One of the papers published in volume 8 issue 1 of IREE concerns the role of threshold concepts. Our referees suggested that it would be helpful to provide readers with an introduction to the literature on threshold concepts to make the analysis presented in this paper more accessible to...

Analyses of market-based reforms of state schooling have occasionally acknowledged positional elements in parental demand, but none has fully examined their nature and implications. Contrary to the normal predictions of orthodox economic analysis, competition in positional markets can result in...

Recent reforms in the UK have attempted to increase the degree of competition in schooling markets. In this paper we develop a simple model to analyse school behaviour in the type of local quasi-markets created by these reforms. The distinctive features of this model are that both the quantity...

A cataract day surgery service for the population of central Norfolk, UK, was provided by the main ophthalmic department in a district general hospital and in an outreach clinic in a community hospital 40 km distant. The outreach clinic aimed to extend the accessibility of this particular...

The creation of a quasi-market in England and Wales schooling has changed pupil, parent and school behaviour in a way which has reinforced the dominance of traditional, academic schooling. We summarise the results of research into this quasi-market behaviour, with particular emphasis upon the...

Reforms in m any countries have attempted to increase the degree of competition in schooling markets. The partial implementation of market solutions has not always produced the uniform, system-wide rise in educational standards anticipated by economists advocating reform. In this paper we...