PRIVATE EDUCATION AND 'EDUCATION FOR ALL'

Government schools cannot provide quality education for all. If the goal of education for all is to be achieved, the private sector must be encouraged and not squeezed out. Development agencies need to wake up to this because large-scale government education leads to failure on a large scale that can cause serious harm to the poor.     

THE QUALITY AND EFFICIENCY OF PRIVATE AND PUBLIC EDUCATION: A CASE-STUDY OF URBAN INDIA†

Recent evidence of a substantial link between quality of schooling and individual productivity suggests that, from an economic efficiency perspective, quality aspects of education deserve attention. This paper presents empirical evidence on the relative quality and efficiency of private and government-funded schools in urban India, using data from Uttar Pradesh. The results suggest that standardizing for home background and controlling for sample selectivity greatly reduces the raw average achievement advantage of private school students over public school students, but does not wipe it out. Private schools' standardized achievement advantage (or better quality) is complemented by their lower unit costs to enable them to be more efficient. The results support much of the existing international evidence on the relative efficiency of private and public schools.     

PRIVATE POLICING AND PRIVATE ROADS: A COASIAN APPROACH TO DRUNK-DRIVING POLICY

Alcohol-related traffic accidents are externalities, not because of drinking, but because of relatively free access to public roads. Access limits are Coasian (property-rights) policies, but more effective limits will arise if road owners are liable for failing to provide safe roads. This can be achieved by privatising roads, thereby creating strong incentives to employ innovative private traffic policing.     

INFRASTRUCTURE: OPTIMAL PRIVATE AND GOVERNMENTAL FUNDING AND PROVISION

The excess burden of taxation, which in the US is over $1 trillion, could be reduced by transferring responsibility for funding infrastructure to the private sector, with a corresponding cut in taxes. While governments may resist optimal taxation, private communities are induced to do so by competition. A promising approach to efficient funding of civic infrastructure is its transfer to private enterprise     

REGIONAL DEVELOPMENT IN CHINA: INTERREGIONAL TRANSPORTATION INFRASTRUCTURE AND REGIONAL COMPARATIVE ADVANTAGE

Significant economic disparities among China's Eastern, Central, and Western regions pose unequivocal challenges to social equality and political stability in the country. A major impediment to economic development, especially in the poor, remote Western region, is the shortage of a transportation infrastructure. The Chinese government has committed to substantial investment for improving the accessibility of this vast, land-locked region as a mechanism for promoting its development. The paper examines the impacts of the intended transportation infrastructure build-up on the Western region's comparative advantage and its interregional trade. The World Trade Model is extended to represent this investment and applied to determine interregional trade in China based on region-specific technologies, factor endowments and prices, and consumption patterns as well as the capacities and costs of carrying goods among regions using the interregional transportation infrastructure in place in the base year of 1997 and that planned for 2010 and 2020. The model is implemented for three regions, 27 sectors, and seven factors. The results indicate that the planned infrastructure build-up will be cost-effective, will increase benefits especially for the Western region, and that it can conserve energy overall at given levels of demand but substitute oil for coal. Based on these and other model results, some recommendations are offered about strategies for regional development in China.     

EDUCATION AND MODERNITY

Modernity is the combination of capitalism and democracy. Its economic core is based on property rights, which mobilise the organisation of resources. It also requires mass education to select intellectual talent for a complex division of labour. Western education paradoxically lacks developed property rights and a class of owners who seek profits through the satisfaction of consumer (educational) demand. Most of the intellectual ills in our society reflect this absence of modernity in our educational arrangements.     

PRIVATE EDUCATION AND'EDUCATION FOR ALL'- OR HOW NOT TO CONSTRUCT AN EVIDENCE-BASED ARGUMENT: A REPLY TO TOOLEY

The poor cannot afford education if they are left to pay for it themselves. Furthermore, given the right political structures government schools can deliver accountability and a good quality of education.     

THE PRIVATE FINANCING OF NHS HOSPITALS: POLITICS, POLICY AND PRACTICE

This article outlines and critiques the main fiscal and economic rationales for the Private Finance Initiative and examines the impact of the policy on the long-term financial viability of NHS trusts. It concludes that the PFI funding of capital investment is highly problematic. Its high costs can have a negative impact on the finances of health systems.     

CLIOMETRICS AND TIME SERIES ECONOMETRICS: SOME THEORY AND APPLICATIONS

Abstract The paper discusses a range of modern time series methods that have become popular in the past 20 years and considers their usefulness for cliometrics research both in theory and via a range of applications. Issues such as, spurious regression, unit roots, cointegration, persistence, causality, structural time series methods, including time varying parameter models, are introduced as are the estimation and testing implications that they involve. Applications include a discussion of the timing and potential causes of the British Industrial Revolution, income ‘convergence’ and the long‐run behaviour of English real wages 1264–1913. Finally some new and potentially useful developments are discussed including the mildly explosive processes; graphical modelling and long memory.     

PUBLIC–PRIVATE PARTNERSHIPS IN THE NETHERLANDS: POLICY, PROJECTS AND LESSONS

This article examines the re-emergence of public–private partnerships (PPPs) in the Netherlands since the 1980s, summarising the policy discussions that have taken place, and analysing the projects that have been implemented or planned. Several policy conclusions are drawn from the Dutch experience with PPPs.     

ECONOMIC GROWTH AND THE QUANTITY AND DISTRIBUTION OF EDUCATION: A SURVEY

Abstract The focus of this survey is to discuss different attempts at incorporating the distributional dimension of human capital into the theoretical and empirical growth framework. We present a series of models which deviate from the direct link between the aggregate or average level of human capital and economic growth in that they introduce the distribution of education as a new element in explaining the relationship under investigation. After surveying the theoretical literature, we present recent empirical work on the relation between economic performance and the average level, as well as the distribution of education, respectively.     

INFRASTRUCTURE AND REGIONAL DEVELOPMENT IN PAKISTAN

Despite considerable concern by the government, deep regional disparities remain a persistent and troubling feature of Pakistan's economy. Although stark inter-provincial differences have received the most attention, both policy-makers and research scholars also need to address profound intra-provincial inequalities. Using factor analysis, this paper examines the relationship between investments in "hard" infrastructural development and inter-provincial and intra-provincial disparities in Pakistan. Overall, the paper argues that a very close association exists in Pakistan between regional infrastructure endowment and broad levels of socio-economic development. Specifically, data indicate the striking importance of transport within and across regions. The analysis investigates the importance of differing types of transport infrastructure for regional development. The paper concludes with policy recommendations concerning levels, types and mix of hard infrastructural investments that might provide policy-makers with the best opportunity for alleviating income disparities.     

CONVERGENCE AND ECONOMIC PERFORMANCE IN GREECE: EVIDENCE AT REGIONAL AND PREFECTURE LEVEL

The purpose of this paper is to test regional convergence and to investigate interregional disparities in terms of per capita income in Greece. The novelty of our study lies in the use of a disaggregated dataset for an extended time period (1971–2003) at two regional levels (NUTS II & NUTS III). Our results indicate that there is β convergence between prefectures but not among regions, while no evidence of σ convergence is found at both regional levels. Also, the GDP geographic concentration and population density have a negative impact on growth, which outweighs the positive growth effect of population geographic concentration and GDP spatial inequality. Thus, policies aiming at the decentralization of economic activity in Greece might enhance growth and regional equality simultaneously. Finally, we do not find economic dualism across geographic areas; however, rich prefectures seem to converge faster than poor ones.     

MODELS OF REGIONAL GROWTH: PAST,PRESENT AND FUTURE

Abstract This paper presents an overview of various models of regional growth that have appeared in the literature in the last 40 years. It considers the past, and therefore supply‐side models, such as the standard neoclassical, juxtaposed against essentially demand‐side approaches such as the export‐base and cumulative causation models (as integrated into the Kaldorian approach); before moving on to the ‘present’ and more recent versions of the neoclassical model involving spatial weights and ‘convergence clubs’, as well as new economic geography core–periphery models, and the ‘innovation systems’ approach. A key feature of the more recent literature is an attempt to explicitly include spatial factors into the model, and thus there is a renewed emphasis on agglomeration economies and spillovers. Discussing ‘present’ and ‘future’ approaches to regional growth overlaps with the current emphasis in the literature on the importance of more intangible factors such as the role of ‘knowledge’ and its influence on growth. Finally, there is a discussion of the greater emphasis that needs to be placed at the ‘micro‐level’ when considering what drives growth, and thus factors such as inter alia firm heterogeneity, entrepreneurship and absorptive capacity.     

EDUCATING AMARETCH: PRIVATE SCHOOLS FOR THE POOR AND THE NEW FRONTIER FOR INVESTORS

The accepted wisdom says that the poor need billions of dollars more in donor aid for state education. But this ignores the reality that poor parents are abandoning government schools to send their children to 'budget' private schools that charge very low fees, affordable to parents on minimum wages. Recent research shows that private schools for the poor are superior to government schools – teachers are more committed, the provision of inputs better and educational outcomes better – even after controlling for background variables. All this is accomplished for a fraction of the per-pupil teacher cost of government schools. The development community could therefore assist the poor by extending access to private schools through targeted vouchers. There are also opportunities for investors to contribute through microfinance-type loans, dedicated education investment funds and joint ventures with educational entrepreneurs, including the development of brands of budget private schools to help solve the information problem facing poor parents.