Links for 8/30/10 Signaling Edition (mostly)

Bryan Caplan

A high fraction of education teaches no useful jobs skills; instead, it's largely socially wasteful signaling. Government support for education is like government subsidies for air pollution; they encourage additional production of a good that the free market already overproduces relative to the efficient level. A first-best efficient education policy would actually tax education; but given public choice problems, the wisest course is to eliminate government support and rely on laissez-faire…

Bill Dickens responds

nearly all of the value of schooling is signaling? I used to take that view too, but the accumulation of evidence that I've seen leads me to believe that isn't the case…

There are plenty of entrepreneurs out there trying to make money by selling cheaper, in time and money, versions of education and they aren't very successful…

So how do I square curriculum content with my view that education is productive?...

1. Education isn't mainly about learning specific subject matter. Rather education is mainly about practicing the sort of self-discipline that is necessary to be productive in a modern work environment. High school allows you to practice showing up on time and doing what you are told. College allows you to practice and work out techniques that work for you that allow you to take on and complete on time complicated multi-part tasks in an environment where you have considerable freedom about how you spend your time…

3. Education is not just investment in work capital, its also an investment in consumption capital and social capital…

Bryan Caplan responds to the response

Relative to sitting around smoking pot, I agree that school inculcates some productive character traits… However, I deny that education inculcates productive character traits relative to having a job…

Scott Sumner

Unfortunately, Americans often seem to want to either ban things or mandate them—with no in-between option of freedom...