Institutional Character of Education: Economic and Fiscal Aspects

Abstract

DURING THE period under review, interest continued in the interrelationships between education and economics-an interest that resulted in important theoretical and empirical studies. Mushkin (1962b) edited Economics of Higher Education. Many of the articles in this volume can be generalized to apply to all levels of education. Under the editorship of Schultz (1962), the October 1962 supplement of the Journal of Political Economy, entitled Investment in Human Beings, also contained a significant set of studies, many of which will be cited in this chapter. In the fiscal or policy area, the series of monographs from the Syracuse University Press entitled Economics and Politics of Public Education constituted an important contribution. Reference to certain individual volumes will be made subsequently. Burkhead (1964) summarized the research contained in this series. Several trends were noted in this field of enquiry. The first was an application of increased rigor to the analysis of human capital formation and of rates of return to investment in education. A second trend was toward an increasing awareness of the importance of the relationship between education and the occupational structure. There were several efforts to apply methods of sophisticated statistical analysis toward the explanation of expenditure levels in education. There was a continued interest in revenue sources as well as in methods of distributing state funds to local school districts. Some preliminary steps were taken toward the implementation in education of methods of cost analysis. Finally, attempts were made to relate internal allocation of resources to productivity in education. Additional References: Benson (1963); Norton (1963).