From ex-post to ex-ante evaluation: estimating returs to higher education in the U.K.

The dissertation I present investigates recent developments achieved in the field of policy evaluation, exploring the techniques that allow to perform some kind of analysis that look beyond traditional objectives: this is the essence of going from ex-post to ex-ante evaluation. Conducting an ex-ante evaluation of a public policy works toward exploring potential results of a reform never implemented. Actually, the power of ex-ante evaluation from a policy-maker prospective is great, since it allows to answer to a wide variety of policy questions. This work focuses on the evaluation of public policy concerning education, defining the theoretical framework developed over the last decades until the most recent findings. Specifically, I consider the education sector of the United Kingdom and perform an empirical evaluation of the returns to higher education in this country.