This paper studies a sample of economies in transition to verify the assertion that returns to schooling increase as an economy transitions to a market environment. This claim has been difficult to assess in the past as the empirical evidence so far has covered only a few countries over short time periods. A number of studies find that returns to…

Local school districts differ in their ability to pay for teacher quality, and in the amenities they offer as places to live and work. Market clearing with heterogeneous quality yields geographically varying teacher salary levels that confound scarcity with unobserved differences in quality. The paper discusses identification and estimation of a…

Borland and Howsen (1992) showed that public schools' market structure affected academic performance. This paper examines the effects of neighboring school districts' performance on that of six metropolitan Ohio school districts, modeling student achievement as a function of control variables and competition from neighboring school districts.…

Examines how public school system structure influences both education spending and student performance in California. Finds considerable support for the public-exchange model predicting that greater competition improves student performance. Higher spending and market power probably leads to lower student achievement in fourth and eighth grades.…

Considers both market choice and public choice mechanisms with respect to their efficiencies in producing social and private benefits. A market approach to education appears superior regarding private benefits, whereas the public choice appears superior regarding social benefits. Neither system is cost effective, although the market system yields…

Critiques Henry Levin's "Economics of Educational Choice" essay for confining discussion to a constrained, regulated voucher type of market system. Insists that public school/voucher systems involve significant welfare costs associated with tax collection and presents five other itemized responses to Levin. (four references) (MLH)

Reforms in many countries have attempted to increase the degree of competition in school markets. Analyzes school market outcomes utilizing a simple model of the type of local market created in England and Wales. Finds, for example, that the combination of quasi-market reforms do not appear to have produced incentives for all schools to increase…

Estimates returns to education in Slovenia, based on a Mincerian earnings function derived from 1978, 1983, and 1993 Household Expenditure Surveys. Estimated return rates for all educational levels and for both sexes were rather low in 1978 and 1983, due to a tightly controlled labor market and direct state interference. In 1993, estimated return…