The Benefits to Taxpayers from Increases in Students - RAND ...

82 The Benefits to Taxpayers from Increases in Students’ Educational Attainment
Table 7.6 summarizes the results by scenario. Increased education generally yields
greater net benefits for Hispanic men than for Hispanic women.
Sensitivity Analysis
To explore the extent to which our results are sensitive to the estimates of the effects
of education on net benefits to taxpayers, we replicated all the calculations, this time
assuming that the effects of increases in education on each type of benefit to taxpayers
were 25 percent smaller than our estimates. We then calculated the percentage reduction
in the estimated effect of an increase in education for each of the demographic
populations if the effect of the increase in education on tax payments, social program
costs, and incarceration costs were only 75 percent as large as our estimate. In the
recalculations, we assume the costs of providing the additional education are the same
as in our original estimates. Table 7.7 shows the range of percentage reductions in net
benefits to taxpayers across the demographic groups for each increase in the level of
education.
Table 7.6
Net Benefits from Increased Educational Attainment Among U.S.-Born
Hispanics (2002 $, thousands)
Increase in Educational Attainment Men Women
From high school dropout to college graduate 228 190
From high school dropout to high school graduate 92 83
From high school graduate to some college 50 37
From some college to college graduate 90 82
SOURCE: Appendixes B, C, and D.
Table 7.7
Range of Percentage Reduction in Net Benefits to Taxpayers If the
Effect of Increased Education Is Reduced 25 Percent
Increase in Education Level
Less than high school graduate
to high school graduate
High school graduate to some
college
Some college to bachelor’s
degree or more
Less than high school graduate
to bachelor’s degree or more
Percentage Reduction
28 (black man) to 34 (Asian man)
29 (black man) to 36 (white woman)
32 (black woman) to 37 (white woman)
29 (black man) to 34 (white woman)