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581. Natural Resources, Human Capital, and Growth

Author:
Nancy Birdsall, Thomas Pinckney, and Richard Sabot
Publication Date:
02-2000
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Carnegie Endowment for International Peace
Abstract:
In this paper, we present evidence that among developing countries, those that are resource-abundant invest less in education. We then discuss the economic processes behind this evidence. We describe a virtuous circle in which rising private returns to human capital and other assets lead to increased work effort and higher rates of private investment immediately, including among the poor, and generate higher productivity and lower inequality in the future. With resource abundance, however, governments are tempted to move away from the policies that generate this virtuous circle. Dutch Disease and related effects tend to lower the rate of return to the agricultural and human capital investments available to the poor. Resource rents accumulate in the hands of the government, and/or a small number of businessmen, further reducing incentives to invest. Staple-trap effects lead to the subsidization of capital, thereby taxing labor. The labor market in the resulting capital-intensive economy offers little benefit for moderate levels of education. The government may try to assuage the poor by directing some proportion of resource rents to populist programs that create new fiscal burdens but that do not enhance productivity. In short, resource abundance tends to break the virtuous circle linking education, growth and inequality in several places: the choice of development strategy, the level of inequality, the lack of incentives for investment in education, and the creation of a welfare state. We illustrate this breakdown by contrasting the cases of Korea and Brazil, and, since resource abundance need not be destiny, we conclude with policy lessons for resource-abundant developing economies.
Topic:
Economics, Education, Emerging Markets, Government, Political Economy, and Third World
Political Geography:
Brazil and Korea

582. Reclaiming Our Schools: Increasing Parental Control of Education through the Universal Education Credit

Author:
Darcy Ann Olsen and Matthew J. Brouillette
Publication Date:
12-2000
Content Type:
Policy Brief
Institution:
The Cato Institute
Abstract:
Demand for alternatives to state-run schools has swelled over the past decade, as witnessed by rising poll numbers favoring increased choice and by the creation of new charter schools, voucher programs, education tax credits, homeschools, and private scholarship funds. Despite mounting demand, however, such alternatives reach relatively few students. Charters and vouchers, for instance, serve only 2 percent of school children nationwide.
Topic:
Education
Political Geography:
United States

583. "Edupreneurs": A Survey of For-Profit Education

Author:
Carrie Lips
Publication Date:
11-2000
Content Type:
Policy Brief
Institution:
The Cato Institute
Abstract:
Education companies, or “edupreneurs,” are entering the education marketplace in droves with creative, cost efficient products and services for students of all ages. This rapidly expanding industry, which constitutes approximately 10 percent of the $740 billion education market, demonstrates that private enterprises, even when competing against a monopolistic system, can deliver a wide range of affordable high-quality educational services. This study provides a glimpse of the products, services, and innovations that a fully competitive marketplace could generate if the government's stranglehold on education were loosened.
Topic:
Education
Political Geography:
United States

584. International Scholarly Collaboration: Lessons From the Past

Publication Date:
01-2000
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Social Science Research Council
Abstract:
Scholarly collaboration is not a new activity. It is embedded in the institutional framework of modern research universities, implicit in the acknowledgments of every scholarly monograph, and takes place all the time, across all kinds of boundaries. Yet we are a long way from understanding the range of phenomena captured by the term "scholarly collaboration" in a systematic way. If, as most observers expect, the scale and extent of international scholarly collaboration will increase substantially in the future, then a fuller understanding of collaboration as a field of social action is long overdue. This report is the result of a collective step toward that end.
Topic:
Development, Education, and International Cooperation

585. Aftermath: Women and Women's Organizations In Postgenocide Rwanda

Author:
Michael Hopps
Publication Date:
12-2000
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
United States Agency for International Development
Abstract:
IN A 100-DAY PERIOD during 1994, more than 500,000 people in the central African nation of Rwanda were massacred. The killings were carried out not by a foreign power and not with weapons of mass destruction. Rather, 1 of every 15 Rwandans was murdered—by other Rwandans. The killers used bullets, machetes, and clubs.
Topic:
Civil Society, Education, Gender Issues, Genocide, Human Welfare, and Politics
Political Geography:
Africa

586. Kalmykia: From Oblivion to Reassertion?

Author:
François Grin
Publication Date:
10-2000
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
European Centre for Minority Issues
Abstract:
This paper provides background information on Kalmykia, one of the least known constituent republics of the Russian Federation. It then assesses recent developments in the fields of culture and language, and presents the recently adopted (October 1999) Language Act of Kalmykia. The following discussion highlights the key features of the Act, and argues that it reflects a thoroughly modern approach to linguistic diversity, in particular in its handling of the respective position of the Russian and Kalmyk languages.
Topic:
Development, Economics, and Education
Political Geography:
Eastern Europe

587. Institutions in Comparative Policy Research

Author:
Fritz W. Scharpf
Publication Date:
03-2000
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Max Planck Institute for the Study of Societies
Abstract:
Varieties of the "new institutionalism" hold a promise of theoretical integration across several sub-disciplines of the social sciences and a wide range of research fields, including comparative politics, the study of European integration, comparative political economy, comparative industrial relations, or comparative industrial governance (Hall Taylor 1996; Jupille Caporaso 1999; Thelen 1999). There are thus good reasons to explore the usefulness of institutional explanations in comparative policy research as well. But in doing so, we need to be aware of the special conditions that complicate their application in this particular field. To begin with, it seems useful to specify the ways in which institutionalist and policy perspectives may intersect.
Topic:
Education and Politics
Political Geography:
Europe

588. Group Behaviour and Development

Author:
Frances Stewart, Judith Heyer, and Rosemary Thorp
Publication Date:
06-1999
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
United Nations University
Abstract:
A very large amount of activity occurs within groups (that is within families, firms, co-operatives, communities or governments). Yet most economic analysis focuses on market transactions between these agents. The purpose of the study is to analyse within group behaviour. Evidence suggests some groups perform well from the perspective of efficiency, equity and well-being, while others perform poorly. The study aims to identify the main causes for these different outcomes, developing a preliminary analysis of modes of group behaviour, and influences on them.
Topic:
Economics, Education, and Emerging Markets

589. Economic Theories of the Household: A Critical Review

Author:
Päivi Mattila-Wiro
Publication Date:
04-1999
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
United Nations University
Abstract:
The aim of this paper is to review the principal assumptions and aspects of the unitary household model and collective models of household behaviour. Empirical studies are presented to assess whether the theories can offer adequate descriptions of household behaviour and to examine the types of policy implications that can be drawn from these. The paper concludes that the models reviewed lack the analytical tools to provide an understanding of the reality of households. Theories are unrealistic and therefore are of little use in the design of policies or projects which endeavour to help people
Topic:
Economics, Education, and Emerging Markets

590. Inequality in Income and Access to Education: A Cross-Country Analysis

Author:
Daniele Checchi
Publication Date:
04-1999
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
United Nations University
Abstract:
In the current debate on the relationship between inequality in income distribution and growth one of the possible link works through the access to education. After reviewing this debate, a formal model shows how the imperfection of financial markets makes educational choices dependent on the distribution of family incomes. This leads to two testable predictions in the analysis of aggregate data on school enrolments: a negative (linear) relation with the Gini coefficient on incomes distribution; and a positive dependence on public resources invested in education and/or on skill premium in the labour market. These predictions are then tested on a (unbalanced) panel of 102 countries for the period 1960-90. The main findings of this analysis are that, once we control for the degree of development with the (log of) per capita output, financial constraints seem mainly relevant in limiting the access to secondary education. However, when considering gender differences, there is evidence that female participation in education is more strongly conditioned by family wealth, starting from primary education. On the contrary there is no clear evidence of a relevant impact of invested resources, but at the tertiary level.
Topic:
Economics, Education, and Emerging Markets