The Relative Efficiency of Private and Public Schools: The Case of Thailand

Cost-effectiveness is a key consideration in the policy debateon the appropriate role of private schools in predominantlypublic school systems. This article analyzes the relative performanceof public and private schools in Thailand in enhancing eighthgrade student scores in standardized mathematics tests, givenstudent background and school characteristics. Its main conclusionis that private schools are, on average, more effective andless costly than public schools in improving student performancein mathematics.     

THE PUBLIC SUBSIDIZATION OF EDUCATION AND HEALTH IN DEVELOPING COUNTRIES: A Review of Equity and Efficiency

The public sector in developing countries has traditionallyplayed an important role in the financing of educational andhealth services. This review finds, however, that the shareof public subsidies in these two sectors is not progressive,that is, proportionately higher for individuals in the lowersocioeconomic groups. This distribution persists despite explicitpolicies of universal free provision in many countries. Thearticle argues that the extent and pattern of public spendingcontribute to underinvestment and to a misallocation of scarceresources within the education and health sectors.      

Political risk in private participation projects: The effects of political discretionality and corruption

This article investigates the impact of political risk on the performance of private participation infrastructure projects in emerging markets. Previous studies have shown that firms in regulated sectors are prone to employ political capabilities in their investments overseas. Our analysis of 32,257 projects in 114 emerging countries from 1997 to 2013 shows that higher political discretionality in the host country is negatively associated with project completion. In contrast, a higher level of corruption in the host country is positively associated with project completion. The study makes a contribution to the literature on political risk in foreign direct investments.     

Assessing the efficacy of rational budgeting approaches: fiscal recovery planning and municipal budgetary solvency

ABSTRACT

This study assesses the effects of financial recovery planning on the budgetary solvency of US cities. Budgetary solvency is the ability of governments to meet their service responsibilities and other financial obligations in a fiscal year. Financial recovery planning, which is based on rational decision-making theory, is designed to help cities recover from fiscal stress by facilitating diagnosis of fiscal problems, and the implementation of short- and long-term fiscal recovery strategies. Using data from a national survey of cities and multi-year audited financial reports, the results of the regression analyses show that planning is associated with stronger budgetary solvency, but its effectiveness varies across cities. Specifically, planning helps majority of fiscally struggling cities, but not those facing extreme fiscal decline.     

Policy instruments for pollution control in developing countries.

Economic development in developing countries must be accomplished in a manner that does not harm the environment with pollution. Pollution harms human health and productivity. Thus appropriate strategies must be developed that promote growth, reduce poverty, and protect the environment. A review of the current literature is performed with attention paid to cost-effective interventions i.e., comparisons of regulatory and fiscal instruments that can reduce pollution. Both direct instruments (like effluent charges, tradable permits, deposit refund systems, emission regulations and regulatory agency funding for purification, cleanup, waste disposal, and enforcement) and indirect instruments (like input/output taxes and subsidies, substitution subsidies, abatement inputs, regulation of equipment and processes, and development of clean technologies) are examined. Examples are used to show how indirect instruments can be successful when monitoring and enforcement is too costly. A careful examination of distributive concerns illustrate how the effect on the poor may need particular consideration and how groups with vested interests can help evaluate the probable success of such interventions.     

Labor Reform in Mexico,Analysis of Principal Changes and Method of Recruitment

Actually, the country＇s development aims to achieve higher levels of productivity, so it had to adapt to international standards. This has served to ease the hiring of both operational and managerial controls, giving emphasis on training and allowing the pairing boss-worker to take the productivity like benchmark. The labor reform allows companies to make changes with their workers; such changes must be reflected in lower costs for businesses, by labor input and increased competitiveness, however, two years ago this guideline was implanted and society asks if the results are congruent, because Mexican society is undergoing economics problems issue as well as a deficit in generating jobs. Therefore, analyzing whether modifications made to the federal labor law （FLL） are designed to optimize safety of workers and enterprises in which they work is the subject of this research. The corresponding analysis was performed using the deductive method.     

Urban squatting and community organization in developing countries

It is estimated that up to 30–35 percent of the total urban population of the Third World (about 185 million people) live in squatter settlements. This paper presents, from an economic perspective of tenure choice under uncertainty, a unified and consistent theoretical framework of this phenomenon, which has heretofore been studied mainly by other social scientists. The model is able to explain why land invasions occur. Furthermore, it provides some insights as to why the number of squatters in an urban area depends on a squatter community's ability to form coalitions to fully protect its members' rights. It is shown in the paper that, if a community is successful in controlling its size, government efforts which are meant to reduce the number of squatters may lead to the opposite results. In particular, the imposition of heavier fines or the increase of government expenditures on eviction activity (threat campaigns, eviction in other jurisdictions, etc.) will likely lead to an increase in the optimal number of squatters, unless the decline in expected utility caused by these efforts is so great that squatting no longer becomes viable at any community size.     

The Dozen Things Experimental Economists Should Do (More of)

What was once broadly viewed as an impossibility—learning from experimental data in economics—has now become commonplace. Governmental bodies, think tanks, and corporations around the world employ teams of experimental researchers to answer their most pressing questions. For their part, in the past two decades academics have begun to more actively partner with organizations to generate data via field experimentation. Although this revolution in evidence‐based approaches has served to deepen the economic science, recently a credibility crisis has caused even the most ardent experimental proponents to pause. This study takes a step back from the burgeoning experimental literature and introduces 12 actions that might help to alleviate this credibility crisis and raise experimental economics to an even higher level. In this way, we view our “12 action wish list” as discussion points to enrich the field.     

Economists in the insurance industry

Conclusions The emergence of economists in the insurance industry is only a symptom of a profound change in the market reality which the industry, especially in the U.K. with its worldwide ramifications of business interests, is facing now. This change, brought about by a sudden appearance of purely economic aspects of insurance activities, links up firmly the insurance proper with solely financial operations of the industry. It also widens very considerably both the range of factors relevant to underwriting and overall policy decisions and extends the time dimension of business analysis. It is this complexity of the background to the decision-making process that is responsible for a growing trend towards corporate planning within which economists have a vital role to play. Senior Political Economist, “Commercial Union”