Economists wish to compare prices, real income, and output across countries and regions for many purposes. In the past, such comparisons were made in nominal terms, or by using exchange rates across countries, ignoring differences in price levels and thus distorting the results. Great progress has been made in interspatial comparisons in the past thirty years, but descriptions and discussions of the new measures have been scattered in unpublished or inaccessible papers. International and Interarea Comparisons of Income, Output, and Prices includes discussions of developments in the United Nations International Comparison Program, the largest effort in this field, and in the ICOP program on the production side, including efforts in both to extend the comparisons to the formerly planned economies. Other papers in this volume explore new programs on interspatial comparisons within the United States. There are also theoretical papers on how interspatial comparisons should be made and several examples of uses of such comparisons.

China is experiencing an unprecedented phenomenon: breakneck industrialization on a scale and at a pace not seen before. It is trying to achieve in just a few decades what Western nations took more than a century to do. The arrival in the country’s cities of tens of millions of rural dwellers, at most semi-skilled, has put huge strain on the country’s system of vocational education, known as TVET. How have the Chinese authorities and their education administrators responded? Is China’s TVET system adapting to the rapidly evolving needs of its industry? Using the province of Yunnan as a subject, this detailed case study is a closely argued and sanguine analysis of the operation of TVET in China. The authors deployed a set of internationally comparable criteria to offer a searching assessment of current performance, at the same time documenting areas of strength and weakness. The question the authors’ methodology answers is how well China’s TVET system is performing compared to technical and vocational education structures in other countries. In fact, they discover that in Yunnan, a province representative of the challenges faced nationwide, much has indeed been done, from a wholesale overhaul of programs to make them relevant to industry requirements, to major investment in infrastructure. Teacher training has been reformed, and take-up of professional master’s and doctoral courses has been encouraged. Joint initiatives with bodies such as UNESCO have improved training and vocational education at high school level. While there is a strong international history of such comparative evaluations, which are essential for policy makers to benchmark their administration, few studies have included China despite the enormous amount of value that can be learned from that country’s experience. This work will provide vital material for researchers, governments and development agencies alike.

EPUB and EPDF available Open Access under CC-BY-NC-ND licence. How do education systems shape educational inequalities and differences in educational outcomes? And how do advantages and disadvantages in educational attainment translate into privileges and shortcomings in labour market and general life chances? Education systems and inequalities compares different education systems and their impact on creating and sustaining social inequalities. The book considers key questions such as how education systems impact educational inequalities along such variables as social origin, gender, ethnicity, migration background or ability and what social mechanisms are behind the links between education system and educational inequalities and provides vital evidence to inform debates in policy and reform.

Pt. 1. Concepts, approaches and explanations -- pt. 2. Performance types -- pt. 3. Comparative performance and evaluation -- pt. 4. Appendices.

The distribution of income, the rate of pay raises, and the mobility of employees is crucial to understanding labor economics. Although research abounds on the distribution of wages across individuals in the economy, wage differentials within firms remain a mystery to economists. The first effort to examine linked employer-employee data across countries, The Structure of Wages:An International Comparison analyzes labor trends and their institutional background in the United States and eight European countries. A distinguished team of contributors reveal how a rising wage variance rewards star employees at a higher rate than ever before, how talent becomes concentrated in a few firms over time, and how outside market conditions affect wages in the twenty-first century. From a comparative perspective that examines wage and income differences within and between countries such as Denmark, Italy, and the Netherlands, this volume will be required reading for economists and those working in industrial organization.

This book presents an analysis of consumption patterns in the OECD (rich) and LDC (poor) countries using recent data (1950OCo1998) and econometric methodology for a number of broadly aggregated consumer goods. The income elasticity estimates for the 46 countries and 9 commodity groups are tabulated. The reliability of these elasticity estimates, and also the demand theory hypotheses, are investigated using simulation techniques. Contents: An Overview of International Consumption Patterns (E A Selvanathan & S Selvanathan); Consumer Demand Models (E A Selvanathan & S Selvanathan); Data Analysis: OECD Countries (E A Selvanathan & S Selvanathan); Data Analysis: Less Developed Countries (E A Selvanathan & S Selvanathan); A Comparison of Consumption Patterns in the OECD and LD Countries (E A Selvanathan & S Selvanathan); Stochastic Price and Quantity Index Numbers (E A Selvanathan & S Selvanathan); Testing Demand Theory Hypotheses: OECD and LD Countries (E A Selvanathan & S Selvanathan); A Comparison of Alternative Demand Systems (E A Selvanathan & S Selvanathan); The Structure of Preferences: OECD and LD Countries (E A Selvanathan & S Selvanathan). Readership: Economists."

Against the background of globalization and campaigns to provide basic education for all the world’s children, Culture and Pedagogy compares primary and elementary schooling in England, France, India, Russia and the United States. It explores the ways in which children’s educational experiences are shaped not just by classroom circumstances and the decisions of the teacher, but also by school values and organization, by local pressures, national policies and political control and – suffusing all these – by culture and history. Culture and Pedagogy combines comparative and historical enquiry with intensive analysis of school and classroom life to present a novel and illuminating account of pedagogy. The book also transfers into the international arena themes for which the author’s earlier work is well known: the interplay of policy, politics and practice; the quest for resilient models of teaching and learning the subtle dynamics of schools and classrooms; and the rich learning potential of talk between teachers and children; and the challenge of judging 'good' and 'effective' educational practice. Culture and Pedagogy is clearly structured around three levels of analysis: systems, school and classrooms. Extensively illustrated with figures, table s, photographs, lesson summaries and teaching extracts, the book is an essential resource for those who are committed to understanding pedagogy, exploring culture, and improving primary education.

The present volume provides a timely collection of material on the subject of international comparisons, contributed by leading scholars from an extensive range of relevant disciplines and geographical backgrounds. The papers in this volume have been classified into two broad groups united by overlapping themes. Part I includes essentially empirical papers intended to provide a clear picture of the different types of international comparisons that have been undertaken by various organizations and individuals. The papers relate to empirical studies of different sectoral and national income aggregates at both regional and global levels. The papers in Part II deal with methodological and analytical issues. Discussion of the appropriateness of various aggregation methods for international comparisons accounts for a major component of this section. The volume provides a set of stimulating studies on international comparisons of prices, output and productivity, and will provide a useful reference source for many interested readers around the world.

Paul Ryan has brought together the writings of the most prominent British research into vocational preparation in Britain in comparison to the other advanced economies, primarily within the EEC. The book, originally published in 1991, documents various aspects of inadequacy in British practice at the time, concentrating upon intermediate skills, which are of crucial importance for economic performance. The introduction outlines the strengths and weaknesses of comparative research. Part 1 discusses the use which has been made of it by policy makers in Britain and various aspects of comparative methods in practical comparisons, including an Anglo-Scottish one. Part 2 concerns vocational preparation in connection with productivity and produce markets, noting its importance for economic performance and its dependence upon companies’ product choices. Part 3 contains studies of the organization of skills and work and the finance of training within the EEC as a whole. Part 4 comprises studies of training in relation to labour market structures, each of which indicates similar alternatives for training policy in Britain – alternatives whose relevance and political prospects can only be enhanced by the demise of Thatcher government deregulatory policies.

Economists wish to compare prices, real income, and output across countries and regions for many purposes. In the past, such comparisons were made in nominal terms, or by using exchange rates across countries, ignoring differences in price levels and thus distorting the results. Great progress has been made in interspatial comparisons in the past thirty years, but descriptions and discussions of the new measures have been scattered in unpublished or inaccessible papers. International and Interarea Comparisons of Income, Output, and Prices includes discussions of developments in the United Nations International Comparison Program, the largest effort in this field, and in the ICOP program on the production side, including efforts in both to extend the comparisons to the formerly planned economies. Other papers in this volume explore new programs on interspatial comparisons within the United States. There are also theoretical papers on how interspatial comparisons should be made and several examples of uses of such comparisons.