Advocates of market-based reforms in the public sector argue that competition between providers drives up performance. But in the context of schooling, the concern is that any improvements in efficiency may come at the cost of increased stratification of schools along lines of pupil ability and attainments. In this chapter, we discuss our empirical work on competition and parental choice in Eng...

As Man is a reasonable Being, and is continually in Pursuit of Happiness, which he hopes to find in the Gratification of some Passion or Affection, he seldom acts or speaks or thinks without a Purpose and Intention. He has still some Object in View; and however improper the Means may sometimes be, which he causes for the Attainments of his End, he never loses View of an End, nor will he so much...

This paper examines whether disease burdens, especially prevalent in the tropics, contribute significantly to widening gender gaps in educational attainments. We estimate the impact of sudden exposure to the 1986 meningitis epidemic in Niger on girls’ education relative to boys. Our results suggest that increases in meningitis cases during epidemic years significantly reduce years of education ...

The paper shows that parents’ education is an important, but hardly exclusive part of the common family background that generates positive correlation between siblings’ educational attainments. Our estimates based on Norwegian twins indicate that an additional year of either mother’s or father’s education increases their children’s education by as little as one-tenth of a year. There is evidenc...

;rhe di~cove!y of antibiotics having an highly effective and specific action on th~ rickettsial diseases has greatly' deprived of importance the formerly outstanding prevention of these diseases. however, the prevention of typhus: fever, the single rickettsiosis to be purely human and the nly. one to: be epidemic, remains an important problem. the methods of. prevention.m the mveterate foci 'ca...