The key messages from this topic guide are:

• Education economics starts from the basis that there are returns to education that increase the wealth and well-being of the educated.
• Economists view education as a merit good, in that there are externalities or spillovers, meaning returns to education benefit others beyond the person being educated.
• Government/public sector intervention in education can be justified by these spillovers, as well as by market failures in capital markets and/or in the provision of information, which mean the market alone would provide insufficient education.
• In addition, there is a view of education as a ‘right’, which means it should be provided regardless of cost–benefit ratios.

The guide is organised into the following sections:

• Education, skills and growth
• The returns to education
• Education systems in developing nations
• Education policy, interventions, evidence
• Aid, finance and education