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This paper provides technical details of the estimates presented in the report 'The cost to Australia of early school-leaving' (indexed at TD/TNC 75.471). The task for this study has been to estimate the lifetime costs to the country of a single-year cohort of early school-leavers. The lifetime is taken to be over the ages from 16 to 64 years, and the estimate is undertaken separately for males and females. Aspects covered in this paper include: estimation of the number of early school-leavers; the valuation of costs and benefits; the choice of parameters for the calculations; and the presentation and specifications of an illustrative case. The costs (and benefits) covered by the estimates include: direct monetary costs and benefits, that is the additional earnings of early school-leavers over the school-age years (including disaggregation into income tax and after-tax components); the savings in education costs; the foregone earnings over the post-school-age years (including disaggregation into income tax and after-tax components); social security; and indirect tax.