The empirical framework

This chapter presents an empirical framework that has guided researchers who evaluate the performance of education in fostering the progress of societies. It includes methods that shed light on the features of education systems that have been successful in promoting health and social cohesion. In doing so, it describes well-established methodologies to evaluate whether certain indicators of the education system (e.g. years of education completed, qualifications attained and specific educational interventions received) exhibit causal effects on health and social cohesion. It also describes methodologies for evaluating the pathways through which education has an effect on health and social cohesion. The framework, which helps better interpret and evaluate the emerging literature on the social outcomes of learning, underlies the analyses presented in subsequent chapters.