I didn’t plan this, but my latest summary for The Case Against Education: Why the Education System Is a Waste of Time and Money by Bryan Caplan comes right as the school year begins for those in the Northern Hemisphere.

As usual, the key takeaways are below, and you can find the full summary by clicking the link above.

A word of warning: although Caplan makes some great points, I've also found multiple flaws with his arguments, particularly when he tries to calculate the social return and overall share of signalling. I am working on a separate post (or posts!) setting out my criticisms of this book so look out for that hopefully later this month.

KEY TAKEAWAYS

• Education pays. High school grads earn more than dropouts; college grads earn more than high school grads; and those with advanced degrees earn even more.
• There are three different explanations for why education pays:
  • Human capital. Education equips people with the skills or traits that employers value.
  • Ability bias. The people who choose to pursue more education just happen to be the type of people employers value more—education didn’t make them valuable to employers.
  • Signalling. Education certifies that people have skills or traits that employers value. This is similar to ability bias, but education still provides some value under signalling because certification itself is useful.
• Caplan argues that the signalling theory has been underrated and accounts for between 33% to 80% of the total return to education.
• The traits that education signals are not just cognitive ability but also conscientiousness and conformity, which creates a catch-22—you can’t signal conformity in an unconventional way.
• The selfish return from education varies for different types of students at different stages of education. Based on US figures, Caplan calculates that:
  • High school is worth it for almost all students.
  • A bachelor’s degree is only a good deal for Excellent and Good Students.
  • Master’s degrees are at best an average deal even for Excellent Students.
• However, the social return from education is different from its selfish returns. Once you account for signalling, the social returns from education are much lower for all students (except for Poor Students finishing high school).
• The policy recommendations Caplan advocates are:
  • Cutting government funding for education;
  • Putting students on vocational education track earlier; and
  • Loosening child labour laws.
• Caplan truly loves education and believes it can enrich the mind. But the current educational system doesn’t do this particularly well, and it’s no good force-feeding great ideas and culture to students who don’t want to be there.

You can find the full detailed summary on the website. If you found this summary useful, consider forwarding to a friend you think might enjoy it.

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​To Summarise​