The National Health Insurance Scheme (Rashtriya Swasthya Bima Yojana, RSBY) aims to improve poor people’s access to quality health care in India. This paper looks at the implementation of the scheme in Karnataka, drawing on a large survey of eligible households and interviews with empanelled...

[...]What might account for this link between parentalincome and children’s income? Many economists believethat this relationship is due in large part to differentialhuman-capital investment between high-income andlow-income families. High-income parents can invest inmore (and better)...

[...]In this paper, I examine two methods of measuringthe value of better schools. One involves following individualsover time to determine how the quality of theirschooling affects outcomes later in their lives; the otherinvolves calculating parental valuation of better schoolstoday. I review...

This paper – a companion to Iain Crawford's and my earlier evidence to the SelectCommittee (Barr, 2002a,b,c,d,e; Crawford, 2002) – offers a strongly supportive assessmentof the strategy in the White Paper (Department for Education and Skills, 2003).[...]

How do you fund university education? In the UK, the governmentplans to introduce variable fees from 2006, to be paid back after thestudent graduates, but the debate continues worldwide. What isthe best solution, offering what people want but at a realistic price?Nicholas Barr offers his...

Rather than being a handicap, the proposals to introduce top-up fees will prove aboon to students.[...]

Universities, parents and poorer students will allbenefit under the Government’s plans for top-upfees.[...]