The middle-income trap (MIT) refers to the state that middle-income economies have found it challenging to upgrade to reach the high-income stage over an extended period. Overcoming the MIT has long been discussed as an important social issue, notably in Southeast Asia. One major problem in addressing the MIT is directly linked to fewer job…

Over the past few decades, many Southeast Asian governments have promoted English language education (hereafter ELE) as a linguistic pathway for developing human capital and improving global economic competitiveness of their nations. However, Kirkpatrick (2017. Language education policy among the Association of South East Asian Nations (ASEAN).…

Founded on several highly influential quantitative studies, the past decade has witnessed the OECD and World Bank increasingly converge on the view that cognitive levels of students and education quality, as proxied by international large-scale assessments (ILSAs), are the primary determinant of national economic growth worldwide. More recent OECD…

Does the government control of school systems facilitate equality in school quality? Whether centralized or localized control produces more equality depends not only on what "could" happen in principle, but also on what does happen in practice. We use the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) database to examine the…

Review of "Women, Education, and Development in Asia: Cross-National Perspectives" (Grace Mak, editor) and "Girls' Schooling, Women's Autonomy and Fertility Change in South Asia" (Roger Jeffery, Alaka Basu, editors) discusses the unpredictable impact of schooling on women, a critical gender-based perspective on human capital…

IMHE-Info is the newsletter published by the Institutional Management in Higher Education (IMHE) programme. This issue includes: Spotlight on IMHE and its Environment, including comments from Donald J. Johnston, Barry McGaw, Richard Yelland, and Marijk van de Wende. IMHE News, publications of interest and upcoming events are included.

This book provides a detailed analysis of the development of education and training systems in Asia and the relationship with the process of economic growth. Focus is on four impoverished agrarian economies--Hong Kong, Singapore, South Korea, and Taiwan--that were transformed in little more than a generation into East Asian "tigers":…

This document examines competitiveness in the developing world. Chapters 1 through 3, which are largely conceptual, examine the following topics: the concept of competitiveness and why it is important; market-stimulating technology policies in developing countries, and the relationship between import liberalization and industrial performance.…