Introduction

“Good education is a valuable good that is the key factor for future prosperity”

This is true insofar as it enables human beings to act independently, to participate in social life and to develope civil society regulated behavior. Good education also strangthens health and environmental awareness.

And it is also true from a pure economic perspective. A good education is a, if not the decisive, factor for the economic prosperity of individuals and society. Employment , adequate income and poverty prevention rise and fall with a good education of the population .

As an example we see that only through education the European countries will manage to solve the massive problems they undergo these days with the millions of refugees who enter Europe. Good, qualified education in languages and skills is the answer how to successfully integrate these people into the society and the labour market.

Education and Prosperity

The economic importance of education can be proved by many facts. From an individual point of view unemployment decreases and the income rises with better education.

But also for the development of the national economy as a whole a high quality education is essential. Recent empirical studies show that the educational performance of the population, as measured approximately in international student comparison tests, are the most important long-term determinant of economic growth and the long-term prosperity of a society.

Better education of the individual is not at the economic expense of someone else. Ideas, a good education is worth nothing if everyone had, are based on the false assumption of a fixed size of its economic "cake " and are completely wrong. The “cake” grows, if everybody achieves a higher level of education. i.e. the entire national economy benefits from a good education of the population.