This research received institutional support from the Spanish Science and Technology System (Project numbers ECO2015-67999-R MINECO/FEDER, ECO2016-78991-R MINECO/FEDER and CSO2016-77449-R), the Catalan Government Science Network (Project number SGR2014-1257), the XREPP - Xarxa de Referència en R+D+I en Economia i Politiques Publiques (XREPP) of Catalan Government, the Red de excelencia SIMBIEN ECO2015- 71981-REDT, the Agaur grant number FI-DGR 2013, and the European Commission through the VII Framework Programme (AGENTA project, grant agreement no: 613247). Elisenda Renteria acknowledges the support from the sub-program Juan de la Cierva (JdlC-I-2014-21178) from the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness.

This paper shows the estimates of National Transfer Accounts (NTA) for Spain in 2006 disaggregated by education level. Overall, our results indicate that, besides age population composition, education level has a big impact on the economic behavior of households and, hence, on the aggregate economy. Educated households tend to participate more and longer in the labor market, to produce more and, consequently, to consume more. As differences in consumption are lower than in labor income, they are able to contribute to the public system with higher taxes and contributions, and they depend less on public transfers over their lifecycle. Therefore, education seems to be crucial to sustain the welfare state in an ageing society.