ERIC Number: ED236548
Record Type: RIE
Publication Date: 1983-Mar-18
Reference Count: 0
The Consumption Benefits of Literacy.
To determine the consumption benefits of education, this report details a study that explored the cost placed on items or services associated with basic literacy in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. The first section both explains why consumer prices for books, newspapers, and postage are valid indicators of the consumption benefits of education and outlines the basic approach to be used in the study. After the second section implements this approach to estimate the consumption benefits of acquiring literacy in nineteenth century England, the third section compares the estimate with the pecuniary value and costs of acquiring literacy. It argues that consumption benefits probably outweighed both the pecuniary benefits and the cost of literacy, and that changes in government policy with regard to consumer benefits may have had a stronger impact on the rise of popular literacy than the policy measures usually emphasized, such as school provisions and child labor restrictions. The final section briefly considers modifications and extensions of these conclusions to developing nations in the twentieth century. (MM)
Publication Type: Speeches/Meeting Papers; Reports - Research
Education Level: N/A
Authoring Institution: N/A
Note: Paper presented at the Meeting of the Comparative and International Education Society (Atlanta, GA, March 18, 1983).