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The COVID-19 pandemic hit many countries at a time when their education systems were facing multiple challenges. Economic, public-health and social impacts from the pandemic have exacerbated many of these challenges. The aim of this paper is to explore the way in which the behavioural sciences can help support the policy response to the COVID-induced education crisis, and to serve as a learning experience for other future crises. The paper involves an empirical exploration of the factors associated with a range of outcomes using large nationally representative datasets, and interpreting these relationships in the context of a detailed literature review. By using data that it is generally representative of the populations of interest, and is available for many dozens of countries with different histories, languages, cultures, and socioeconomic outcomes, this paper highlights how identifying behavioural biases can direct education systems towards more effective targeted policy interventions.

Many observers argue that diversity in Economics and STEM fields is critical, not simply because of egalitarian goals, but because who is in a field may shape what is studied by it. If increasing the rate of majoring in mathematically-intensive fields among women is a worthy goal, then understanding whether women's colleges causally affect that choice is important. Among all admitted applicants to Wellesley College, enrollees are 7.2 percentage points (94%) more likely to receive an Economics degree than non-enrollees (a plausible lower bound given negative selection into enrollment on math skills and major preferences). Overall, 3.2 percentage points--or 44% of the difference between enrollees and non-enrollees--is explained by college exposure to female instructors and students, consistent with a wider role for women's colleges in increasing female participation in Economics.

The view that empirical strategies in economics should be transparent and credible now goes almost without saying. The local average treatment effects (LATE) framework for causal inference helped make this so. The LATE theorem tells us for whom particular instrumental variables (IV) and regression discontinuity estimates are valid. This lecture uses several empirical examples, mostly involving charter and exam schools, to highlight the value of LATE. A surprising exclusion restriction, an assumption central to the LATE interpretation of IV estimates, is shown to explain why enrollment at Chicago exam schools reduces student achievement. I also make two broader points: IV exclusion restrictions formalize commitment to clear and consistent explanations of reduced-form causal effects; compelling applications demonstrate the power of simple empirical strategies to generate new causal knowledge.

This chapter reviews the extensive literature to date on CCTs for education. Section 2 provides background on the origins and expansion of CCTs globally, and describes basic design features and variation in characteristics across programs. Section 3 presents a theory of change and an economic household decision-making model highlighting key comparative statics and empirical predictions for the introduction of an education CCT program. Section 4 discusses key methodological challenges in evaluating the impacts of education CCTs. Section 5 integrates and updates the extensive evidence to date on the impacts of education CCTs on various outcome domains over the life cycle, and provides the most comprehensive view to date on learning impacts by meta-analyzing new evidence from more than 30 studies--substantially more than prior reviews of the literature. Section 6 reviews the evidence on indirect and general equilibrium effects. Section 7 presents a simple model of costs commonly used in the literature, which we extend to analyze cost-effectiveness for a subset of programs. Section 8 concludes and highlights open questions for future research.

Policymakers have become increasingly concerned with measuring--and holding colleges accountable for--students' labor market outcomes. In this paper we introduce a piecewise growth curve approach to analyzing community college students' labor market outcomes, and we discuss how this approach differs from Mincerian and fixed-effects approaches. Our results suggest that three assumptions underpinning traditional approaches may not be well founded. We then highlight how insights gained from the growth curve approach can be used to strengthen evolving econometric analyses of labor market returns, as well as to improve the accuracy and usefulness of the relatively simple models required by policymakers and practitioners.

Children's experiences during early childhood are critical for their cognitive and socio-emotional development, two key dimensions of human capital. However, children from low income backgrounds often grow up lacking stimulation and basic investments, leading to developmental deficits that are difficult, if not impossible, to reverse later in life without intervention. The existence of these deficits are a key driver of inequality and contribute to the intergenerational transmission of poverty. In this paper, we discuss the framework used in economics to model parental investments and early childhood development and use it as an organizing tool to review some of the empirical evidence on early childhood research. We then present results from various important early childhoods interventions with emphasis on developing countries. Bringing these elements together we draw conclusions on what we have learned and provide some directions for future research. [Additional funding for this report was provided by the ESRC-funded Centre for the Microeconomic Analysis of Public Policy, the Cowles Foundation, and the ISPS at Yale.]

This paper traces the evolution of Australia's apprenticeship and traineeship system since permanent European settlement in 1788. The system was imported from Great Britain; it has evolved and diverged in some areas but retains many of the features of the British model. Most major changes have occurred in the last 25 years. The apprenticeship model--a combination of paid employment, on-the-job and institutional training--has always had particular appeal for meeting intergenerational skills transfer: it provides employers with a source of low-cost labour, the apprentice with paid employment, and an opportunity for government to subsidise employment for those needing help to establish themselves in the labour market. Indeed, the community, employees, unions, employers and government have come to regard apprenticeships as the system for training in the trades and have tolerated few alterations to the system, beyond those resulting from shifts in the occupational and industry mix in the Australian economy and changes in secondary schooling arrangements. The first important reform to apprenticeships occurred in 1985 with the introduction of traineeships, which extended the model to a much wider range of occupations, generally at lower qualification levels. The second was in the mid-1990s when the Australian Government began paying incentives on a large scale to employers to help offset the costs of apprenticeships and traineeships and to encourage more commencements. This had a spectacular impact on traineeship numbers but much less effect on trades apprenticeships. Other significant changes were introduced in 1998; these allowed school students, existing workers and part-time workers to undertake apprenticeships and traineeships. In short, since 1985 the system has moved from one dominated by young males undertaking apprenticeships in the trades to one that provides apprenticeships and traineeships to people of all ages and both sexes, and in a much wider range of occupations. Key messages from this paper include: (1) The apprentice and trainee system needs to address some major issues. Much of the training is at low qualification levels with little or no economic return. And it can be argued that it is neglecting the general education needs of young people; (2) The system needs greater capacity to adapt and respond quickly to changing labour market demands. Australia might look to the experience of countries that use an institutional training model for trade training, which may be much easier to ramp up quickly; and (3) By any standards the cost of Australia's current system places a hefty burden on the public purse, estimated at $2.9 billion in 2008-09. Recorded occupation of a sample of skilled convicts transported to Australia, 1788-1868 is appended. (Contains 4 tables, 2 figures and 1 footnote.)

Community colleges are under pressure to increase completion rates and efficiency despite limited evidence of the economic consequences of different reform strategies. We introduce an economic model of student course pathways linked to college expenditures and revenues. Using detailed data from a single college, we calculate baseline efficiency and differences in efficiency for students who follow different pathways. We simulate changes in output, expenditures, revenues, net revenues, and efficiency assuming that the college meets particular performance targets. Findings indicate substantial differences in efficiency across pathways and significant differences in efficiency across strategies to help students complete college. They also suggest that increasing the completion rate is difficult and typically requires additional resources beyond the costs of implementing particular strategies. The model has wide practical application for community colleges. Appended are: (1) Measurement of the College Completion Rate; and (2) Outcomes for "U.S.A. Community College". (Contains 7 tables and 12 footnotes.)

This working paper is one in a series of projects initiated by the Administration for Children and Families (ACF) to improve knowledge for child care researchers and policy makers about parental child care decision making. In this paper, the authors identify three distinct conceptual frameworks for understanding child care decisions--a rational consumer choice framework, a heuristics and biases framework, and a social network framework--and review the major assumptions, contributions, and possible limitations of each of these frameworks. They then discuss an integrated conceptual model, the accommodation model that draws from each of these frameworks. The first three frameworks come primarily from the fields of economics, psychology, and sociology, respectively. It is the authors' sense that most research about child care decision making has been informed by the theories, assumptions, and empirical methods of one or more of these frameworks, either explicitly or implicitly, and they provide some examples and elaborate the basic tenets of each framework. The integrative accommodation model was first presented by Marcia Meyers and Lucy Jordan (2006). They develop and elaborate this model more fully here with explicit attention to its relation to the rational consumer choice framework, the heuristics and biases framework, and the social network frameworks. These frameworks are presented as complementary, rather than mutually exclusive. For a process as complex as parental child care decisions, each can provide a different and useful lens through which to understand unique aspects of the factors, processes and outcomes of parental child care decisions. When considered together, they believe they may inform one another and the development of more integrative models, such as the accommodation model presented here. It is the authors' hope that researchers working primarily within one of the conceptual frameworks discussed here will benefit from learning about other frameworks. In some cases, this may simply suggest additional or new variables to consider when specifying a particular model, while still working from the same conceptual framework. In other cases, it may result in integrative approaches that address multiple dimensions of the decision making process--dimensions that may not be as obvious when working within a single framework. In the concluding section the authors discuss some of the issues and the implications for future research. A goal of this paper is to advance knowledge that can inform public policy efforts. Given that the Child Care Development Fund (CCDF) has an explicit goal of supporting parental choice for child care, it is critical that they expand and deepen everyone's knowledge about the processes through which parents make decisions and the consequences for the choices they make (Zaslow, Halle, Guzman, Lavelle, Keith, Berry, & Dent, 2006). The different perspectives offered by each of the three frameworks and the integrative accommodation model may help policy makers identify the policy and program levers that can prove important at different stages of the decision making process. (Contains 7 footnotes.)

This paper examines different institutional characteristics of Thai private higher education in historical-organizational perspective. The analysis applies different conceptual categories of private emergence--Catholic, elite, demand-absorbing--drawn from international literature starting with Levy (1986) to the Thai case. The societal context of Thai private higher education is rooted fundamentally in the hands of both religious foundations and the business sector. Thai diversification partly conforms to international schema but also shows varying emphases. Catholic must be expanded to religious-oriented and elite reformulated as semi-elite. Although demand-absorbing institutions are the majority in the Thai private sector--as also seen elsewhere--the demand-absorbing subsector shows great internal variations. For all the three conceptual categories, missions may be assessed accordingly. Finally, the paper discusses a growing hybrid trend within the Thai private sector. (Contains 1 table and 17 endnotes.)

The labour market is one the most significant markets in modern economies. Today labour embodies increasing amounts of human capital in the form of skills, talents and knowledge. Migration of workers between regions and countries can contribute to efficiency. People are moving from areas in which they are underemployed or unemployed to areas in which there is greater demand for their labour. Frequently the movement of people is across national or other administrative borders. Differences between jurisdictions in the way in which they recognise experience, skills and qualifications can subtract from the efficiency of the labour market. This paper outlines steps taken in the European Union (EU) to improve the mobility of skilled labour between EU countries. The interface between qualifications and the labour market is being addressed by the creation of extensive electronic networks providing workers with more information about potential jobs and employers with more meaningful information about potential applicants. Mobility of labour can be further enhanced by improving the portability of social security, health and pension benefits. The EU has also recognised that migrants are a substantial proportion of the EU workforce. In terms of mobility, they may be better placed than residents to take advantage of regional shifts in demand for labour, and impediments to their mobility between EU countries reduces the efficiency of the contribution they can make. The experience in both Australia and New Zealand recognises the economic benefits to be derived from geographic and jurisdictional labour mobility and especially of those aspects associated with the recognition of skills. It is different from the EU experience in two regards: (1) Cultural differences present in Europe are far less apparent in Australia and New Zealand; and (2) Registration in one jurisdiction was a basis for eligibility for registration in all jurisdictions. The Trans-Tasman Mutual Recognition Arrangement (TTMRA) and Mutual Recognition Agreement (MRA) between the Australian Government and the governments of the eight Australian states and territories are cited as potential models for other countries considering a similar strategy. (Contains 7 footnotes.) [Partial funding for this paper was obtained from a grant from the Monash Institute for the Study of Global Movements.]

Private higher education literature recognizes large public-private differentiation in terms of field of study. Relative to public counterparts, private universities tend to offer their services in fields that require low initial investments and present at least relatively attractive internal private rates of return. Thus, the main objective of this paper is to evaluate the university market in Argentina to confirm if this pattern is still present or, due to political and market forces, for example, private-public differences have tended to blur overtime. We study this dynamic from both the supply (percentage of institutions offering a determined degree program) and the demand side (percentage of students). Although important to assess public-private differentiation, the former has not been the object of in-depth analysis in the literature. The demand side, much more studied, is evaluated here through a longitudinal approach (1975-2006) to see if the public-private distinction is now less fundamental. A main conclusion is that public universities have gotten more and more into "private waters" while, when there is an opportunity, privates have increased their presence in some fields that were once "public property". (Contains 4 tables and 18 footnotes.)

This publication is intended for three primary audiences: international development professionals who want to define "workforce" for program design purposes, those who seek information about field activities, and those who want to reflect on the implementation of successful, high impact programs--whether they were broad-based or sector-specific projects or local activities. The goal is to provide readers with options and strategies for connecting diverse sets of development objectives through international workforce initiatives. Following a brief introduction, the first chapter briefly reviews international workforce initiatives' historical roles in United States economic and political diplomacy and how they became part of the practice of development assistance. The chapters that follow provide definitions and design principles. The annexes contain more than 80 profiles of projects the Academy for Educational Development (AED) is currently or has recently implemented that have had workforce components. Most of the examples used come from projects implemented in partnership with the U.S. government, projects funded by the United Nations (UN), the Group of Eight (G-8), private foundations, and national governments are also included. Annexes contain: (1) AED Workforce Initiatives--Project Profiles ; (2) AED-Managed Global Technical Assistance Programs; and (3) Profiles of AED Projects with Workforce Components by Category.(Contains 23 endnotes.) [Primary support for this publication has come from AED's Leadership and Institutional Development Group and the AED Center for Enterprise and Capacity Development (CECD).]

This paper is concerned with the strategies being adopted for vocational education and training (VET) in Australia and the lessons that could be learned for them from policies in other countries. Six issues are considered in the paper, each relates to or more of the objectives and particular strategies in the Australia's National Strategy for Vocational Education and Training 2004-2010: (1) Workforce/adult training and retraining in the light of ageing and shifting occupational structures; (2) Equity issues for indigenous and other groups; (3) Managing demand and funding so that priorities are met; (4) Developments in qualification structures and quality assurance; (5) Enhancing provider capacity to ensure quality and responsiveness; and (6) Regional and community capacity building. The approach taken was to analyse national strategies, policies, objectives and priorities of government agencies to provide a point of comparison with Australia's National Strategy for VET. Analysis was most focused on the United Kingdom and New Zealand, and limited for Canada, due to the decentralised nature of that system. Implications for Australia are set out by strategy. (Contains 6 footnotes and 2 boxes.)

This paper reports on a Centre for the Economics of Education and Training (CEET) project that explored policies, programs and other initiatives by Australia's states and territories to support innovation, and to build vocational education and training (VET) capability to respond to its effects on skill needs. The project was undertaken in late 2003-early 2004. CEET set out to document the range of initiatives adopted by the states and territories, their rationales and objectives, funding and major features; to highlight similarities and differences between the approaches and the various emphases being given to different aspects of VET, to types of skills and innovation and to VET-industry relationships; and to highlight best practice approaches. The author found that the states and territories are working to support innovation in industry and enterprises and to build VET capabilities to respond to it, but more could be done and some activities could be more effective. Findings include: (1) More co-operative and collaborative work is needed to reduce the current level of duplication in the provision of web-based support; (2) VET is poorly represented on innovation advisory bodies to governments; (3) Further opportunities could also be given for VET personnel to contribute to research and development, particularly in industry sectors in which they have a high level of expertise; and (4) There is considerable potential for states to learn from each other. (Contains 8 footnotes.)

This study reports on five disciplinary case studies that explore academic value systems as they influence publishing behavior and attitudes of University of California, Berkeley faculty. The case studies are based on direct interviews with relevant stakeholders--faculty, advancement reviewers, librarians, and editors--in five fields: chemical engineering, anthropology, law and economics, English-language literature, and biostatistics. The results of the study strongly confirm the vital role of peer review in faculty attitudes and actual publishing behavior. There is much more experimentation, however, with regard to means of in-progress communication, where single means of publication and communication are not fixed so deeply in values and tradition as they are for final, archival publication. We conclude that approaches that try to "move" faculty and deeply embedded value systems directly toward new forms of archival, "final" publication are destined largely to failure in the short-term. From our perspective, a more promising route is to (1) examine the needs of scholarly researchers for both final and in-progress communications, and (2) determine how those needs are likely to influence future scenarios in a range of disciplinary areas. (Contains 11 notes.)

Despite wide publicity and common usage, the concept of skills shortage has different meaning to different people depending on their perspective. Understanding the different concepts of skills shortages, their measurement and the causes of skill shortages is important if sound policies are to be developed in the areas of employment, education, training and skill formation. This paper aims to contribute to an understanding of the issues. It provides a context for the study by considering recent reviews of skill needs and an overview of the meaning of skills with particular attention to generic skills as well as more vocational skills. Economic theory suggests that some skills imbalances are a feature of a competitive market. Without major hindrances to the market adjustment process, these imbalances resolve over time and may not require intervention. The main drivers of the changing skills requirements are demographic, organisational, social and technological. Adjustment usually takes time because of the speed at which the information about the changes in the market gets dissipated and the time it takes an individual to acquire new skills. However, real-world decentralised labour markets may not lead to optimal allocation of resources. Government action to correct the market may be justified if there is strong evidence showing sub-optimality. Before any effective policy is designed and implemented, it is important to understand the operation of the current market and to investigate reasons for its failure. Lack of good empirical knowledge of how markets adjust, and the time lag between an imbalance being observed and the impact of a policy makes effective intervention difficult in practice. (Contains 6 footnotes and 3 figures.)

This working paper is a product of a regional study in industrial South Wales of the determinants of participation and non-participation in post-compulsory education and training, with special reference to processes of change in the patterns of these determinants over time and to variations between geographical areas. It examines the notion of a learning society in Britain, suggesting that markedly different interpretations of the term are in common use among politicians, economists, policymakers, and educationalists. The paper outlines chief arguments currently being used to advocate the establishment of a learning society in Britain. These arguments have two strands--the claim that the standard of education and training in a country has a direct impact on its economy and that, therefore, expenditure on learning by the state and employers will be recouped, and the claim that there is a lack of justice in the distribution of education and its rewards in Britain today. Since this involves a brief description of the availability of education and training in Britain, the paper allows a preliminary consideration of the extent to which a learning society already exists or can be said to have existed in the past. It concludes that to some extent the "learning society" is used as a term of convenience. Appendixes include definitions and acronyms. Contains 103 references. (YLB)

The purpose of this project was to review the use of price measures in education and training and to consider the types of measures that could be applied. There are several contexts in which price measures are needed and the context will affect the type of measure of price change that is needed. Section 1 of the report discusses budget estimates and planning accountability for efficient and equitable use of funds; and research involving consideration of resources. Section 2 is an overview of the major forms of price indexes. Section 3 reports on the current use made by national authorities of measures of price changes in relation to education expenditure. Section 4 reviews the current use of price deflators with a view to the most appropriate index for the particular purpose. Section 5 considers price measures for the wage and non-wage components of vocational education training (VET) expenses and their limitations for the purposes specified. Summary and concluding comments are presented in Section 6. Two appendices are included: (1) Review of Selected Price Measures and their Limitations; and (2) Selected CPI Groups, Sub-Groups and Expenditure Classes. (Contains 7 footnotes, 5 boxes and 9 tables.)

This document reports on the results of an ad hoc workshop called "S.E.E.ing the Future: Science Engineering and Education" Held at Dartmouth College in November of 2000 and sponsored by Dartmouth, the National Science Foundation, the Dow Chemical Company, and Science Service of Washington, DC. This transdisciplinary conference was one of a series of events that took place across the country to mark of the National Science Foundation's 50th Anniversary (NSFSO). The conference brought together leading thinkers in the sciences and arts-winners of National Medals of Science and Technology, Presidential Early Career Awards for Scientists and Engineers, leaders in industry and small business, university presidents and deans, writers, theologians and financiers--discussed the future of government funding of basic science and engineering research in the United States. Representing a diverse spectrum of those affecting and affected by science and engineering research, this grassroots group's findings and recommendations for the best uses of public monies are reported here. Among those findings are: (1) a deteriorating national infrastructure that may threaten U.S. leadership in science and technology; (2) public funding needs to balance the shift of industry research and development dollars from new research to short-term product development and profits; (3) funding agencies must expand their traditional definition of cost and benefit analyses for scientific research beyond dollars spent, discoveries made, and products developed to include the intellectual vitality of science, U.S. responsibility as a leading global citizen, and the fate of areas that are not founded; (4) in order to maintain its leadership positions in science and in the world economy, the U.S. must encourage, recruit, and retain a wide range of American young people--especially women and minorities--in science and engineering careers; (5) all Americans must be educated in the fundamentals of science; (6) the U.S. executive branch must establish a plan to promote long-term funding and evaluation of research initiatives and projects of benefit to the entire nation; and (7) the need for the federal development of a program to renovate the laboratories and teaching facilities at small and medium size non-research colleges. A list of conference participants is appended. (Contains 15 references and 39 endnotes.) (YDS)

The elapsed time taken to earn a Ph.D. in economics is analyzed with data from 620 (of about 950) 1996-1997 Ph.D.s. The median is 5.3 years. A duration model indicates that those students at several of the most highly regarded programs, those supported by no-work fellowships, and those holding a prior master's degree finish faster than others. Americans, those who start jobs before completing their degree, and those who have children take longer. Children slow the progress of women, but not of men. The only difference among fields is a longer time required for industrial organization and international economics. There is no difference in time-to-degree between men and women, married and single students, older and younger students, and those enrolled in larger or smaller Ph.D. programs. Fellowship support is more important for speeding the progress of women than of men. (Contains 3 tables, 18 endnotes, and 14 references.) (Author/SLD)

Recent world developments have created an opportune time for nations to vigorously pursue a policy of converting the huge portion of their economies that traditionally have been devoted to military expenditures to more socially productive uses. This paper outlines a strategy for such a conversion, and discusses the issues that must be confronted in such a process. Specific aspects of conversion include: (1) misconceptions about lessening military spending; (2) building a conversion coalition; (3) the paths forged by China and the Soviet Union; (4) upheaval in Eastern Europe; and (5) grassroots initiatives in the West. It is concluded that the gathering pressure for disarmament suggests that conversion will be a topic gaining importance during the 1990's. A number of statistical tables, charts, and maps appear throughout this paper, and 127 endnotes are provided. (DB)

This bibliographic essay is designed to help the student begin to investigate both context and content of contemporary Spanish society, government, politics, and economy. Coverage is selective because the focus is on sources in English, although where important subject matter gaps exist, Spanish sources are provided. Many of these are available in research libraries. Others have to be secured from their publishers, such as agencies of the government of Spain. The investigator of Spanish institutions will find that understanding the nature of this culture will fall into three broad categories of analysis: (1) broad, retrospective and introspective historical analyses of history, society, politics, and economics, that reach back from pre-Roman influences and travel into the 20th century: (2) works that emphasize the forces, particularly political, from the late 19th century on that led up to the civil war and include the Franco regime; and (3) the period of post-Franco transformation and the current building of Spain as a democratic constitutional monarchy. The first two traditions are primarily historical, the third is rich in analysis. Because democracy in Spain developed through a peaceful transformation to democracy by negotiation among its major interests, the transformation period fundamentally altered Spain's governmental and economic institutions, laid to rest many political cleavages that had been alive for nearly 200 years, and changed Spanish society. The resources described are divided into sections of general works, political system, government and policy making, economy, society and culture. Contains 124 references. (DK)

Education has been recognized as the cornerstone of economic and social development. Now it is even more important as technological change and new methods of production transform the world economy. Development will depend more and more on knowledge-intensive industries, agriculture, and services. The continuing economic crisis, however, is jeopardizing the ability of many countries to maintain even the present quality of their educational services. These countries are falling behind in providing the education and training needed by their youth to create and adapt available knowledge and technologies to the local environment. This report examines the relationship between education and economic development and evaluates various measures designed to improve the quality of education in developing countries. It draws on the successes and failures of past educational policies to recommend strategies that address a number of different economic conditions. Among the topics addressed by the report are: (1) the effect of education on the achievements of women; (2) a comparison of the benefits of vocational/technical and academic education; (3) the effect of education on mortality, nutrition, and fertility; (4) management of the educational system; and (5) cost recovery and private education. Thirty tables of data appear throughout the report and an extensive bibliography is included. (Authors/DB)

This study traces public sector expenditures for nine Latin American countries in the 1980s in order to determine how social services and social well-being fared during the economic stringencies of the decade. The countries included are Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Costa Rica, the Dominican Republic, El Salvador, Jamaica, and Venezuela. The sectors covered are health, education, and social security. Real per capita public social spending on health, education, and social security fell during some part of the 1980s in every country in the study. Numerous efforts to increase the efficiency and equity of social service provision were undertaken, but the data available do not indicate that these efforts were successful. The policy agenda should include a growth oriented strategy, coupled with a high priority for the social sectors in the government budget in order to assure adequate resources to the social sectors. Even with these steps, increased coverage and quality of social service delivery cannot be expected to result primarily from growth in expenditures. Rather, improvements in service delivery must come from increasing the equity and efficiency of resource use. The usual gamut of tools is relevant--priority for primary health and primary education, targeting, cost recovery with provision for exemptions for the poor and for preventive services, decentralization, and institutional development. Better management and monitoring systems are needed in order to evaluate the success of such program changes. (Author/DB)

Given "T" joint observations on "K" variables, it is frequently useful to consider the weighted average or scaled score. L-scaling is introduced as a technique for determining the weights. The technique is so named because of its resemblance to the Leontief matrix of mathematical economics. L-scaling is compared to two widely-used procedures for data reduction, but no attempt is made to survey the voluminous literature on scaling methods. These methods are the first principal component method and the best weight function method. A robust L-scaling technique is described for use when the data matrix is contaminated by outliers. The discussion proceeds in terms of descriptive statistics since the various techniques have sampling properties that are either unknown or intractable. The technique is illustrated with a hypothetical example of 100 observations on three variables drawn from a pseudorandom-number generator. L-scaling is one method a researcher may apply when a sensitivity analysis, which compares the outcomes of several scaling methods, is desired. Four tables illustrate the study. (SLD)

The 2001 No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB) increased accountability pressure in U.S. public schools by threatening to impose sanctions on Title 1 schools that failed to make adequate yearly progress (AYP) in consecutive years. Difference-in-difference estimates of the effect of failing AYP in the first year of NCLB on teacher effort in the subsequent year suggest that, on average, teacher absences in North Carolina fell by about 10 percent, and the probability of being absent 15 or more times fell by about 30 percent. Reductions in teacher absences were driven by within-teacher increases in effort and were larger among more effective teachers. Two appendices include: (1) Value Added Measures (VAMs) of Teacher Effectiveness; and (2) Regression Discontinuity (RD) Sensitivity Analysis.

Like most other state and local government employees, teachers participate primarily in defined benefit pension plans whose benefits are based on final average salaries and length of service. Such pensions have been replaced in many private sector firms by defined contribution pensions. A number of questions have arisen about the feasibility and desirability of continuing to rely on defined benefit pensions for teachers. These include (1) whether teacher pension plans are adequately financed to fulfill the commitments made to plan participants; (2) whether current pension plans are both fair to short-term and long-term teachers; and (3) whether these plans contribute to teacher shortages by encouraging early retirements and discouraging people from moving to schools where their skills and knowledge are most needed. This paper (1) presents basic information on teacher retirement plans; (2) discusses differences in the legal and economic context for public and private sector pensions that are important considerations in plan design; and (3) introduces issues related to financial sustainability, teacher mobility, and teacher shortages. The paper also provides an overview of key differences between defined benefit and defined contribution plans. It highlights the fact that the boundaries between various types of pensions are porous, and plans can be designed to include a variety of features depending on the objectives being sought. The paper also discusses one form of defined benefit pension, the cash balance plan, that has features normally found in both defined benefit and defined contribution programs. Cash balance plans have replaced some traditional defined benefit plans in private firms but have received almost no attention in the public sector. (Contains 6 tables and 4 figures.)