This paper comments on Darcia Narvaez's Kohlberg Memorial Lecture (EJ1111256), published in this issue, with respect to her contrasting ethics and economics, or morality and market. My basic claim is that ethics and economics, properly understood, are just two sides of the same coin. One main point is that all morality solves cooperation problems…

This article shows how an economic perspective can be used to frame or reframe fundamental issues in higher education, including many current policy questions, not least the responsiveness of institutions to competition and market forces. It points out the danger that policymakers will not appreciate the possibly perverse consequences of…

The fiascoes that seem to accompany the annual publication of examination results in England, the subsequent inquiries instituted to ensure they "never happen again" and the Secretary of State's decision, reversed six months later because of fears about possible EU legal challenges, to "end competition between exam boards"…

There is increasing interest in the role academic institutions can play as catalysts of change within the territories in which they are located, by contributing proactively to shaping socio-economic development processes. This role for universities takes us beyond the typical focus on knowledge transfer activities or broad economic impacts. It…

Considerable policy and academic attention has been focused on the topic of food deserts. We consider this topic from an economic perspective. First, we consider how the components of a standard economic analysis apply to the study of food deserts. Second, using this economic lens, we revisit the empirical literature on food deserts to assess the…

For many years, debates over telecommunications network policy were marked by a relative lack of partisan and ideological conflict. In the last decade, this has changed markedly. Today, debates over a whole set of issues, including broadband competition, net neutrality, copyright, privacy, and others, have become more contentious. These…

When people dive into the varied texts of culture, print and non-print, and explore and critique them, they are doing much more than showing various persuasive appeals or advertising gimmicks to sway their audience; they are examining the purposes and values of capitalism, the economic system that produces a consumerocracy. People might even turn…

In the political discourse, the idea that organising continuing education according to the rules of the market would improve the quality, efficiency and effectiveness of continuing education programmes is gaining significance. In this article, we endeavour to subject some elements of this fundamental option in continuing education policy to an…

Focus and institutional policy under the No Child Left Behind Act [NCLB] (U.S. Department of Education 2001) has prioritized the individualistic, market-driven agenda. The NCLB regime has gained hegemony over the political space of public education, and the value and effectiveness of the educational process has become subject to the fetishism of…

A decade ago, before the tech boom collapsed and the digital economy bubble burst, it seemed to some that issues surrounding information technology (IT) might be central to the politics of the early 21st century. But after September 11, 2001, with so much else on everyone's minds, "digital politics" seemed a boring sideshow. Technocrats,…

Numerous design and repair services are nonstandard and have to be tailored to the needs of the individual buyers. Prospective sellers have to make preliminary efforts in order to come up with a plan, and buyers often consult a number of sellers before making a purchase. The literature on procurement studies such situations for the case of a large…

Would large-scale, free-market reforms improve educational outcomes for American children? That question cannot be answered by looking at domestic evidence alone. Though innumerable "school choice" programs have been implemented around the United States, none has created a truly free and competitive education marketplace. Existing…

Drawing on new institutional and market theories, this article derives three hypotheses for the effects of markets on educational organizations: They (1) weaken formal structures, (2) reverse tendencies toward isomorphism, and (3) force schools to recouple and compete via performance indicators. These ideas are investigated with data on private…

Identifies inconsistencies in treatments of the perfect competition, monopoly welfare comparison in textbooks for economics instruction. Argues for explanation of how experiments are being conducted and explicit identification of all underlying assumptions. Suggests straightforward analysis of the social cost of monopoly based on a comparison…

According to this article, community colleges are seeking ways to increase revenue and become less dependent on traditional state revenue resources. Increasingly, college presidents and trustees are finding empty pockets and depleted state coffers, despite the effort and hours spent lobbying legislatures for funding to support strategic plans.…