Primary education continues to yield high returns in developing countries, and the returns decline by the level of schooling and a country's per capita income.

Is College a Lousy Investment?: Negotiating the Hidden Cost of Higher Education discusses many of the economic misconceptions about earning a college degree. While it is widely believed that attending college guarantees wealth and success, students, concerned parents, and higher education professionals have neglected calculating the full-range of short-term and long-terms costs. Our work illustrates how the promotion of education merely as a commodity come at a high price for the individual and society. We argue how the idea of ‘investment’ can be expanded from a short-sighted view to engage a broader, more holistic rationale for higher education from which students can expect a full return on investment.

Hard-headed evidence on why the returns from investing in girls are so high that no nation or family can afford not to educate their girls. Gene Sperling, author of the seminal 2004 report published by the Council on Foreign Relations, and Rebecca Winthrop, director of the Center for Universal Education, have written this definitive book on the importance of girls’ education. As Malala Yousafzai expresses in her foreword, the idea that any child could be denied an education due to poverty, custom, the law, or terrorist threats is just wrong and unimaginable. More than 1,000 studies have provided evidence that high-quality girls’ education around the world leads to wide-ranging returns: Better outcomes in economic areas of growth and incomes Reduced rates of infant and maternal mortality Reduced rates of child marriage Reduced rates of the incidence of HIV/AIDS and malaria Increased agricultural productivity Increased resilience to natural disasters Women’s empowerment What Works in Girls’ Education is a compelling work for both concerned global citizens, and any academic, expert, nongovernmental organization (NGO) staff member, policymaker, or journalist seeking to dive into the evidence and policies on girls’ education.

The Economics of Education: A Comprehensive Overview, Second Edition, offers a comprehensive and current overview of the field of that is broadly accessible economists, researchers and students. This new edition revises the original 50 authoritative articles and adds Developed (US and European) and Developing Country perspectives, reflecting the differences in institutional structures that help to shape teacher labor markets and the effect of competition on student outcomes. - Provides international perspectives that describe the origins of key subjects, their major issues and proponents, their landmark studies, and opportunities for future research - Increases developing county perspectives and comparisons of cross-country institutions - Requires no prior knowledge of the economics of education