Returning to Education The Hamilton Project on Human Capital and Wages

Abstract

Human capital investment is central to raising wages. This article describes trends in human capital investment and educational attainment. It reviews the evidence of the wage returns to educational attainment and to early childhood education, K–12 education, postsecondary education, and workforce development policies and programs. Finally, this chapter synthesizes a decade of Hamilton Project policy proposals on education and human capital around a framework of access, affordability, and quality.