Macroeconomic Return of Higher Education in Iran

The purpose of current article was to analyze the return of Iran’s higher education system at the macroeconomic level (private and social returns). Return rate was measured by estimation of «macro-Mincer regressions». The regressions was estimated for variables of labor productivity، working capital ratio، average years of schooling، human force expert work experience and import capital goods by using time series data for 32 years (1979-2010) in ten different conditions. Estimation results indicated that one year increase in average years of higher education will increase labor productivity by 77 percent. The average marginal return of higher education in Iran in the last 32 years was 77 percent and total macroeconomic return in 2010 was about 44 percent.