Higher Education As An International Public Good And GATS: A Paradox?

The reform of higher education in Europe in the wake of the Bologna Declaration can on the one hand be seen as an effort by the European political world to construct some kind of regional public good in this field. On the other hand the United States and its allies such as Australia and New Zealand are, in the talks of the Millennium Round, trying to bring (higher) education under the rules of the General Agreement on Trade in Services (GATS). This effort reflects the conviction that higher education must be seen as a private good. The purpose of this paper is to clarify the nature of higher education in terms of the discussion on public good vs private good. Higher education clearly has public as well as private ingredients. A number of questions can be deducted from this fact. This paper will try to give the beginning of an answer to these questions. The structure of the paper is as follows. In the first paragraph a definition is given of international public goods. Higher education is then analysed from the perspective of this definition. The second paragraph considers the European policy towards creating a higher education system in Europe in the framework of a regional public goods approach. Consideration is given to those public and private aspects of higher education which follow from the analysis in paragraph 1. In the third paragraph higher education is set in the framework of the General Agreement on Trade in Services. The fourth paragraph tries to make some concluding remarks about the paradox which is the core issue of this paper

How performant are European governments in their housing policies?

Governments use a variety of instruments to pursue their housing policies. A clear picture on which policies are best suited to attain the objectives of housing policy is still lacking though. This paper addresses this question by empirically approaching government intervention in the housing sector from the viewpoints of effectiveness and efficiency. Effectivity in housing policy is regarded as affordable housing at reasonable quality made available to all. Efficiency is restricted in this paper to productive efficiency, meaning that administration and production costs are possibly too high given the ouput. Applying the methodologies of the Full Disposable Hull and Data Envelopment Analysis allows us to point out the countries with the most efficient housing policy. By focusing on the particular mix of instruments these countries are using we can then draw policy conclusions

The new EU economic governance: vertical and horizontal power shifts

The euro crisis made visible the omitted stage in the European integration process. The EU jumped from the common market straight to the monetary union, neglecting the formation of the economic union. The new EU economic governance is a combination of a vertical shift of competences, i.e. from one level of government to another level, and a horizontal shift of powers and competences, i.e. from elected governments to unelected government bodies entrusted with (parts of) government policies, from discretionary policy towards rules. In both types there is a risk of accountability problems, although of a different kind. The purpose of this paper is to analyze the new EU economic governance within the conceptual framework of these vertical and horizontal shifts. This two-dimensional approach offers a better analytical tool than the more traditional one-dimensional fiscal federalism approach. In the first part of the paper the focus is on the policy domains that are the objects in the shifting process. Budgetary policy mainly is at stake, but also banking regulation and monetary policy are partly involved. The second part of the paper deals with the relevant aspects of the theories on the division of powers along vertical and horizontal lines. The fiscal federalism approach to vertical separation and the time consistency theory on the horizontal distribution of power are briefly exposed. In the third part the power shifts occurring within the new EU economic governance are presented and defined in terms of our framework of vertical and horizontal power shifts. Finally the accountability problems of these shifts are analyzed

Credibility of fiscal policies and independent fiscal bodies

In this paper we address the problem of credibility in fiscal policy. In many instances fiscal policy as conducted by governments is not perceived as credible. The targets set forward by government are often not met and usually the divergence is on the negative side. Taxes are overestimated and spending is underestimated, leading to a deficit bias and growing indebtedness of governments. To enhance the credibility of fiscal policy several schemes are put forward. Most frequently used are fiscal rules that replace discretionary decision making. Fiscal rules however are difficult to sanction and although they can improve the quality of fiscal policy, they do not guarantee sound fiscal policy. Therefore it is sometimes suggested to install fiscal councils on top of the fiscal rules. Fiscal councils with tasks in forecasting and assessing fiscal policy have been and are being introduced in more and more countries. Some economists want to go further however and propose to establish fiscal councils with independent powers to conduct fiscal policy within the borderlines that parliament lays down. In this paper these tendencies are analyzed

Credibility of fiscal policy and politics: an empirical assessment

In this paper we address the measurement and the analysis of credibility in fiscal policy. In many instances fiscal policy as conducted by governments is not perceived as credible, because the targets set forward by the government are often not met. Usually the divergence is on the negative side. Taxes are overestimated and spending is underestimated, leading to a deficit bias and growing indebtedness of governments. This paper focuses on a measure of credibility that builds on the deviations of the actual budget balances from the projections about these balances in the preceding year for 26 EU member states over the period 1999-2009.1 The objective is to extract from these data insights into the credibility of these governments’ fiscal policies and to explain credibility by a number of political determinant

MOOCs, SPOCs, DOCCs and other bugs

Written from the perspective of an individual lecturer at a European university with no particular know-how in e-learning and online educative devices, this paper aims to understand the MOOC phenomenon that, for a couple of years, has hovered over the field of higher education. A tentative answer is given to the question whether MOOCs will disrupt higher education. It is indeed feared in many corners that MOOCs will hurt non-top universities in favour of the Ivy League institutions by replacing average lectures with the stars of the university celestial sphere. This paper argues that, especially in the European context, such a disruption is highly unlikely. More likely is that MOOCs will evolve into one of the many education tools in higher education. The point is, then, how this evolution can be turned into an advantage. It is argued that having a considerable degree of inter-institutional cooperation would be an asset. Until now, most MOOCs have been developed by single institutions, but it would be an asset for the European Higher Education Area (EHEA) for European-style MOOCs to be developed by European networks of universities (and eventually other partners). Explicit support for this effort should be offered by the Erasmus+ programme

Marktwerkingsbeleid in België en de EU: een economische inleiding

Markten bieden over het algemeen een goede oplossing als het gaat om de verdeling van de schaarse middelen over de ontelbare behoeften. Dat betekent evenwel niet dat de overheid geen rol te spelen heeft als het om marktwerking gaat. Wanneer markten falen, verwachten consumenten, maar ook bedrijven dat de overheid paraat staat om te corrigeren. Dit kan op verschillende manieren. Dit boek gaat in op enkele van de beleidsinstrumenten waarover de overheid beschikt om marktfalen aan te pakken. Meer bepaald nemen we het concurrentie- en reguleringsbeleid onder de loep vanuit een economische rational

Assessing heterogeneity of the composition of mare's milk in Flanders

In this study, the effect of farm, time, season and health was evaluated on the composition of mare's milk sold in Flanders. The content of the analyzed components (i.e. fat, fatty acids, protein, lactoferrin, lysozyme, lactose and urea) differed significantly (p < 0.0001) between farms, at a given moment in time. Within each farm, large month-to-month variations for most milk components (p <0.01 to 0.0001) were observed. The variation over time between different farms was smaller. These findings indicate that the composition of the mare's milk consumer portions varies substantially between the different farms and also over time within each farm. Season, nutrition, udder health and worm burden are believed to contribute significantly to this variation