Urban-biased perspectives have distorted debates concerning agriculture in rural schools of less developed countries (LDCs). Pervasive measurement biases have rendered women's household labor invisible in LDCs and treated their vocational preparation as inconsequential. Early American land-grant college research, education, and extension services…

In production-function studies, inputs (like teacher salaries) trump inputs contributing directly to educational output (like books or instructional materials). Educators prefer inputs that benefit them. Parents have been insufficiently strong on behalf of books. Increasing parent influences over expenditure allocations might increase schools'…

Focuses on three sets of generalized interrelationships among population growth, technological change, and education: human resources and technological change; parental education, child services, and demographic transition; and relationships affecting household health and contraception. Outlines current demographic trends and predicts effects of…

Examination of earnings and education data for a sample of approximately 1,600 workers in Pakistan reveals that the rate of return in earnings to schooling is low. The low rate of return appears to be a result of a conscious government policy that drastically compressed the skill-wage structure. (Author/MLF)

Assesses the present state of the art of educational economics in developing countries. Introduces papers in this special issue that address the roles of organization, incentives, and public (financial) priorities in shaping more efficient, equitable educational outcomes. For economists to influence outcomes, the behavioral relationships shaping…

Faced with the evident impossibility of providing free or significantly subsidized secondary and higher education to all, many poor and middle income countries choose to educate only those students who are most promising, using public examinations as means of distributing scarce resources. This paper investigates the inequality implications of…

Educators are recognizing the importance of diverse out-of-school agencies and institutions in developing human resources and the close association between economic development and a multiplication of vocational specializations. This paper compares informal vocational education in developing countries with that of industrialized countries,…

The impact of school quality on students is most evident in less developed nations where it affects students' cognitive and behavioral outcomes. The study concludes that improvement in the quality of schooling would be more beneficial than expanded access to poorer quality education in less developed nations. (MD)