Adolph Lowe on Freedom,Education and Socialization

The lifework of Adolph Lowe (1893–1995) was greatly motivated by his struggle with the problem of “freedom and order”. This paper explores Lowe's largely overlooked and under-examined writings on education and political philosophy, important components of his “political economics”. Lowe's concern with the socialization function of education is highlighted and related to his notion of “spontaneous conformity, as well as the ideas of Vygotsky on imaginative children's play and C. S. Peirce on habit-change. Taking Gorman's critique of Schutz's conception of freedom as a point of departure, and drawing on the work of C. Wright Mills, Lowe's own conception of freedom is critically examined. For Lowe, the stronger the commitment to community, the greater is the possibility for individual autonomy without the threat of social disruption.     

高校函授站毕业生质量评价探析

办学模式的多样性给成人高等教育教学质量提出更高的要求,构建科学的评价体系是保障成人高等教育函授毕业生质量的关键环节。从普通高校函授站毕业生质量评价的基本原则、指标体系及保障机制方面,对高校函授站毕业生质量管理作些有益的探索。     

MBA教育的服务提升与品牌经营——以上海财经大学MBA教育为例

国内外MBA教育发展的实践表明,以服务质量提升为基础的品牌化发展是我国MBA教育发展的一种趋势。上海财经大学商学院MBA教育主要通过从多渠道沟通、凸显课程特色、多种形式的师资开发和培养、职业发展帮助和参与MBA认证等各个方面,对学生接受教育服务过程的每个接触瞬间进行卓越的创新,取得良好的效果,比较成功地塑造自己MBA教育品牌。本文还建议各个高校应通过准确定位、提升品牌形象、品牌差异化等方式经营品牌,各自走出一条MBA教育发展特色之路。     

健康、教育与经济增长

健康与教育是人力资本诸多形成方式中最重要的两种,长期以来内生增长理论强调和重视教育人力资本对于经济增长的贡献和作用,但健康与教育之间的相互影响以及健康人力资本对于经济增长的作用却未得到应有的重视。基于此,本文在Lucas(1988),Van Zon和Muysken(2001)模型基础上,构建了一个包含最终产品、健康和教育的三部门模型。静态均衡、转移动态和仿真实验的结果表明:在总体人力资本的形成过程中,健康对广义人力资本的贡献份额大于教育;健康的增量而非健康人力资本存量水平有利于长期经济增长;健康的改善必须同时辅以教育人力资本的提高才能促进经济增长;政府公共健康支出对于健康人力资本的形成具有重要作用,有助于促进发展机会的均等和减贫;重视人力资本积累的经济体在10-15年后会呈现明显的经济绩效的改善。     

Less debt,more schooling? Evidence from cross-country micro data

Soaring levels of public debt in low-income countries are fuelling concerns about their ability to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals, such as free access to primary education. In the late 1990s and 2000s, international financial institutions introduced a series of debt relief initiatives aimed to restore debt sustainability among highly indebted countries. This study examines the impact of these initiatives on primary school attendance. We exploit the temporal variation in the implementation of these policies, in combination with individual-level data from 177 Demographic and Health Surveys covering more than 1.5 million school-age children from 44 low-income countries to implement difference-in-differences and spatial difference-in-discontinuity estimators. Results suggest that debt relief initiatives, by freeing up additional public resources, have significantly contributed to increasing primary school attendance in heavily indebted countries. Impact heterogeneity analysis also shows that debt relief has been effective at reducing wealth-based, intergenerational, religious, ethnic and spatial inequalities in education. Our results provide robust evidence to assert that debt relief, in combination with other financing sources, can contribute to improving educational outcomes in highly indebted poor countries.     

Are computers driving real wages down?

The annual growth in mean employee compensation plummeted from 2.6% in 1947–73 to 0.4% in 1973–2003. Using both time-series regression and pooled, cross-section, time-series regression analysis for 44 industries over the period 1953–2000, we find that earnings growth is positively related to overall productivity growth, capital investment excluding computers, and the unionization rate. We find also that computerization has a significant negative effect on earnings growth, but no evidence that the growth of skills or educational attainment has any statistically significant effect on earnings growth. The dominant factors explaining the slowdown in wage growth are decline in the unionization rate, slowdown in both TFP growth and overall capital investment, and acceleration in computer investment.     

Is external research assessment associated with convergence or divergence of research quality across universities and disciplines? Evidence from the PBRF process in New Zealand

ABSTRACT

Performance-based research evaluations have been adopted in several countries both to measure research quality in higher education institutions and as a basis for the allocation of funding across institutions. Much attention has been given to evaluating whether such schemes have increased the quality and quantity of research. This paper examines whether the introduction of the New Zealand Performance-Based Research Fund process produced convergence or divergence in measured research quality across universities and disciplines between the 2003 and 2012 assessments. Two convergence measures are obtained. One, referred to as β-convergence, relates to the relationship between changes in average quality and the initial quality level. The second concept, referred to as σ-convergence, relates to the changes in the dispersion in average research quality over time. Average quality scores by discipline and university were obtained from individual researcher data, revealing substantial β- and σ-convergence in research quality over the period. The hypothesis of uniform rates of convergence across almost all universities and disciplines is supported. The results provide insights into the incentives created by performance-based funding schemes.     

浅议人才创新与教育创新

如何培养、造就一大批具有知识经济和创新意识的人才,一是学校,二是自学。两都要通过实践进行创新。其中学校的培养又是关键的主渠道,是捷径。这是由其教育的基础性、全面性、系统性和规范性所决定的。因此需制定科学合理的教育发展战略、加大教育改革和教育创新的力度。