Vocational and technical education in Peru

The relative costs of and returns to VTE (Vocational and Technical Education) and general education in Peru are investigated here. The paper is composed as follows. Following a brief introduction, section 2 describes the system of education in Peru and changes that have occurred in this system over time. Section 3 surveys the (relatively sparse) literature on comparative rates of return to VTE and general education. Sections 4 and 5 describe, respectively, the data used for this study and the model used to estimate the returns to different levels and types of education. Section 6 reports the results of the empirical analysis. Section 7 introduces data obtained from Peru's Ministry of Education on the relative costs of VTE and general education. The concluding section 8 considers the implications, if any, of the findings for educational policy.Teaching and Learning,Curriculum&Instruction,Gender and Education,Health Monitoring&Evaluation,Primary Education

Social science perspectives on managing agricultural technology

Experiences of 15 social science research fellows who recount their roles in particular research projects at the International Agricultural Research Centers they were appointed. In addition to highlighting the contributions social scientists can make in the field of agricultural research, their papers offer a candid look at the kinds of work in which the Centers currently are engaged.Technology, Agricultural research, Resource management, Farmer participation, Evaluation, Farm Management, Research Methods/ Statistical Methods,

Education and earnings in Peru's informal nonfarm family enterprises

This study presents an analysis of non-farm family businesses in Peru. It uses the enterprise rather than the individual as the unit of analysis, and incorporates enterprise characteristics (capital, nonlabor inputs, focus of operation) explicitly. The central question addressed is: does formal schooling make a difference? Women and children are included in the analysis since thay play an important, if not the preeminent, role in Peru's family business sector. We can thus see whether the payoff to education differs between male and female entrepreneurs after controlling for other factors. The paper proceeds as follows. After the introduction, sections 2 and 3 describe, respectively, the data and the regression model. Section 4 presents the empirical results. Section 5 assesses these results, including those for nonschooling variables, and section 6 discusses the implications with regard to education, comparing our findings with those obtained for some of the same people, considered as individuals, in other analysis.Banks&Banking Reform,Agricultural Knowledge&Information Systems,Health Monitoring&Evaluation,Municipal Financial Management,Environmental Economics&Policies

Social science perspectives on managing agricultural technology

TechnologyAgricultural researchResource managementFarmer participationEvaluation

Education and earnings in a transition economy (Vietnam)

The transition from a centrally planned to a market economy is likely to have a strong impact on the labor market, on relative earnings, and on returns to education. Major economic reforms in Vietnam since 1986 (the policy known as"Doi Moi") have included a number of measures to liberalize the labor market. It is too soon to assess the full impact of these reforms, but the authors analyze the returns to education, on the basis of earnings in 1992-93 (collected in the first Vietnam Living Standards Survey). This represents one of the first country-wide analyses of the monetary benefits of schooling in Vietnam at a time when the labor market was in transition. On average, the estimated rates of returns are still relatively low, which is to be expected, since salary reforms were not introduced until 1993. Average private rates of return to primary education (13 percent) and university education (11 percent) are higher than those to secondary and vocational education (only 4 to 5 percent). Returns to higher education are slightly higher for women (12 percent) than for men (10 percent). Evidence from other transition economies suggests that returns are likely to increase as reforms in the labor market take full effect. The results support this hypothesis: Returns for younger Vietnamese workers (14 percent) are considerably higher than for older workers (only 4 percent). Implications for policymaking: 1) it is important to monitor future earnings and trends in the labor market, as updates of this analysis could provide more robust estimates of the transition's effects on earnings and returns to education. 2) At a time when the Vietnamese government is reassessing its pricing policy, the fact that private rates of return to higher education are relatively high suggests the potential for greater cost recovery. 3) Efforts to improve efficiency in secondary and higher education could increase the rate of return by lowering costs.Teaching and Learning,Decentralization,Public Health Promotion,Health Monitoring&Evaluation,Curriculum&Instruction,Health Monitoring&Evaluation,Curriculum&Instruction,Gender and Education,Primary Education,Teaching and Learning

Pragmatism and the Primary School : The Case of a Non-Rural Village

The aim of this paper is to analyze the educational needs of one small community in Kenya in terms of its changing socio-economic patterns, and to show how attitudes towards the school system have their roots within this setting.Center for Research on Economic Development, University of Michiganhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/100886/1/ECON338.pd

Economic analysis of World Bank education projects and project outcomes

Research reported in this paper tests the hypothesis that Bank education projects for which the project appraisal documents are judged"good"have a higher probability of leading to successful outcomes than projects for which the appraisals are judged"poor."The research draws on project document evaluations carried out between 1993 and 1998. Analysis shows a strong relationship between the quality of cost-benefit and cost-effectiveness analysis and the quality of project outcomes. Economic analysis of projects is a tool for weeding out potentially poor investments and selecting potentially worthwhile ones. The economic analysis can be used to select among alternative projects or to redesign project components so that they yield more and produce better outcomes. Good practice education projects require good economic analysis--analysis of demand, of the counterfactual private sector supply, of the project's fiscal impact, of lending fungibility--and strong sector work before project design.Curriculum&Instruction,Urban Services to the Poor,Poverty Assessment,Health Monitoring&Evaluation,Health Economics&Finance

Hijacked | Reclaiming Legislative Loopholes

ARTICLE 1: GENERAL PROVISIONS. SEC. 100. PURPOSES. San Francisco’s current political legislation has critical loopholes that have constructed a predominant shift in the city’s identity and urban fabric, as well as an obvious neglect of the public realm and social agenda. The recent move of the Silicon Valley tech headquarters to the city’s center has dramatically changed the architectural landscape as well as reinforced a growing push for corporate privatization. This thesis aims to expose and confront the hidden political and social dynamics of the constructed environment and reclaim the existing loopholes in order to propose a project without major exemptions from the initial legislations’ intentions. The main purpose is not to critique the lack of strict code requirements but rather envision an alternative proposal that maximizes the potential of the city’s legislative constraints and ultimately hijacks the spaces that have been deprived of the diminishing public usage. SEC. 101. PARAMETERS The Bay Area is comprised of four varying typological nodes that are connected through the infrastructural spine of Market Street, each containing a set of different parameters that set up the context for the overall symbiotic interventions. The architectural project will consist of hijacking four exemplary buildings, one within each node, in order to showcase the variety of loopholes as well as design possibilities. The four proposals within each node are as follows: (1) High-Rise Node. This proposal hijacks the interior lining of the Privately-Owned Public Open Spaces (POPOS) that are either visually buried within the building or not located on the ground floor. (2) Mid-Rise Node. This proposal hijacks the street frontages of the retail spaces that neglect any pedestrian stimulation or interaction. (3) Row-House Node. This proposal hijacks the growing number of condos that have failed to incorporate the necessary program to resonate with the surrounding community. (4) Civic Node. This proposal hijacks the only underground historical landmark currently used for storage. SEC. 102. IMPLEMENTATION The dissection of the legislative code of the four existing buildings reveals the loopholes and uncovers the hidden design opportunities that have not been explored. Each approved exemption is reclaimed to be re-designed in compliance with the planning code as well as to illustrate the full legislative potential. All four nodes implement the same design logic of calling out the added spatial, material and programmatic amenities in order to make them cohesively discernible within the city’s landscape