Reflexão sobre a Rendibilidade da Educação na Região Autónoma dos Açores: Aspectos Teóricos e Metodologias

Abstract

According to the theory of human capital education is considered an investment with expectable profitability. Educational profitability can be analysed from the individual perspective, from the social viewpoint and from the labour productivity angle. In this article we took the individual point of view, this is to say, the education assessment taken as an individual investment evaluation. Actually, like any other investment, education involves costs for the person who takes it but there is also an expected future compensation with higher salaries involving necessarily an individual internal rate of return. The aim of this paper is to review theoretical and methodological issues related to education profitability. Simultaneously we present a brief description of the level of population education in the Azores and estimate that the internal rate of return of education for employees is around 8% both for the Azores and for Mainland Portugal. On the other hand it can be shown that the structure of the labour force in the Azores constraints the convergence of the average monthly wages between that Region and Mainland Portugal.