Formal education is an expected predictor for economic achievements. In the context of lifelong learning, we also consider informal education as a predictor for economic achievements. We distinguish between formal education (finalizing an educational level which is certified at national level by the responsible institutions, i.e. schools, colleges, and universities) and informal education, which is considered as a compound of the number of contexts perceived of learning from in the past year, contexts to occur spontaneously at any given time (before, during, and after formal education), in a wide variety of forms (e.g. professional training within or outside a company, training organized by NGOs, training on foreign languages, peer communications, discussions with family members, friends, or other people, online information, etc.). We argue that both formal and informal types of training mean that individuals are actively involved in personal lifelong education, which in turn have an impact on their economic situation, independently of their country. Does this assumption hold for the countries included in our study? Is there one pattern resulted from analyzing the effects of formal, informal, and the interaction between formal and informal education on income, controlling for age and gender? If not, what are the observed patterns and what similarities arise? Eurobarometer surveys dedicated one of their studies (ZA3903, 59.0) to the topic of lifelong learning in 2003. They provide data for 18 European territorial units: France, Belgium, The Netherlands, Germany (West), Italy, Luxembourg, Denmark, Ireland, United Kingdom, Greece, Spain, Portugal, Germany (East), Norway, Finland, Sweden, Austria, and Iceland. This particular survey is cross-sectional, with individuals as units of analysis, questioning both attitudes and behaviors on the topic of lifelong education. We test our hypotheses using a structural equation models comparison between countries. Our paper aims at exploring patterns of social stratification bringing to the literature a comparison between the importance of formal and informal education with respect to individual achievements, thus considering lifelong education as compound of these two types of education.
