Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of Tables
- List of Acronyms
- Preface
- PART I THE SETTING
- PART II ECONOMIC THEORIES ABOUT EDUCATION
- PART III EDUCATION POLICIES
- 4 Resources and outcomes
- 5 Productivity and efficiency
- 6 Economic policies in higher education
- 7 Preparation for work
- 8 Markets in education
- 9 Private and public education
- PART IV CONCLUSION
- References
- Index
8 - Markets in education
from PART III - EDUCATION POLICIES
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 03 May 2011
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of Tables
- List of Acronyms
- Preface
- PART I THE SETTING
- PART II ECONOMIC THEORIES ABOUT EDUCATION
- PART III EDUCATION POLICIES
- 4 Resources and outcomes
- 5 Productivity and efficiency
- 6 Economic policies in higher education
- 7 Preparation for work
- 8 Markets in education
- 9 Private and public education
- PART IV CONCLUSION
- References
- Index
Summary
Education is becoming a marketed economic commodity (or rather, a number of different commodities), especially in post-school institutions. Although most production of education remains in the public sector, a mixed market-non-market system is emerging in place of the old model of administered output. This chapter describes the end of free tertiary education, the rise of overseas marketing and postgraduate fees, the debate about student loans, the growing role of commercial research and fee for service in TAFE, and the proposals for vouchers. It also reviews the effects and the implications of commercialisation.
MARKETS AND THE PUBLIC INTEREST
SAMUELSON'S PUBLIC AND PRIVATE GOODS
In 1954 the American economist Paul Samuelson made an influential distinction between what he called ‘public’ and ‘private’ goods. He said that public goods, or ‘collective consumption goods’, had two characteristics: those of non-rivalry and non-excludability.
Non-rivalry means that ‘each individual's consumption of such a good leads to no subtraction from any other individual's consumption of that good’. In that sense fresh air is a public good (in the countryside at least). Non-excludability means that it is impossible to exclude from benefit a person who refuses to contribute to the cost of producing the good. Defence is such a good. It cannot be distributed on an individual basis. The first characteristic of public goods refers to the absence of scarcity – the good cannot be confined to individuals.
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- Education and Public Policy in Australia , pp. 172 - 199Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 1993
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