Private Economic Returns to Education in Nigeria: A Further Update

In Nigeria, acquiring education has been looked upon as an escape route out of poverty for individuals, households, communities and the society at large. This paper examines this view by determining the private economic returns to education at various educational levels in the country in order to ascertain what level of education yields the highest economic returns to individuals. The study employs the Mincer earnings function using the Double Hurdle model estimation technique and distinguishes between tertiary education and post graduate education. This paper concludes that the highest rates of private economic returns to education arise from higher levels of education with post graduate education providing a significantly high rate of private economic returns to individuals.