Educational Attainment in Australia

Australians have increased their educational attainment over the past few decades, essentially catching up with their peers in the rest of the OECD. Although older Australians have lower upper secondary attainment, the educational attainment of young Australians is similar to the OECD average. With strong educational attainment among young Australians, the flow of younger well-educated cohorts into the working-age population will gradually improve Australia’s total stock of human capital. While it seems plausible to believe that such increases in measured educational attainment will benefit Australia’s economic performance, it is difficult to find statistical support for such a conclusion from a cross-country comparison of productivity and educational attainment.