meu caro Watson

"When identifying incentives – and disincentives - to invest in education, OECD suggest that “one way to mitigate weak labour market returns is to provide higher education at lower costs for the individual”, by subsidising the direct costs of education or providing students with loans and grants to improve incentives and access to education. It also underlines trade-offs between taxes and the direct costs of education (tuition fees). Indeed, in countries with low or no tuition fees, individuals typically payback public subsidies later in life through progressive tax systems. In countries in which a larger portion of the investment falls on the individual, in the form of tuition fees, earnings differentials tend to be larger, and a larger portion of them goes to the individual.

As regards the impact of education on growth, available data makes clear that highly qualified people generate a positive impact on GDP, even during severe economic recession. Indeed, over the past decade, more than half of the GDP growth in OECD countries is related to labour income growth among tertiary-educated individuals and although GDP shrank by almost 4% across OECD countries in 2009, labour income growth among tertiary graduates still made a positive contribution to GDP of 0.4%. Those with mid-range jobs and skills felt the most severe impact of the 2009 drop in GDP: the labour income growth for those with an upper secondary or post-secondary non-tertiary level of education had a negative impact on GDP of - 0.8%, while those without an upper secondary education had, on average, a more limited negative impact on GDP (-0.5%)."

do relatório da OCDE sobre a educação em 2012, em .pdf.