National transfer accounts (NTA) are an internationally agreed, consistent and integrated way of aggregating and presenting macroeconomic data that provide insight into the entire national economy. Specifically, it is the allocation of primary income, its redistributions by government and families and its uses by single-year age groups of 0 to 80+. Data conveyed by NTAs quantify people’s economic activity, showing how material resources are acquired and used at every age to satisfy personal needs as well as how and when they are shared with other people to secure the present and the future. NTAs indicate how income flows to and from an individual and how these flows are allocated to consumption, savings and investment. NTAs represent a cross-sectional accounting framework, with numerous potential applications, such as enabling greater understanding of investment return through the development of human capital, which is the key aim of this study.

The primary subject of this report is the National Transfer Accounts of Serbia for 2018 and 2019, analysed from an educational perspective. A secondary analysis of these NTAs initiates a discussion about the significance and scope of public and private investment in education, as well as regarding the cost-effectiveness of education, expressed through earnings, living standard, years of service, qualifications, type and the social prestige associated with an individual’s profession. The main question the study seeks to answer is whether the image of investing in education and the return of such investments, both in the private and public domain, can be improved. In brief, NTAs are used here as a tool for guiding the development and establishment of potential roadmaps and guidelines for education policies that could serve to regulate the further development of various aspects of formal education.