• The External Social Benefits of Higher Education:Introduction to This Special Issue
• Walter W. McMahon and Jennifer A. Delaney

This special issue of the Journal of Education Finance presents new, original research on the external social benefits of higher education. The external benefits of higher education are the public, or social, benefits that flow to others including future generations. These are distinguished from private benefits such as individual earnings or individual health that benefit both the college graduate and his or her family. We are excited to present this new research especially because external social benefits provide the main rationale for public support of education at all levels, including higher education. They are also important because they are known to be central to total factor productivity and economic growth (based on modern endogenous growth theory and research). In addition, they are central to per capita development (which includes the non-monetary benefits of higher education beyond earnings). External benefits of higher education, therefore, are vital to development and the well-being of individuals, communities, and nations.

The theme of this special issue is that education, and especially higher education externalities, are central to economically efficient rates of per capita development and therefore crucial to the well-being of an educated society. These external social benefits depend on public funding. This means that education finance, and especially the funding of higher education, profoundly matters.

However, in spite of evidence of underinvestment to be cited, the US and countries around the world are experiencing falling public financial support per student for higher education (Johnstone & Marcucci 2010, SHEEO 2020). This is leading to greater volatility in funding, high tuition, rising privatization, and insufficient and inequitable college access. It has also led to larger class sizes, adverse effects on quality, rising student debt, slower productivity growth, rising income inequality, and differences in education outcomes that are reflected in voting patterns (McMahon 2009). These symptoms all emphasize the central role of adequate human capital skill development requiring both public and private support, and the importance of education finance.

The articles in this special issue start with a broad conceptual and empirical [End Page 387] overview, and then focus on specific higher education externalities. There are a range of new findings, both conceptual and empirical. In addition, there is also new research based on new datasets that confirm, reinforce, and extend prior empirical works that show the external social benefits of higher education. The articles that focus on higher education externalities provide empirical estimates of specific external benefits at higher, secondary, and primary levels of education worldwide as well as in 22 developed and 175 less developed countries. Other articles follow on specific externalities in 53 sub-Saharan African countries, the European Union (EU), and Spain and Portugal. The issue concludes with two articles reporting new empirical research in the US, one on civic returns and the other on volatility in state funding for higher education and its adverse implications for external social benefits.

In a single special issue, it is only possible to deeply probe into a few aspects of this vast subject. As such, we have chosen to put externalities into a broad context, hopefully in an innovative way both conceptually and empirically, and then through well-designed articles that reinforce existing evidence and investigate new externalities. We omit evidence based on macro-growth equations because it ignores important evidence based on non-monetary development outcomes beyond earnings or effects on Gross Domestic Product (GDP).

In the process, it is hoped that readers will be inspired to extend knowledge in this vast field. Future research is needed on many under-researched external social benefits, such as the contributions of college graduates over their lifetimes to new ideas and the application of new knowledge, to improving democratic systems and enhancing human rights via political stability, and to achieving environmental sustainability. In addition, new research is needed on how external benefits vary by academic discipline including how the social sciences, humanities, and education fields contribute to the rule of law as well as a fair and just society. More research is also needed to better understand how social benefit externalities contribute to total factor productivity...

• 高等教育的外部社会效益：本期特刊简介
• 沃尔特·W·麦克马洪和詹妮弗·A·德莱尼

这期特刊中的杂志教育财政的对高等教育的外部社会效益提出了新的、原创的研究。高等教育的外部利益是流向包括后代在内的其他人的公共或社会利益。这些不同于私人福利，如个人收入或个人健康，使大学毕业生及其家人受益。我们很高兴展示这项新研究，特别是因为外部社会效益是公众支持各级教育（包括高等教育）的主要理由。它们也很重要，因为众所周知它们对全要素生产率和经济增长至关重要（基于现代内生增长理论和研究）。此外，它们是人均发展的核心（包括高等教育在收入之外的非货币收益）。因此，高等教育的外部利益对个人、社区和国家的发展和福祉至关重要。

本期特刊的主题是教育，尤其是高等教育的外部性，是人均发展经济有效率的核心，因此对受过教育的社会的福祉至关重要。这些外部社会福利取决于公共资金。这意味着教育资金，尤其是高等教育资金，意义重大。

然而，尽管有证据表明投资不足，但美国和世界各国的高等教育人均公共财政支持正在下降（Johnstone & Marcucci 2010，SHEEO 2020）。这导致资金波动更大、学费高昂、私有化加剧以及大学入学机会不足和不平等。它还导致更大的班级规模、对质量的不利影响、学生债务增加、生产率增长放缓、收入不平等加剧以及投票模式反映的教育成果差异（McMahon 2009）。这些症状都强调足够的人力资本技能发展的需要核心作用这两个公共和私人部门的支持，以及教育财政的重要性。

本期特刊中的文章从广泛的概念和经验开始[End Page 387]概述，然后关注特定的高等教育外部性。有一系列新的发现，包括概念性的和经验性的。此外，还有基于新数据集的新研究，这些研究证实、加强和扩展了先前的实证工作，这些工作显示了高等教育的外部社会效益。专注于高等教育外部性的文章提供了对全球以及 22 个发达国家和 175 个欠发达国家的高等教育、中等和小学教育的特定外部收益的实证估计。其他文章关注 53 个撒哈拉以南非洲国家、欧盟 (EU) 以及西班牙和葡萄牙的特定外部性。本期以两篇报道美国新实证研究的文章结尾，

在一个特殊的问题上，只能深入探讨这个庞大主题的几个方面。因此，我们选择将外部性置于一个广泛的背景下，希望在概念和经验上都采用创新的方式，然后通过精心设计的文章来加强现有证据并调查新的外部性。我们忽略了基于宏观增长方程的证据，因为它忽略了基于非货币发展成果的重要证据，而不是收入或对国内生产总值 (GDP) 的影响。

在此过程中，希望读者能受到启发，在这个广阔的领域扩展知识。未来需要对许多研究不足的外部社会效益进行研究，例如大学毕业生一生对新思想和新知识的应用、通过政治稳定改善民主制度和加强人权以及实现环境可持续性的贡献. 此外，需要对外部利益如何因学科而异，包括社会科学、人文和教育领域如何促进法治以及公平公正的社会进行新的研究。还需要更多的研究来更好地了解社会福利外部性如何促进全要素生产率......