Recent MBA graduates have seen their return on investment fall since the recession, according to data from The Economist’s latest ranking of full-time programmes. Graduates of European business schools were hit particularly hard. Although they still tended to earn more than their counterparts around the world—they are usually older with more work experience—the gap is narrowing. The average basic salary for a student straight out of a European programme was $98,000, a 66% increase on their pre-MBA earnings. For graduates of North American programmes it was $86,000, an increase of 64%. Students from HEC Paris earned the most of any school surveyed: an average of $138,000