---
title: Does education really pay
date: "2002-11-17T12:00:00Z"
categories:
  - links
wp_id: 1037
description: I'm looking at a Forbes piece arguing that education correlates with high pay rather than causing it. It suggests labor markets actually value intelligence, and smart people simply tend to seek out higher education as a signal.
keywords: [labor market, correlation vs causation, intelligence, signaling theory, economics, education]
---

[Does education really pay?](http://www.forbes.com/forbes/2002/1125/124.html?_requestid=134) An interesting article on Forbes arguing that education does not **cause** higher salaries, but is merely correlated with it. The logic sequence is broadly:

- Labour markets want smart people.
- Smart people tend to want education.
- Hence labour markets appear to want educated people.