcomes. Finally, we provide additional calculations showing the heterogeneity in returns to college across certain institutional and demographic characteristics, review the related academic literature, and discuss the risk associated with a college investment. We conclude that college is certainly a worthwhile investment on average and likely worthwhile for many subgroups, although not necessarily for everyone.