Learning and skills contribute to economic growth both directly, by improving the skills base available to employers, and indirectly, by underpinning the five foundations of productivity identified by the government: ideas, people, infrastructure, business environment, and places. This is the case for all levels of learning from basic skills to…

The literature in economic psychology and quality-of-life studies alludes to a negative relationship between materialism and life satisfaction. In contrast, the macroeconomic literature implies a positive relationship between material consumption and economic growth. That is, materialism may be both good and bad. We develop a model that reconciles…

The triad of cooperation, international exchange, and integration among institutions of higher education has become the new norm in the global experience of learning and academic training. The goal of improving and standardising the academic experience across countries is now typically also associated with fostering cultural and political ties and…

International student mobility in higher education has gained currency as an important topic in today's global, political, and economic environment. United States postsecondary institutions are working to expand their international student population to increase revenue and diversity. The current higher education and economic context has produced…

Commoditization seems immutable and unstoppable but, like other social processes, its prevalence is context dependent. The enabling context for commoditization has been cheap fossil fuels, economic growth, and ever-increasing energy and material throughput. In fact, the scientific findings of ecological, climate, footprint, and material flow…

The current paper constructs a progress measurement appropriate for measuring multiple and different dimensions of progress. The paper is not meant to be a detailed discussion of the framework but rather a demonstrated application of the measure. The constructed resource-infrastructure-environment progress measure employs a non-monetary evaluation…

In Western Europe, especially in Germany, private higher education is generally perceived as an alternative to public higher education for students from relatively affluent families; more broadly, there is a general perception that attending a private higher education institution is correlated to wealth. This perception is influenced by private…

The economy's need for workers originates in the demand for the goods and services that these workers provide. So, to project employment, BLS starts by estimating the components of gross domestic product (GDP) for 2020. GDP is the value of the final goods produced and services provided in the United States. Then, BLS estimates the size--in…

Few people truly recognize the influence of modern transportation on society. In the United States, that includes the influence of highways that allow the citizenry to travel freely, the strength of the economy, and the country's national security. In all cases, the geography of the United States influenced the evolution of transportation and…

Everyone under the age of 20 who has grown up in North America has lived in the common market created by NAFTA--the North American Free Trade Agreement. In a zone linking the United States, Canada, and Mexico, most goods and investments flow freely across borders to users, consumers, and investors. In 1994, NAFTA created the largest relatively…

American education has problems, almost everyone is willing to concede, but many think those problems are mostly concentrated in America's large urban school districts. In the elite suburbs, where wealthy and politically influential people tend to live, the schools are assumed to be world-class. Unfortunately, what everyone knows is wrong. Even…

Linking research to a compelling societal interest can build financial commitments to research, bring increased attention to findings, and grow support for scaling up impacts. Among many compelling societal interests that learning scientists can cite--such as increasing the quality of life, preparing citizens to make decisions in a complex world,…

This article is an update of a previous study by the author which examined the growth of elementary and public school revenues for school years 1982-1983 through 1991-1992 (Alexander 1997). Using the same framework, this study provides an analysis of the factors accounting for changes in real per-pupil revenues across the 50 states and the…

"Turn and Face the Strain: Age Demographic Change and the Near Future of American Education" outlines a fierce battle looming between the needs of public health care and education. A crisis is fast approaching that makes comprehensive improvement of America's public schools more important than ever. Faced with rapidly expanding…

"Turn and Face the Strain: Age Demographic Change and the Near Future of American Education" outlines a fierce battle looming between the needs of public health care and education. A crisis is fast approaching that makes comprehensive improvement of America's public schools more important than ever. Faced with rapidly expanding…