Education, skills and upward immobility: The limits in self-actualisation

George Kararach ()

Chapter 4 in Liberating Economics From Ideologies and Dystopia, 2025, pp 51-60 from Edward Elgar Publishing

Abstract: In neoliberal economic theory, education enhances individual human capital and productivity, influencing the demand for educational services. Individuals and firms invest in education and training by comparing costs with expected returns, with market provision deemed more efficient. Education should foster entrepreneurial freedoms within a framework of strong property rights, free markets and free trade. However, when market mechanisms enter education, profit-driven entities often exploit public funds, leading to low-quality credentials and undermining public institutions. This transformation has occurred in both developing and developed countries, where neoliberal policies opened public funding for education to non-public providers, including for-profit entities. The result has been devastating, with unscrupulous entrepreneurs leaving students with debts for incomplete or low-quality credentials and weakening public education providers (Nakar et al., 2018; Mamdani, 2007).

Keywords: Education; Human capital; Labour productivity; Skills; Training; Social ladder; Neoliberalism (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2025
ISBN: 9781035316175
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