Cost - Benefit Analysis of Higher Education in the Humanities

In recent decades, a global tendency towards the knowledge-based economy has become human capital and effective labor to one of the major factors of economic growth and has led to increasing willingness of governments and individuals to invest in higher education. Generally, considering higher education as an investment and development of educational systems on the one hand and increasing the share of education in GDP and the national budget, on the other hand, has attracted the attention of economists and planners to evaluate the effectiveness of investment in education. One of the most effective techniques in this field is Cost - Benefit Analysis (CBA) that by using it planners can decide on the allocation of resources to different levels of higher education. In this study, based on cost - benefit analysis to estimate the private and social rates of return to higher education in the humanities. For this purpose, two ex-ant and ex-post implementation methods have been used. In the ex-ante method using data collected about the expected income of undergraduate, Master's and Doctorate students of humanities in Tabriz University expected a private rate of return to education is estimated. Also, in the ex-post method, using the data collected from state employees with a degree in Humanities group, achieved private rates of return is calculated. At the end, the social rate of return for bachelor, master, and doctorate are calculated. Based on the results the rate of return is negative in all three levels. This indicates the lack of an appropriate return on human capital in the country.