The economic benefits of literacy

This discussion can benefit from the analysis of costs and benefits of preschool programs derived from research conducted in the U. S., in light of the absence of any longitudinal Canadian studies of this nature. [...] Estimates of the costs of special education and grade repetition, and of the number of children in special education are thanks to Caroline Minter Hoxby and Julie Berry Cullen. [...] These skill domains are based upon a combination of the academic literature on human cognition and intelligence, the job and task analyses that underlie occupational skill standards, the literature on the expected outputs of education and the skills that are thought to be associated with full and equitable social and economic participation. [...] Such variation is undoubtedly the product of underlying variation in the degree to which firms employ and reward skill and in the actual skill levels of workers. [...] The effects of low income and limited literacy could result in high social and economic costs to individuals and to society, especially given the current economic restructuring and associated increases in the demand for labour and skill in Canada’s labour markets.