How education became a variable in economic thought : three turning points

This article reconstructs the long intellectual trajectory through which education gradually came to be conceptualised as a variable within economic thought. Rather than emerging suddenly in twentieth-century economics, the economic treatment of education developed through a sequence of theoretical reconfigurations spanning more than two centuries. The analysis identifies three major turning points. The first is Jean-Baptiste Say’s recognition of education and knowledge as forms of immaterial wealth embedded in the productive process. The second is John Stuart Mill’s attempt to integrate education within political economy while preserving its role in individual development, social progress, and intellectual pluralism. The third is Gary S. Becker’s formalisation of education as human capital, fully incorporated into economic theory through investment models, rates of return, and dynamic growth frameworks. By situating these contributions within their broader philosophical and methodological contexts - including Baconian epistemology, utilitarianism, and debates on specialisation - the article clarifies how education was progressively transformed from a philosophical and moral concern into an endogenous economic variable. The reconstruction sheds light on the conceptual foundations of contemporary educational economics and on the assumptions that continue to shape current debates on learning, work, and technological change.