• Principal investigator: Elisabetta Lodigiani (University of Padova)
• Giorgio Brunello (University of Padova), Francesco Campo (University of Padova), Martina Miotto (University of Padova), Lorenzo Rocco (University of Padova)

Our research is part of “Informed Educational Choice”, a large project that accompanies other works devoted to examining households’ sustainability (Spoke 3) through the lenses of human capital investments (Work Package #2). Our work, led by the University of Padova, studies the main determinants of school choices with a focus on post-secondary education using newly collected survey data.

We propose to study a relevant determinant of Italian households’ sustainability: individuals’ investment in human capital. This topic is more than ever relevant, amidst the economic and financial upheavals that have characterized the country over the last two decades, and the vulnerability of Italian households induced by the recent pandemic.

We plan to interview students attending the last year of secondary school in Italy, who are about to make their decision about tertiary education (whether to enroll to university or not, and which field of study to choose).

We will measure their expectations in terms of monetary and non-monetary returns to education, and plan to create indicators on how much those expectations differ from current labor market data. We will also collect a wide range of demographic data and
educational preferences which will further inform us on the determinants of students’ investment in human capital.