Recent Developments in the Economics of Education collects together the most important contributions in this rapidly developing field. Themes covered in this book include: efficiency and equity, externalities and the role of the government in providing education, the relationship between the markets for labour and education, cost functions in the education sector, the market for educators, and the economics of school choice. This volume complements an earlier volume in the series, The Economic Value of Education, edited by Mark Blaug.

The book contains a number of essays that address the recent debate on school choice and vouchers. In addition to papers that provide opinions on the role of government in education, the book offers a number of papers that analyze many of the issues employing advanced econometric techniques. Efforts have been made to balance arguments made by authors by including opposing views.

The book will contain three major parts. Part 1, Theory and Practice of Choice in Education, offers a discussion of the economic rationale for government interference in schooling and opposing views on private school choice and vouchers, whether educational production is not conducive for the creation of for-profit organizations, and a simulation study to discern, among others, the effect of choice on educational opportunity.

Part II, Are Private Schools Superior to Public Schools, contains several studies which compare achievement in public and private (especially parochial) schools, and what implications such results have for market approaches.

Part III, Empirical Studies of School Choice and Vouchers, contains research from several countries (US, Europe, Japan) concerning the success and failure of school choice programs.