Romina Boarini

The Policy Determinants of Investment in Tertiary Education

RÉSUMÉ .................................................................................................................................. 2 THE POLICY DETERMINANTS OF INVESTMENT IN TERTIARY EDUCATION............................... 5

Interpersonal comparisons of utility in bargaining: evidence from a transcontinental ultimatum game

This paper presents the experimental results of a “Transcontinental Ultimatum Game” implemented between India and France. The bargaining took the form of standard ultimatum games, but in one treatment Indian subjects made offers to French subjects and, in another treatment, French subjects made offers to Indian subjects. We observed that French→Indian bargaining mostly ended up with unequal splits of money in favour of French, while nearly equal splits were the most frequent outcome in Indian→French interactions. The experimental results are organized through a standard social reference model, modified for taking into account the different marginal value of money for bargainers. In our model bargaining is driven by relative standings comparisons between players, occurring in terms of real earnings (that is monetary earnings corrected for a purchasing power factor) obtained in the game. The norm of equity behind the equalization of real earnings is called local equity norm, and contrasted to a global equity norm which would encompass the wealth of players beyond the game. According to what we observed, no beyond-game concern seems to be relevantly endorsed by subjects.

Making the most of Norwegian Schools

Traditionally, the Norwegian compulsory education system has focused strongly on the linked goals of equal opportunities to learn, comprehensive and inclusive education. While some of these objectives have been met successfully, a number of educational outcomes, notably measures of pupil performance at the end of compulsory schooling, are unsatisfactory. Given the significant resources devoted to education, Norway’s modest performance on certain measures suggests that resources are used inefficiently. There are many possible routes to improve efficiency. This paper focuses on teaching quality, school autonomy, accountability and the level and composition of spending. Consistent policy actions should be taken in these areas, taking into account the multi–level structure of governance of the Norwegian education system. Optimiser la performance des etablissements scolaires norvegiens Le systeme de la scolarite obligatoire en Norvege met traditionnellement l’accent sur deux objectifs lies : l’egalite des chances face a la formation et l’absence de rupture et de selection dans le parcours educatif. La Norvege enregistre un certain nombre de succes sur ces deux fronts ; mais certains resultats comme la performance des eleves mesuree en fin de cycle obligatoire laissent a desirer. Compte tenu du volume important de ressources consacrees a l’education, la modestie des resultats obtenus par rapport a certaines mesures suggere une utilisation inefficiente des ressources. Plusieurs voies sont envisageables pour ameliorer la situation. La presente etude s’interesse a la qualite de l’enseignement, a l’autonomie des etablissements, a la transparence, ainsi qu’au niveau et a la composition des depenses. Dans tous ces domaines, des mesures publiques coherentes s’imposent, surtout si l’on prend en compte les niveaux multiples de gouvernance au sein du systeme educatif norvegien.

Going beyond GDP: empirical findings

The chapter presents an overview of several challenging issues related to the assessment of well-being through measures aimed at looking ‘beyond GDP’. Although designed to measure aggregate economic performance from a macroeconomic perspective, gross domestoc product (GDP) has been extensively used to measure welfare, with a number of problems and limitations. Starting from the mid-1970s, criticisms to this approach encouraged early attempts to create alternative measures for GDP. The Great Recession and inequality considerations further prompted the discussion through national and international initiatives. These gave birth to a set of measures and frameworks which focus more on the individuals, entailing considerations on the distribution of well-being, multidimensionality and subjective perceptions. The chapter reviews some of these measures, addressing the main issues and techniques as well as outlining the greatest statistical challenges linked to the measurement of progress and well-being.

Wellbeing and Quality of Life Reporting at the OECD

The Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development was the first international organization to launch a social monitoring program in the 1970s. Since then, systematic efforts have been pursued by various OECD Expert Groups, Committees and Directorates to broaden the scope of social monitoring and increase its policy relevance. This article reviews the first OECD works on quality of life as well as more recent efforts, including the publication Society at a Glance that has exclusively focused on the social dimensions of wellbeing The article then describes the broader wellbeing and quality of life reporting activities that the OECD has put in place at the end of 2000s, in response to a broader movement to go beyond GDP when measuring societal progress. The OECD wellbeing framework encompasses the economic, social and environmental dimension of human development, in line with the original aspiration of the OECD’s Social Indicators Programme of the 1970s. In addition, the OECD work on wellbeing and notably the How’s Life publication proposes a framework for analyzing current and future wellbeing, integrating the notion of sustainability of wellbeing over time and connecting the wellbeing perspective with the broader work on Sustainable Development. Selected findings from the most recent OECD report on wellbeing are also discussed at the end of the article.