The human capital of the population is a key determinant of labor-market success and economic growth. This brings the economics of education to the core of understanding individual and societal economic prosperity.
This course introduces students to the key concepts and major issues of economics of education, placing emphasis on current empirical research in the field. Topics include: the basic theory of investments in education (human capital theory) and the role of early childhood education; the returns to education and the empirical problem of disentangling the return to education from the return to innate ability; the role of class size, peer effects and school expenditure, etc. After the course, students are expected to be able to read, understand and discuss current research in economics of education, as well as to contribute to the discussion about the current challenges in education.

Prerequisites: Microeconomics, Macroeconomics and Econometrics at introductory level.

Main instructor of the course Miroslava Federicova, Ph.D. is a Researcher at CERGE-EI and at IDEA Think Tank. She received her Ph.D. from CERGE-EI in 2016 and holds also MA in Mathematics of economics and finance from the Comenius University in Bratislava, Slovakia. Miroslava’s research is focused on economics of education, applied microeconomics and microeconometrics, specializing in inequalities in education with a special interest in the effect of school system on inequalities in educational opportunities.

Classes will start on March 6 and will last till April 14, 2023.

Detailed syllabus of the course is available here!

To take part at this course please fill in the electronic application (opens in new window)!

Application deadline: February 20th, 2023 by 12:00 h (noon).

For additional information contact us at dcoppola@efst.hr or call +385 21 430 706.