South Africa's economics of education: A stocktaking and an agenda for the way forward

Martin Gustafsson () and Thabo Mabogoane

Development Southern Africa, 2012, vol. 29, issue 3, 351-364

Abstract: This paper reviews some of the existing economics of education literature from the perspective of South Africa's education policymaking needs. It also puts forward a suggested research agenda for future work. The review is arranged according to five areas of research: rates of return, production functions, teacher incentives, benefit incidence analysis and cross-country comparisons. Production functions, especially if translated to cost-effectiveness models, can point to important policy solutions. Teacher incentives is a policy area that is in need of a better theoretical and empirical basis. Rates of return are difficult for policymakers to interpret, but suggest a need for a qualification below the Grade 12 level. While benefit incidence analysis can demonstrate large improvements in the equity of public financing, cross-country comparisons reveal that not only is the distribution of schooling outcomes particularly unequal, on average it is well below what the country's level of development would predict.

Date: 2012
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Working Paper: South Africa’s economics of education: A stocktaking and an agenda for the way forward (2010)
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DOI: 10.1080/0376835X.2012.706033

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