Industry and skill wage premiums in east Asia

This paper focuses on the estimation of skill/industry premiums and labor force composition at the national and sector levels in seven East Asian countries with the objective of providing a comprehensive analysis of trends in demand for skills in the region. The paper addresses the following questions: Are there converging or diverging trends in the region regarding the evolution of skill premiums and labor force composition? Are changes in skill premiums generalized or industry-related? How have industry premiums evolved? The analysis uses labor and household surveys going back at least 10 years. The main trends emerging from the analysis are: (a) increasing proportions of skilled/educated workers over the long run across the region; (b) generally increasing demand for skills in the region; (c) the service sector has become the most important driver of demand for skills for all countries (except Thailand); (d) countries can be broadly categorized into three groups in relation to trends and patterns of demand for skills (Indonesia, Philippines, and Thailand; Vietnam and China; and Cambodia and Mongolia); and (e) industry premiums have increased in three countries of the region (Philippines, Thailand, and Cambodia). These trends point to several policyimplications, including that governments should focus on policies promoting access to education to address the increasing demand for skills and/or persistent skill shortages; support general rather than specific curricula given broad-based increases in skill premiums in most countries; better tailor curriculum design and content and pedagogical approaches to the needs of the service sector; and target some social protection programs to unskilled workers to protect them from the"unequalizing"impact of education.Labor Markets,Water and Industry,Tertiary Education,Education For All,Secondary Education

Covariates of efficiency in education production among developing pacific-basin and Latin American countries

COVARIATES OF EFFICIENCY IN EDUCATION PRODUCTION AMONG DEVELOPING PACIFIC- BASIN AND LATIN-AMERICAN COUNTRIESThe paper investigates why some schools in East Asia and Latin America are more efficient in the use of resources than others. It estimates input and output efficiencies and uses efficiency scores as dependent variables in analysis of variance and regression analyses. Input and output efficiencies are calculated using ?hard? inputs such as number and quality of teachers and student socio-economic status, and ?soft? inputs such as management; sorting and school autonomy are then used as explanatory variables in the variance and regression analysis. The results indicate that private management and student selection lead to high efficiencies and this result is negative for those who hope for quality public education for all; greater school autonomy leads to higher efficiencies, even for public schools that do not practice selection.Efficiency, Education quality, School inputs, Poverty

Reseña de estudios sobre incidencia fiscal: aspectos metodológicos

Incluye Bibliografí

Educational decentralization models in Latin America

Includes bibliographyDecentralization of social services is one of the central elements of the social policy reforms being carried out in Latin America in order to make the provision of such services more efficient and to strengthen the democratization processes. This article analyses the processes of decentralization of education in seven Latin American countries (Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Mexico and Nicaragua);. It seeks to systematize these experiences, using a theoretical typology of reform models; to present some results and trends in terms of the efficiency and equity of the provision of these services, and to extract some useful lessons for the design of future reforms. Although the models developed in the various countries differ from each other, they nevertheless have some common features: they depend on the resources provided by the central level to finance the services, and in many cases they subordinate schools to decisions taken at other levels. Among the main economic and social effects of the reforms are the limited progress made in participation and, hence, social efficiency; the ambiguous results obtained in terms of technical efficiency, and a trend which is not yet fully confirmed towards greater inter-territorial disparities in educational indicators. Among the lessons for policy formulation is the importance of giving the new levels of supply some degree of real autonomy, using a system of transfers which encourages a quest for efficiency while at the same time safeguarding equity, taking care to preserve the internal coherence of the models, giving some responsibilities directly to the schools, and ensuring that there is a suitable framework for the regulation and supervision of decentralized service supply systems

Los modelos de descentralización educativa en América Latina

Incluye BibliografíaLa descentralización de los servicios sociales es un eje esencial de las reformas de política social que se están efectuando en América Latina para hacer más eficiente la provisión de estos servicios y fortalecer los procesos de democratización. Aquí se analizan los procesos de descentralización de la educación en siete países latinoamericanos (Argentina, Bolivia, Brasil, Chile, Colombia, México y Nicaragua);. Se intenta sistematizar estas experiencias, utilizando una tipología teórica de modelos de reforma; mostrar algunos resultados y tendencias en cuanto a eficiencia y equidad de la provisión de los servicios, y extraer algunas enseñanzas para el diseño de futuras reformas. Aunque los modelos desarrollados en los distintos países son diversos, tienen algunos elementos comunes: dependencia de los recursos del nivel central para financiar los servicios, y, en muchos casos, subordinación de la escuela a decisiones tomadas a otros niveles. Entre los efectos económicos y sociales de las reformas, sobresalen los avances limitados en participación y, por ende, eficiencia social, y ambiguos en materia de eficiencia técnica, así como una tendencia aún poco comprobada a mayores disparidades interterritoriales de los indicadores educativos. Entre las enseñanzas de política, destaca la importancia de entregar alguna autonomía real a los nuevos niveles proveedores, utilizar un sistema de transferencias que incentive la búsqueda de la eficiencia y a la vez preserve la equidad, cuidar la coherencia interna de los modelos, entregar algunas responsabilidades directamente a las escuelas y contar con un marco para la regulación y supervisión de los sistemas proveedores de servicios descentralizados

Descentralización de la educación en América Latina: un análisis comparativo

Incluye Bibliografí

El gasto social en América Latina: un examen cuantitativo y cualitativo

Incluye Bibliografí

Cuantificación y focalización del gasto social: el caso de Panamá

Incluye Bibliografí

Descentralización de la educación y la salud: un análisis comparativo

Incluye Bibliografí

Decentralization and educational performance: evidence from the PROHECO Community School Program in rural Honduras

We analyze the effectiveness of the Programa Hondureño de Educación Comunitaria (PROHECO) community school program in rural Honduras. The data include standardized tests and extensive information on school, teacher, classroom and community features for 120 rural schools drawn from 15 states. Using academic achievement decompositions we find that PROHECO schools do a better job of maximizing teacher effort and involving parents in the school, both of which translate into higher levels of achievement. But these efficiency advantages are offset (to some degree) by lower levels of teacher experience, training, parental education, as well as a reliance on smaller class sizes. The results help extend the community school and school based management (SBM) literatures by identifying plausible mechanisms in the chain linking increased community involvement with better student outcomes, while also highlighting the importance of local capacity.School based management, school and teacher quality, academic achievement, decomposition analysis,