The authors discuss the factors which predetermine research into the effectiveness of education and the role of economics in educational research. Three fundamental research areas are identified: macroeconomic research into the relations between the national economy and culture and the educational system, economic aspects of the functioning of education, and cost-effectiveness in individual terms. The principles of planning and its implications for policy are discussed and the role of research on expenditure and costs defined. The effects of education are shown as being of two kinds, direct and indirect, and their relative importance for planning is considered and illustrated with examples from the authors' own research in Poland. Finally, the quantitative and qualitative aspects of extensive and intensive development policies and their relationship to overall national economic development are investigated and a number of conclusions drawn.