As part of a broader initiative to prevent early school leaving carried out by the Municipality of Brindisi together with the FOQUS Foundation of Naples and Nesta Italy, a team of economists and researchers from the Federico II University of Naples conducted a research on the social cost of early school leaving.

The research has tried to experimentally calculate variables and expense items associated to early school leaving to establish the cost for each citizen involved in the phenomenon. The study has determined a calculation grid applicable to any city that wants to understand how much the non-investment in human capital costs. It specifically investigates the cost of early school leaving, happening before the age of 16 during the age of compulsory schooling.

At national and European level, the numbers and the causes of early school leaving are clear, as well as the externalities connected to early exit from the education system and training. However, what it is not known is the “cost of drop out” both at a national and at local level.

As Bolton Hope Foundation, we support the team of researchers in the continuation of the research activity. The aim is to refine and improve this first attempt at monetary quantification of the costs of school dropout at the municipal level, and therefore being able to estimate with higher precision the costs of this phenomenon borne by the community. The project, which began in June 2022, will lead to the definitive version of the research report by the first half of 2023.