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Differences between ethnic groups in educational attainment and transition from school are investigated using pooled cross‐sectional data for the period 1992–98 obtained from the Youth Cohort Studies, School Performance Tables and the Schools' Census. After controlling for family background, peer group, schooling and neighbourhood, ethnic minority youths (except for Afro‐Caribbeans) perform substantially better in national exams than whites. Staying on is influenced by prior educational attainment, peer group, schooling and ethnic origin. Non‐whites are more likely to stay on and less likely to enter the labour market. The results vary between boys and girls.

Britain's education system was radically transformed during the 1990s following the Education Reform Act (1988). The primary objective of these reforms was to raise educational standards through the creation of a quasi–market based upon greater parental choice and the transfer of control over resources from local education authorities to schools. The purpose of this paper is to investigate the effects of the quasi–market on efficiency and equity in the secondary education sector in England during the 1990s. Two primary questions are addressed. Has the quasi–market led to an improvement in efficiency in the secondary education sector? Has the quasi–market had any adverse consequences on the social segregation of pupils between schools? Using data obtained from the Schools' Census and the School Performance Tables, we find strong evidence that the quasi–market has led to a substantial improvement in efficiency (as measured by a school's exam performance and by the productivity of staff) during the 1990s. The same market forces have led to a greater social segregation of pupils between schools.

This paper identifies the determinants of costs per pupil in English secondary schools. A distinction is made between the short run and the long run in order to estimate the separate effects on costs per pupil of short‐run variations in school output and school size. A school's capacity utilization rate is used to indicate short‐run deviations in output from pupil capacity, and pupil capacity is used as an indicator of school size to capture scale effects on costs per pupil. The statistical analysis uses both published and unpublished data for secondary schools in England. Two separate analyses are undertaken, one for grant‐maintained schools alone and the other for all schools. A separate analysis is undertaken for grant‐maintained schools since cost data are available only for schools in this sector. Staff hours per pupil is used as a proxy for costs per pupil for schools as a whole. The main finding is that costs per pupil and staff hours per pupil are both highly significantly negatively related to both school size and the capacity utilization rate of schools. A range of other variables are also estimated to have a significant effect on costs per pupil in secondary schools. The main finding is that there is scope for reducing the costs of schooling in the secondary schools sector in England.

This paper analyses the choices made by school leavers and the demand for training in the youth labour market. Using a large cross‐section database on all school leavers in Lancashire in 1991, we model, using a multinomial logit, their first destination six months after the end of compulsory schooling. We model six choices/outcomes: non‐vocational continuing education, vocational continuing education, youth training, employment with on‐the‐job training, employment with general‐skills training, and unemployment.Our results show that the first destination from school is affected by a range of individual, school and local labour market variables. In addition to academic ability, we report three effects that are not well known: a young person is more likely to leave school the bigger the school, the lower its academic performance, and the lower his or her expected lifetime earn‐ings.

SUMMARYThis paper investigates spatial disparities in unemployment in three Member States of the EU. It attempts to identify the factors responsible for the persistence of regional unemployment disparities in Germany, Italy and the UK during 1984‐94. The empirical results indicate that a substantial proportion of the variation in unemployment rates between NUTS2 level regions can be explained by regional disparities in three key variables: unit labour costs, the industry mix and employment density. The findings are consistent with the view that regional unemployment disparities are explained primarily by regional disparities in economic competitiveness.ZUSAMMENFASSUNODieser Artikel untersucht die räumlichen Unterschiede in der Höhe der Arbeitslosigkeit in drei Mitgliedsstaaten der EU. Er basiert auf dem Versuch, die Faktoren zu bestimmen, die im Zeitraum zwischen 1984 und 1994 für die Persistenz von regionalen Unterschieden der Höhe der Arbeitslosigkeit in Deutschland, Italien und Grossbritannien verantwortlich waren. Die empirischen Ergeb‐nisse zeigen, dass ein wesentlicher Teil der Unterschiede in der Höhe der Arbeitslosigkeit zwischen NUTS2 Regionen durch eine regional unterschiedliche Ausprägung von drei wichtigen Variablen erklärt werden kann: Lohnstückkosten, Wirtschaftsstruktur und Zahl der Arbeitsplätze pro Quadratkilometer. Die Ergebnisse bestätigen die Ansicht, dass die regional unterschiedlich hohe Arbeitslosigkeit hauptsächlich durch Unterschiede der regionalen Wettbewerbsfähigkeit zu cr‐klüren ist.RÉSUMÉCe document examine les disparités géographiques du chǒmage dans trois États membres de l'Union Européenne. Nous essayerons d'identifier les facteurs responsables de la persistance des disparités en chǒmage régional en Ailemagne, en Italie el au Royaume‐Uni pendant la période 1984‐94. Les résultats empiriques indiquent qu'une proportion importante de la variation du taux de chǒmage entre les régions de la catégorie NUTS2 peut s'expliquer par des disparités régionales en trois variables prépondérantes: le coǔt unitaire d'emploi, la structure industrielle et la densité d'emploi. Les résultats coïncident avec l'avis que les disparités du chǒmage régional s'expliquent surtout par les disparités régionales en compétitivitééconomique.

A standard finding is that the public sector exhibits lower gender wage gaps than the private sector. This is attributed to less gender discrimination in the public sector. We show that this conclusion is flawed as the standard finding for the public sector is driven by the dominating influence of large feminized occupational groups, such as nursing and teaching, which have flat job hierarchies and low wage variance. Other occupations within the public sector exhibit sizeable wage gaps which cannot be explained by workplace or worker characteristics. This implies that gender discrimination is substantial in some public sector occupations.

ABSTRACTThis study uses data for nearly 200 further education providers in England to investigate the level of efficiency and change in productivity over the period 1999–2003. Using data envelopment analysis we find that the mean provider efficiency varies between 83 and 90 percent over the period. Productivity change over the period was around 12 percent, and this comprised 8 percent technology change and 4 percent technical efficiency change. A multivariate analysis is therefore performed, which shows that, in general, student‐related variables such as gender, ethnic and age mix are more important than staff‐related variables in determining efficiency levels. The local unemployment rate also has an effect on provider efficiency. The policy implications of the results are that further education providers should implement strategies to improve the completion and achievement rates of white males, and should also offer increased administrative support to teachers.

AbstractRecent changes to the organisation of Australia's education system have raised the possibility of implementing wide‐ranging market reforms. In this article we discuss the scope for introducing reforms similar to the United Kingdom's 'quasi‐market' model. We discuss the role of school league tables in providing signals and incentives in a quasi‐market. Specifically, we compare a range of unadjusted and model‐based league tables of primary school performance in Queensland's public education system. These comparisons indicate that model‐based tables which account for socio‐economic status and student intake quality vary significantly from the unadjusted tables.