Does 'peak education' exist?

This is from a recent study reporting on new evidence on the casual link between education and male youth crime, based on data from Queensland, Australia. It inadvertently analyses the effects of the 2006 "Enactment of the Earning or Learning education reform", which mandated an increase in minimum school leaving age:

...the analysis shed[s] significant light on the extent to which the causal impact reflects incapacitation, or whether more schooling acts to reduce crime after youths have left compulsory schooling. The empirical analysis uncovers a significant incapacitation effect, as remaining in school for longer reduces crime whilst in school, but also a sizeable crime reducing impact of education for young men in their late teens and early twenties. 

First of all, it is fantastic that such a policy encourages the application of education as a policy tool to target social issues. The study's results are a testament to the widespread and often immediate benefits of education across all ages.

So with the effectiveness and flow - on benefits of education apparent and even seemingly endless, it has got me thinking, is there a limit, or 'peak education', where the capability of education  reaches its full potential and the benefits begin to secede?

So far it seems to me that 'peak education' doesn't exit. A recent paper using data sets from the first half of the 20th century shows that mafia members who attained more education got paid more in the underworld.  Mobsters reap high rewards from investment in their education - the paper found that "mobsters have significant returns to education of 7.5-8.5 percent, which is only slightly smaller than their neighbours and 2-5 percentage points smaller than for U.S.-born men or male citizens."

Another case study: Singapore's over 65's (the official retirement age in Singapore is 62) are choosing to re- skill and stay in the workforce. Most older workers work in labour intensive industries, as cleaners, machine operators, etc. According to the OECD, (article from Bloomgberg) Singapore’s employment rate for those between ages 55 and 64 is now 66 percent, among the highest of the 34 nations in the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development. So even in old age the benefits of re - education and re- skilling outweigh the costs.

Without evidence to the contrary, the conclusion is that peak education doesn't exist. Education, as a policy tool, is the gift that keeps on giving. And it also happens to align with the one of the core values of this blog: "the belief in the constant re-appraisal and questioning of mindset - thus the blog header, from the perspective of a student with developing ideas."

Considering the current 'digital' economy and the constant need to innovate and re -educate in light of technology,  education is indispensable both as a policy and as - dare I say it - a value.