Learning to Live with Loans? International Policy Transfer and the Funding of Higher Education

Over the last decade or so a number of OECD economies have migrated from providing higher education free at the point of consumption to levying user charges. However, rather than charges for tuition being paid up‐front, contributions have taken the form of income‐contingent loans. Graduates therefore contribute to the costs of their education, after they have graduated and when they are earning. The earliest example of this instrument was in Australia, with the introduction of the Higher Education Contributions Scheme (HECS). This paper argues that following their successful introduction in Australia, income‐contingent loans offer a good example of successful international policy transfer, with elements of that scheme being adopted and modified for use in New Zealand, South Africa and the United Kingdom. The paper reviews the conditions for successful policy transfer and discusses the reasons why the arrangements have not proliferated in non‐OECD countries.     

Comment on 'Towards Full Employment'

The Dawkins and Freebairn paper illustrates the importance of the linkages between unemployment and social security policy, but is not entirely convincing in its explanation of unemployment, the wage-employment elasticity, and the net benefits of a negative income tax.     

Accountants in organisational networks

Using four case studies carried out in the UK clothing and textiles industry, this paper explores how accounting might be differentially implicated in the co-ordination of activity as organisations face higher or lower degrees of uncertainty. It is argued that one of the difficulties faced by many of the contingency studies that have addressed this problem is their conceptualisation of accounting. The present study suggests that accounting, as a tool for organisational control, exists not as a collection of techniques, but as on-going processes. As such, the individuals involved with such processes might be expected to play a substantial role in shaping them. Social network analysis forms the basis of an attempt to understand these issues.     

A programmed equity-redemption approach to the finance of public projects

A programmed equity-redemption approach to finance and analysis is discussed in the context of the financial feasibility of a capital-intensive project. The approach was developed in relation In a large hydroelectric power-development decision; il is illustrated here using domestic wail-insulation as an example. It separates the roles of conventional debt-providers, programmed redemption equity-providers, conventional equity-providers and consumers. Equity with a programmed redemption pattern provides a bridge between conventional debt and equity. Even if il is not used as a means of finance, it provides a new perspective on investment analysis, by separating safe normal profits and uncertain supra-normal profits in a conceptually convenient framework. In the latter context it complements a parametric discounting treatment of economic desirability analysis discussed in an earlier paper.