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4241. Why Does College Cost So Much?

Author:
Richard Vedder
Publication Date:
09-2005
Content Type:
Policy Brief
Institution:
American Enterprise Institute for Public Policy Research
Abstract:
As college students begin a new academic year, many parents are reeling from tuition charges. This fall's estimated 8 percent average increase at public universities, added onto double-digit hikes in the two previous years, means tuition at a typical state university is up 36 percent over 2002—at a time when consumer prices in general have risen less than 9 percent. In inflation-adjusted terms, tuition today is roughly triple what it was when parents of today's college students attended school in the 1970s. Tuition charges are rising faster than family incomes, an unsustainable trend in the long run. This holds true even when scholarships and financial aid are considered. One consequence of rising costs is that college enrollments are no longer increasing as much as before. Price-sensitive groups such as low-income students and minorities are missing out. A smaller proportion of Hispanics between eighteen and twenty-four attends college today than in 1976. The United States is beginning to fall below some other industrial nations in population-adjusted college attendance.
Topic:
Development, Economics, Education, and Government
Political Geography:
United States

4242. Small Leaps or Giant Leaps

Author:
Scott Gottlieb
Publication Date:
07-2005
Content Type:
Policy Brief
Institution:
American Enterprise Institute for Public Policy Research
Abstract:
There are seldom eureka moments in health care. Few new drugs or medical devices save scores of lives or cure diseases when they first hit the market. New technologies rarely translate into immediate life expectancy gains, and it is uncommon that results of a single study will transform how medicine is practiced. Medical progress is not magic, and sudden discoveries do not lead to dramatic cures, although a new book by Marcia Angell, a former editor of The New England Journal of Medicine, would lead you to think all of our gains in health have been achieved from just a handful of the most potent new medicines. Instead, medical breakthroughs unfold over time, and gains in life expectancy and health are realized only after a series of small technological advances are collected into new ways of practicing medicine or attacking a disease. The practice of medicine unfolds not in a series of certainties, but in a series of doubts.
Topic:
Civil Society, Development, Human Welfare, and Science and Technology
Political Geography:
England

4243. A Bias against the Best and Brightest

Author:
John R. Lott Jr.
Publication Date:
06-2005
Content Type:
Policy Brief
Institution:
American Enterprise Institute for Public Policy Research
Abstract:
Statistical evidence indicates that qualifications, experience, and potential influence are far greater factors in delaying or rejecting judicial nominees than perceptions of extremism.
Topic:
Development, Government, and Politics
Political Geography:
United States

4244. Even Workers with "McJobs" Deserve Respect

Author:
James K. Glassman
Publication Date:
06-2005
Content Type:
Policy Brief
Institution:
American Enterprise Institute for Public Policy Research
Abstract:
Entry-level positions long criticized as "dead-end jobs" deserve respect as stepping-stones to greater success, as these jobs teach the basics of business to new workers.
Topic:
Civil Society, Development, Economics, and Education

4245. Migrant Remittances, Development and Gender

Author:
Ninna Nyberg Sorensen
Publication Date:
07-2005
Content Type:
Policy Brief
Institution:
Danish Institute for International Studies
Abstract:
Abstract Migration transforms not only the destiny of individual migrants but also the conditions of family members left behind, of local communities and of the wider society. Despite the fact that migratory processes are multidimensional and may generate a wide array of positive as well as negative consequences for development, remittances have lately become the single most emphasized evidence and measuring stick for the ties connecting migrants with their societies of origin.
Topic:
Development, Economics, Gender Issues, and Migration
Political Geography:
Africa

4246. To aid or not to aid: Foreign aid and producity in cross-country regressions

Author:
Pablo Selaya
Publication Date:
11-2005
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Institute for Advanced Development Studies (INESAD)
Abstract:
The paper reexamines empirically the robustness of competing theories of foreign aid e§ectiveness. By shifting the focus from the e§ects of aid on income to to e§ects of aid on productivity, it is possible to put to test 3 existing theories of foreign aid e§ectiveness. The results provide support for the hypotheses that (i) aid has a positive e§ect in fostering growth of average productivity, (ii) aid doesnít operate with diminishing returns, and (iii) the magnitude of the total e§ect depends on climate-related circumstances. The results support the policy recommendation previously made in the literature to seriously reconsider the conditionality rule for foreign aid disbursements.
Topic:
Development, Foreign Aid, Productivity, and Income
Political Geography:
Global Focus

4247. What Makes a Difference in Achieving Higher Labor Productivity? The Case of Low-Income Countries in Latin America

Author:
Osvaldo Nina
Publication Date:
12-2005
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Institute for Advanced Development Studies (INESAD)
Abstract:
This paper uses firm level surveys from Ecuador, Guatemala, Honduras and Nicaragua to estimate the determinants of labor productivity. This study started out with the hypothesis that the adverse external business conditions that firms in poor Latin American countries face, may be an important explication of the generally low levels of productivity. However, the empirical results, based on the survey of more than 1300 businesses, do not confirm this hypothesis. Compared to all the variables that are under the firms control, such as capital intensity, energy use, and worker skills, the external business environment (macroeconomic instability and labor regulations) has very little impact on productivity.
Topic:
Development, Economics, Labor Issues, Productivity, and Income
Political Geography:
Latin America, Nicaragua, Honduras, Guatemala, and Ecuador

4248. Engendering Property Rights: Women’s Insecure Land Tenure and its Implications for Development Policy in Kenya and Uganda

Author:
Kanika Mak
Publication Date:
05-2005
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
Journal of Public and International Affairs (JPIA)
Institution:
School of Public and International Affairs (SPIA), Princeton University
Abstract:
The importance of women’s contributions to the predominantly agrarian societies of Kenya and Uganda contrasts sharply with the inequity and insecurity these women face in their ability to own, inherit, manage, and dispose of land and property. This paper examines how gender equality in the design and implementation of property rights in East Africa can promote development as well as enhance the status of women in patriarchal societies. Women’s insecure land tenure stems specifically from deficiencies in the constitutional order, institutional arrangements, and social norms that govern property rights systems. Accordingly, recommendations for reform in these three areas share the ultimate goal of making property rights systems not only more equitable, but also more effective.
Topic:
Development, Women, Land, and Property
Political Geography:
Uganda, Kenya, and Africa

4249. Political Reform

Author:
Robert H. Bates
Publication Date:
01-2005
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
The John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University
Abstract:
In the last decade of the 20th Century, Africa joined the Third Wave of Democratization. Military regimes gave way to civilian governments, and no- and single-party systems to competitive political systems. The paper describes this transition; presents and evaluates two of the major explanations of it; and examines its impact on the policy choices of Africa’s governments. While reform made governments more accountable, it concludes, it may well have created incentives for them to adopt policies that destabilize the macro-economy.
Topic:
Democratization, Development, Political Economy, Institutions, and Macroeconomics
Political Geography:
Africa

4250. Political Insecurity and State Failure in Contemporary Africa

Author:
Robert H. Bates
Publication Date:
01-2005
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
The John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University
Abstract:
Noting data that suggests that Africa oversupplies state failure, the paper probes the sources of political insecurity in the continent. It explores the logic that underlies an equilibrium in which governments employ force to protect rather than to predate and in which citizens engage in productive activity and refrain from military activity. It isolates the variables that define the region in which this conduct is in equilibrium values that lie outside that region define the conditions under which states fail. The analysis illuminates the impact of political and economic forces in contemporary Africa: political reform, economic collapse, and the increased relative importance of “loot-able” resources. In an effort to evaluate the arguments of the paper, it provides as well a series of statistical tests of its arguments.
Topic:
Development, Political Economy, Conflict, and Institutions
Political Geography:
Africa