This article presents empirical analysis of the effects of school choice policy in Estonia. We show that relying on market and giving autonomy to the schools over student selection without any central priority matching or other central guidelines will produce admission tests, even in...

"In many developing countries, private unaided schools are serving the poor in large numbers. Some commentators view their presence as undesirable - in particular assuming that there is a conflict between 'commercial gain' and 'concern for the poor'. We show one way in which there is no conflict...

"It is the intention of government that private schools in Hyderabad are prevented by regulation from exhibiting the basic manifestations of competitive markets - low prices, innovation, good service and so on. However, private schools do, in practice, manifest these features. This paradox is...

This paper describes an experiment in which groups of children attempted to improve their English pronunciation using an English-language learning software, some English films, and a speech-to-text software engine. The experiment was designed to examine two hypotheses. The first is that...

Over the past decade, low-cost private schools have burgeoned in developing countries. In some areas, the majority of children are attending the low-cost private unaided schools. Children seem to do better in low-cost private schools compared to government ones, and at a fraction of the teacher...

This fascinating volume challenges the widely held belief that the state should supply, finance and regulate schooling in developing countries. Using India as an example, Dr. Pauline Dixon examines the ways in which private, for-profit schools might serve as a successful alternative to state-run...

This paper sets out some findings of a research project carried out in private unaided schools in low-income areas of Hyderabad, India. The part of the research project documented here was designed to examine the question: ‘Is the regulatory regime conducive to entrepreneurial action and...

Within the first 20 years of the market economy in Estonia, the public school market has been decentralized in Tallinn. Firstly, we describe how students are allocated to primary schools in a narrative, and secondly, in a formal mechanism design language. We indicate the closest equivalent...

This paper contributes to the ongoing debate of institutional research in economics and the methodological debate over the plausibility of using analytic narratives, in social sciences in particular. Using a single historical case we argue that in Tallinn by and large the merchant guild solved a...

Paying teachers for their performance rather than solely on experience and education is not a new idea, but it is gaining traction in today's climate of educational accountability. Yet the research has not kept up with policy, in part because most programs do not last long enough to be studied...