Disputes claims that private education is highly selective and unaffordable. Examines extent of private expenditure on education in Bolivia, a very poor country whose public education system is characterized by low teacher salaries, unqualified teachers, few textbooks, and high dropout and repetition rates. Using 1990 and 1992 household survey…

Evaluates the impact of Uganda's program of "Universal Primary Education," which, starting from 1997, dispensed with fees for primary enrollment. Finds, for example, that while the program was associated with a dramatic increase in primary school attendance and that inequalities in attendance related to gender, income, and region were…

Surveys research on the role of schooling and human capital in fostering productivity and economic growth. Argues that the returns to human capital are extremely large, compared with returns to most types of physical capital. Urges increased grants by international donors for investment in primary schooling. Includes 18 notes. (MLH)

Utilizes a human capital model to estimate sectoral earnings functions for three groups of Kuwait workers, using 1983 national labor survey data. Results suggest that public-sector workers earn more than private-sector workers, that competitive forces and education effects are greater in the private sector, and that nationals earn substantially…

Presents new estimates of social rates of return to high school and four-year college education (1967-88), based on microeconomic U.S. census data. Estimates are compared with real rates of return to investment in plant and equipment and in housing since 1947. Rates of return for investment in high school and plant and equipment are similar. (25…

Uses data from the 1985 Cote d'Ivoire Living Standards Survey to examine pay differences between teachers and other wage earners in the Ivory Coast. Results indicate that teachers' base salaries contain a rent component that disappears when the total remuneration plan is considered. Includes 20 references. (MLH)

Using UNESCO's recent data, explores effects of a country's income and "tropicality" on school life expectancy. Although income's effect is important, distance from the equator also matters. Effects of tropicality were larger in 1980 than in 1992. Implications are discussed. (13 references) (MLH)

Studies differences in social mobility between rich and poor families. Finds that borrowing constraints retard social mobility among the poor by preventing poor parents from investing optimally in their children's human capital. Also finds that sibling inequality appears to be independent of parental wealth. (Contains 18 references.) (Author/PKP)

Investigates the usefulness of the schooling coefficient, in equations developed by the human capital theorist Jacob Mincer, in estimating the internal rate of return to education in Sweden. Examines several assumptions underlying the coefficient, for example, that schooling precedes work. Finds that in some cases inference from the estimated…

Alcohol abuse and truancy are two widespread problems among the adolescent Spanish population. Given the negative consequences of both behaviours for human capital acquiring and their origin in adolescence, our study lies in analysing the relationship between these risk behaviours. From a methodological point of view, our contribution consists of…

Use of longitudinal data to control for changing composition of educational groups improves measurement of changes in rates of return to postsecondary education. When individual worker differences are controlled for, return rates show no change from 1967-75, despite observed changes in wage ratios between college and high school graduates. (PGD)

Examines labor-market value of the General Educational Development (GED) credential for females. Finds that among females who dropped out of high school with weak basic math skills, those with a GED have accumulated more work experience and have higher labor-market earning in their mid-20s than have observationally similar dropouts lacking the GED…

Uses 1995 household survey data to estimate returns to education in urban China. Finds returns higher than previous estimates for two reasons: Previous works using annual earnings instead of hourly wages bias the estimates downward, and returns to education have increased as the transition process has deepened in China. (Contains 21 references.)…

Using Current Population Survey data, this study investigates the effect of a wage differential between a teacher's current wage and wages of alternative occupations on teachers' decisions to leave the profession. Results show that opportunity costs (wage differentials) influence teacher supply. A merit-based, market-sensitive teacher salary…

Measures determinants of out-of-state enrollments in institutions of higher learning throughout the United States. Tobit regression results suggest that college size, status, selectivity, collegiate sports participation, and other factors significantly influence a university's percentage of nonresident student enrollments. The economics of college…