Can more education be bad? Some simple analytics on financing education

The evidence of effects of education activities on growth is mixed. So, could education be good, neutral, or bad, depending on the case? While the model in this paper remains close to the Heckscher-Ohlin tradition, it is shown that, contrary to the standard results, it is the net effect of prices, taxation, and accumulation of endowments that determines the Rybczynski-type growth effects, which may help explain the lack of consensus in the empirical literature on education and growth. A central feature of the model is that the accumulation of endowments depends on the output of education, while the changes in labour supply, which determine the effective production possibilities frontier, also depend on individuals’ decisions on allocation of time. In the paper, the risks of a labour supplyreducing government intervention are discussed. The analysis has implications for policymakers in developing countries where education needs to be enhanced, as it reveals the possibility of a ‘bad tax reform’ where the intentions of reformers are not met by the results. A sufficient condition to avoid this situation is identified in the paper.education, fiscal policy, developing countries

Terms of Trade Shocks and Minimum wages for Dual Labour Market: A CGE Analysis.

The aim of this work is to analyse the general equilibrium effects of terms of trade shocks in exportable sectors under particular assumptions about labour market. The model used is based on the Blacke et al. (1995) model of the Mauritian economy, modelled as consisting of three productive sectors: traditional exportable, non traditional exportable and non-traded goods. In this work, two new features are introduced. Firstly, a dual labour market: female and male workers are perfectly mobile across sectors, participating in different proportions in each activity. Secondly, minimum wages, applying to the whole economy, for each type of labour. A series of experiments has been performed to evaluate the general equilibrium effects from favourable and unfavourable shocks in the terms of trade in the exportable sector, paying particular attention to the effects for each type of worker. An import result is that the type-labour intensity is a key to explaining the differences that appear in the effects between the two types of worker when a shock occurs. This work also discusses the alterations in the output-price responses economy wide when a minimum wage is imposed.

Enhancing the Public Provision of Education: The Economics of Education Reform in Developing Countries

The paper argues that a comprehensive evaluation of education reform in particular in developing countries needs considering the triangle’ quality-quantity-equity of educational policies in the short, medium and long term in a broader context than the education system itself. There is no simple “recipe” for improving quality and internal and external efficiency in the public education system but some general results are found. Firstly, that the elasticity of the return of the reform is decreasing with the size of increased budget, making anti-economical the reliance on a reform consisting in more resources only to significantly improve the poor performance of the system. Indeed, very modest target set to improve the system performance, would require -without more sophisticated policies- huge increments in budget with a poor return. In this sense the paper investigate the capacity of focused policies to improve the productivity of the education expenditure, in particular toward basic education or the disadvantaged students. Secondly, the timing of the reform matters: most policies with very different return in the long term are almost undistinguishable by their short run merits, and policies that are more productive in the short term may be less convenient than competing alternatives in the longer term, so the actual policy may be influenced by the time horizon chosen by the policy makers. Thirdly, effects of the reform are accumulative, and to evaluate the reform by modest, in general, short run merits is myopic and may put the reform at risk of reversion or to deter future investment in the sector.public education, developing countries, development of human resources

Early school dropouts in developing countries: An integer approach to guide intervention. The case of Uruguay

Are early leavers from the education system irrational or ill informed? They might be, but this approach shows that with underperforming education sectors – typical in developing countries – early dropout may be perfectly rational and well informed, even in the absence of liquidity constraints. This paper provides an integer approach to guide intervention in developing countries, though there are no clear-cut policies. Long-term measures should be aimed at improving the productivity of the activity, for instance by improving teaching processes, qualification of human resources and organization of schools. Also, less costly measures targeting subjective factors like motivation might be as effective.dropouts; secondary education; education quality; developing countries

Trade liberalisation with costly adjustment

This paper discusses the welfare effects of trade in a Heckscher-Ohlin model of trade with costs of adjustment. The paper analyses the efficiency and the distributional effects of eliminating a tariff in a formerly protected sector. The tariff can be eliminated at the onset or after a while. In case of postponing the elimination of the tariff, the government may pre-announce the policy change or may not do it and surprise the private sector. It is shown that while large adjustment costs reduce the efficiency gains from trade liberalisation, small to moderate adjustment costs may raise the efficiency gains from a pre-announced liberalisation. The (net) adjustment costs reduce the welfare gains and losses of owners of production factors from a sudden unanticipated liberalisation. The policy risk is partially shifted towards owners of firms. The distributional effects of trade liberalisations are more complex when the policy is pre-announced. The adjustment costs may increase the gains and losses of owners of the production factors, for small and moderate levels. Also, the announcement that the tariff will be eliminated affects the value of the firms, and when the adjustment cost are not high it may raise rather than reduce the value of the firms in the formerly protected sector.

Trade and Skills in Uruguay: Long Term Skill Requirements

The paper discusses the links between skill requirements in the labour market and trade patterns using a CGE applied on the SAM 2005 for Uruguay. The results for alternative scenarios in the long term show that, the wage gap would widen should the pattern of trade growth follow the current trend; however, an enhanced demand of commodities would favour a reduction in the wage gap. The exercises provide insights on the economy-wide effects in the long term of the interaction of trade and accumulation of skills, and thus on the role of the current policy of development of human resources.Trade, Skills.

Public Expenditure on Education and Skill Formation: Is There a Simple Rule to Maximize Skills?

The ratio of skill to unskilled labour stocks in the economy is widely acknowledged to have an important role for development. Can education policy affect the evolution of this ratio? This paper shows that it can, and it also shows that the actual effect of education policy depends on the allocation rule of the budget across educational levels. The consideration of a stylized hierarchical education model allows us to develop analytical conditions under which the allocation rule favours the accumulation of skills. The analysis has implication for policy makers in developing countries, where skill formation is much needed, because it shows that observed allocation rules usually violate the maximization condition by the assignment of higher-than-optimal resources to higher education.education budget, skills accumulation

Trade Liberalisation with Costly Adjustment

The paper analyses the efficiency and the distributional effects of eliminating a tariff in a protected sector, in a Heckscher-Ohlin model of trade with costs of adjustment. The tariff can be eliminated at the onset or after a while. In case of postponing it the government may pre-announce the policy change or may not do it and surprise the private sector. It is shown that while large adjustment costs reduce the efficiency gains from trade liberalisation, small to moderate adjustment costs may raise the efficiency gains from a pre-announced liberalisation. The adjustment costs reduce the effects on factor returns from a sudden unanticipated liberalisation. The distributional effects of trade liberalisations are more complex when the policy is pre-announced. For small and moderate levels, the adjustment costs may increase the effects of the policy on factor returns. Also, the “value of the announcement” rises with the adjustment costs.adjustment costs; trade liberalisation

Trade, Education and Skills: A Theoretical Survey

This paper reviews the literature that relates trade, education and skills formation,intending to provide a theoretical background to policy discussions in education matters. The paper is organised as follows. Section 1 summarises the literature on education and human capital in trade models. Section 2 focuses on education as an investment and the process of human capital accumulation. Section 3 deals with the returns to education. Section 4 analyses the economic literature on the education production function and on issues of effectiveness, efficiency and quality. Section 5 discusses the public provision of education. Section 6 presents some concluding remarks.public education, economics of education, trade