Why should governments intervene in education, and how effective is education policy

Marc van der Steeg ()

CPB Memoranda from CPB Netherlands Bureau for Economic Policy Analysis

Abstract: This paper reviews arguments for government interference in the education sector and discusses the effectiveness of commonly used policy instruments. There are both efficiency and equity reasons for government intervention. Particular attention is paid to education spillovers (an efficiency motive). The empirical literature shows that there is little reason to argue for additional policy efforts to correct for externalities. There is some promising evidence, however, for non-pecuniary spillovers in the form of crime reduction and health improvements. With regard to the effectiveness of policy instruments, the paper discusses studies with a (quasi-)experimental design so that the causal impact of the policy can be identified. Early childhood interventions appear to be more effective than interventions in later stages of the education cycle.

Keywords: private and social returns to education; education and equity; education policy; controlled and social policy experiments (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I20 I28 H23 H52 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-edu, nep-pbe and nep-ure
Date: Written 2005-07
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http://www.cpb.nl/eng/pub/cpbreeksen/memorandum/122/memo122.pdf (application/pdf)

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