Economic Analysis of Educational Policy

Author: Zeng Mantchao, Editor-in-Chief
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2000-08-01
Features: Governments always have limitations in decision-making, not only because decision-makers may not be experts in a specific field, but mainly because their positions differ, leading to different perspectives on issues. Even if government decision-makers are indeed experts or insiders in a particular field, the limitations in decision-making cannot be ignored. Additionally, the information available to governments is inherently limited, and without sufficient information, scientific decision-making is difficult. Broadly incorporating opinions from various researchers in society not only helps to address the shortcomings in the information available to governments but also allows decision-makers to observe and think about issues from different angles and levels. In recent years, the ability of China's education policy formulation to avoid mistakes and achieve positive results has been closely related to the efforts of researchers in society and the education authorities' willingness to absorb their opinions. This book is divided into three parts, covering compulsory education as a public good, higher education and adult education as quasi-public goods.
Part I focuses on several key issues in compulsory education. It includes macro-level research on the imbalance in regional educational development and its solutions, as well as meso-level studies on major issues within the education sector, such as the return on investment in compulsory education and the dropout problem (one of the chronic issues in Chinese education). It also examines micro-level investment in compulsory education, specifically the educational burdens of families in impoverished and urban areas. These issues are closely related to China's compulsory education investment decisions and are even more relevant to the goals of equal educational opportunities and universal compulsory education in China.
Part II addresses higher education, with a focus on fiscal, efficiency, and economic return issues. It studies the operational mechanisms of higher education under market economy conditions from an economic perspective and investigates the fairness issue in higher education, which is highly concerned by society.
Part III explores adult education, which also involves vocational education. It examines the cost and fiscal characteristics of adult education, as well as its positioning in China. Using the Shenzhen Special Economic Zone, where adult education has flourished, as a case study, it analyzes various training forms and development experiences in adult education, demonstrating the crucial role of adult education in the development of lifelong learning.