Schooling and monetary rewards in Greece: an over-education false alarm?

The paper uses data from the 1993-94 household survey to investigate a number of issues stemming from the current educational policy debate in Greece. Private and social returns to investment in education are estimated and a test of the screening hypothesis is conducted. No evidence was found that higher education is being used as a screening device, and the returns to investment in education have been maintained to just below their level in the 1960s. The central finding of the paper is that the fear of further expansion of the university system is highly exaggerated, and that the economy could absorb even larger amounts of highly educated manpower. Of course, such expansion could not take place unless there is an end of the state monopoly on the financing and provision of tertiary education.