Essay: Education, Income, and Social Behavior Across Missouri

You wouldn’t expect a lot of pushback if you claimed that there is a positive relationship between income and level of education. But simple truisms only get us so far, especially in formulating policy. Education budgets aren’t unlimited, and the best use of our resources isn’t always obvious. Should we concentrate on maximizing the number of people who earn a college degree, or is it more important to focus on getting as many students as possible through high school?

A new essay by Gail Heyne Hafer and Rik Hafer explores questions like these by examining data across Missouri counties to track not only economic outcomes but also social behavior in order to see whether different levels of education produce different outcomes at the county level and to inform debate about how educational funding should be allocated across the state.

Click on the link below to read the entire essay.