A positive theory of government action in education
This set of three papers explains that (a) economists do not have a model that explains why governments produce schooling, (b) shows that the key feature is the difficulty in observing instruction in beliefs, and (c) shows how a simple model with governments that care about the socialization (that is, the beliefs and values that future citizens receive while being educated) and the difficulty of observing instruction in beliefs can explain all of the features that are puzzles for conventional economics of schooling.
- This is is an application of the positive theory of education to the question of why the recent emphasis on "randomized evaluations" of impacts is, in and of itself, not a particularly important step forward, as the lack of knowledge of the production function is arguably not a first order constraint on improvements in education.
- February 2002. Solves the puzzle of why all governments produce (as opposed to "provide") basic education--because they care about socialization and direct production is the only way to control it. This model has both the virtue of explaining the (nearly) universal fact of government production of schooling, but also explains many other features of educational policy (like the otherwise apparently "sub-optimal" allocations of expenditures across inputs and levels, the low popularity of mandates, the frequent hostility to "community" or "informal" schools, etc.).
- This paper continues the examination of the impact of the socialization objectives of basic education on educational policy, in particular focused on which combinations of governmental objectives and governance competence will be compatible will large scale adoption of public support to private (either for-profit or non-profit) schooling.