Since the early 1980s, the vast majority of states have implemented enterprise zones. This paper analyzes urban zones in six states, examining the factors that states use to choose zone locations and the subsequent effect of the zones on business activity and employment. The source of outcome data is the U.S. Bureau of Census' longitudinal…

One of the primary objectives of Colombian social health insurance reform was to increase competition among for-profit insurers. Unfortunately, the flat capitated formula creates an opportunity for sickness funds to maximize reimbursement gains by "cream skimming"--selecting against unhealthy individuals. This paper explores sickness…

In this paper, we explore whether the specific design of a state's program has contributed to its success in meeting two objectives of the Children's Health Insurance Program (SCHIP): increasing the health insurance coverage of children in lower-income families and doing so with a minimum reduction in their private health insurance coverage…

Previous studies find large cross-national differences in inequality amongst rich Western nations, due in large part to differences in the generosity of welfare state transfers. The United States is the least generous nation and the one having the most after-tax and transfer inequality. But these analyses are limited to the effects of cash and…

This article takes Singapore, an emerging education hub, as a focal point from which to investigate its attempts to become a global city and knowledge-based economy. It outlines how discourses of the knowledge economy are used to rationalise particular policy interventions and the transnational education forms arising from them. It speculates on…

School choice is often identified with right-leaning, voucher-happy, market-oriented public school systems like those found in the United States. Thus the proposition that a social democratic state such as South Africa will offer many primary and secondary school learners far greater choice strikes many as counter-intuitive and implausible. The…

In a growing number of countries, government-appointed assessment panels develop ranks on the basis of the quality of scholarly outputs to apportion budgets in recognition of evaluated performance and to justify public funds for future R&D activities. When business and management journals are being grouped in broad quality categories, a recent…

How much can late schooling investments close racial and ethnic skill gaps? We investigate this question by exploiting the large differences in completed schooling that arise among teenagers with birthdays near school-entry cutoff dates. We estimate that an additional year of high school raises the Armed Forces Qualifying Test (AFQT) scores of…

This article is neither a study nor a review; rather, it is a thought piece from a contributing editor concerning issues associated with the state of gifted child education, as it exists today in the shadow of the effects of No Child Left Behind (NCLB). The primary purpose of this article is to stimulate thought, discussion, and action concerning…

This article uses data from a series of reports by the Longer Term Strategy Group of Universities UK to outline key features of the developing market for higher education in the UK. The resulting empirical lessons about the behaviour of students and institutions are tested against the political drive for a freer domestic "market" for…

This article estimates the dollar amount of public higher education subsidies received by U.S. youth and examines the distribution of subsidies and the taxes that finance them across parental and student income levels. Although youths from high-income families obtain more benefit from higher education subsidies, high-income households pay…

Statistics on the relative pay of public school teachers are routinely cited by plaintiffs in school finance ("adequacy") lawsuits. However, comparisons of pay and benefits for public school teachers to those of professional employees in other sectors are complicated by the fact that most teachers work under contracts that are nine or ten months…

This is the first of two articles that provide a critique of categorisation and of the biomedical interpretation of personal adjustment issues experienced by children and youth. In this paper the appraisal is made by the devising of an imaginary mental illness, through the presentation of some important theoretical frameworks, by considering…

Education policies from international organisations such as the World Bank and OECD are restructuring education to promote a utilitarian vision of education. By examining the experiences and opinions of teachers from countries representing north-south global regions, it is possible to identify the social and political implications of education…

Any consideration of recent and proposed developments in education and training at European Union (EU) level points, in a word, to "Lisbon". "Lisbon", as in the "Lisbon Agenda", is the destination, the compass and the journey driving developments in education and training systems in the EU member states. This paper…