Chapter 28 reviews in detail how economists study the supply and demand for academic labor, presents a model of the factors that enter into academic salaries, and – because academic labor markets differ considerably across countries and these differences produce very different conditions in the way academic staff are hired and promoted – the review includes international aspects of faculty labor markets. The chapter also reviews studies that attempt to explain the factors that predict academic salaries in the United States, notably research productivity and teaching, the relation of those salaries to types of higher education institutions, and gender differences in academic pay, both in the United States and internationally. The chapter then analyzes various types of student admission systems across countries, including economic models of the higher education market for high- and low-ability students, and how students make choices among higher education institutions. The chapter ends with a discussion of affirmative action in the United States and the major affirmative action programs in India and Brazil.

An examination of regional human rights systems suggests the following typical process. States agree on the need for closer regional cooperation if not integration. Human rights are accepted as one element of, and a yardstick for, the regional political order. A foundational human rights instrument is adopted. Further, a human rights body with a mandate to promote human rights and monitor states parties’ compliance with their treaty obligations is (eventually) set up. Over time, responding to demands and with a view to strengthening the effectiveness and credibility of the system, substantive rights are broadened and the role of victims (and others, particularly non-governmental organisations (NGOs)) in raising the issue of, or complaining about, human rights violations is enhanced. As the system matures this momentum eventually results in the establishment of a judicial body. Parallel efforts to foster regional political integration reinforce the importance of human rights at all levels as a marker of the system’s ability to provide a stable order based on the rule of law and the protection of fundamental rights.

Even if a loss or outgoing fulfils the requirements of the general or a specific deduction provision, another provision may expressly deny or limit the deduction available to the taxpayer. For instance, an important provision that limits deductions is s 27-5 ITAA97. As discussed, this section denies a deduction to the extent that a loss or outgoing includes an amount relating to an ITC or a decreasing adjustment under the GST law. This chapter examines a number of other common provisions that deny or limit deductions. These provisions have been enacted for a broad range of policy reasons and are scattered throughout the ITAA36 and ITAA97.

This chapter attempts very briefly to sketch the economic rationale underpinning globalisation and explain in what manner its adherents envisaged a better world. Given that the subject matter is vast, the analysis is limited to three spheres which either drive the processes of globalisation, or upon which it produces a significant impact. We go on to explore the concept of trade liberalisation and whether its application has the potential to distribute the financial benefits of a globalised marketplace equitably. From there, we discuss the liberalisation of agricultural commodities with a view to ascertaining whether this is the right approach to food security in the developing world. A very particular aspect of the economic globalisation agenda is the protection of innovators and their patents. The chapter discusses the degree to which the protection of the intellectual property rights pertaining to pharmaceutical companies inhibits the right to health and in particular access to essential medicines for the impoverished.

Chapter 23 covers issues of how government collects public revenues for education; how government spends these revenues on education (including decisions regarding how much to spend on each level of education); the issue of unequal public spending on education for different localities and groups, which has led to the concept of educational adequacy – the right to an “adequate” education; and the issue of who should be the decision-makers on spending the money – local organizations, or the central state bureaucracy. As established in Chapter 22, countries vary in the way they collect taxes for education, and if such collection is decentralized, may lead to highly unequal spending on education among school districts and regions. This chapter reviews the legal and political contestation of this inequality in the United States and other countries to establish horizontal (locational) and vertical (among social class, race, and ethnic groups in the same educational administrative unit) equity in such spending. The chapter also reviews the arguments pro and con the decentralization of control over educational spending, including empirical evidence on the effectiveness of decentralized educational management.

Commonwealth Government revenue and expenditure generally falls within the Treasury portfolio. This chapter examines the portfolio and some of the key departments, agencies, authorities and boards that sit within it, including the ATO, which is Australia’s principal tax collection agency. The chapter also discusses the role of tax professionals in Australia and examines their duties and responsibilities and how they are regulated.

Chapter 22 addresses two important questions in the public financing of education. The first is how much money in the form of taxes should a society collect and spend on education (public effort) and what are the political and economic factors that affect the government’s ability to increase public spending on education. The discussion includes a review of the rationale for public spending on education because of “externalities” in the form of social benefits resulting from educational investments and the public good aspects of education. The second question is who is to pay for the education—this is primarily an issue of the kinds of taxes to be levied to raise revenue for providing educational services and the degree to which and the possible reasons why some countries choose to have more privately financed education. A closely related issue covered in the chapter is why in other countries, the public sector chooses to substantially subsidize private education, which, on its face, appears to be policy that shifts resources to middle and possibly higher income earners.

The disadvantages, discrimination and subordination suffered by women globally have been well documented in a variety of contexts. Yet the issue of women’s human rights has, until relatively recently, been neglected in international law. The instruments composing the International Bill of Human Rights contain general non-discrimination clauses which include the prohibition of discrimination on the basis of sex or gender, whereby the rights within these instruments are held to be applicable to everyone, regardless of, inter alia, sex. As this chapter will discuss, these generic non-discrimination clauses have, in a number of ways, proved inadequate to capture the specific nature of violations suffered by women and to provide adequate protection. Women’s human rights are an overarching phenomenon touching on all aspects of the international human rights framework. The importance of addressing human rights issues as they specifically pertain to women and others suffering disadvantage or oppression within gender-based power structures, has now been widely recognised.

Chapter 26 analyzes the political economy of higher education finance from an international perspective. This analysis documents and explains the increasingly stratified nature of higher education institutions by social class and, often, by level of public financing per student. It discusses the possible economic rationale for such stratification and unequal public investment in different strata. It also analyzes why some countries’ governments assume a high fraction of the cost of higher education expansion and others make families and students bear most of the cost. This comparative international analysis suggests that politics play a very important role in defining how higher education is financed and how that financing is used to shape the higher education system. The chapter makes the case that the “public” function of higher education is highly contested politically because of its direct role in providing access to higher productivity jobs and higher earnings figured in discussions about the worldwide trend toward expanding higher education through private institutions (many, for profit), and, in some societies, through increasing the share of private tuition payments in the financing of public institutions.

Chapter 15 discusses the theories and empirical evidence behind the choices that societies make regarding the kind of knowledge schools should produce at the secondary level for different groups of students; namely, academic skills that prepare them to learn higher-order productive skills, or vocational skills that prepare them for productive employment. The chapter reviews the production of vocational education and training (VET) and its relation to labor markets in different national contexts, focusing on the German dual system versus the US VET model and discusses the results of studies in various countries that estimate the effectiveness of vocational versus academic education in different national political contexts. The analysis in the chapter includes assessing whether VET systems reduce or promote improved labor market outcomes and social mobility for lower social class students.

Chapter 27 analyzes how economists and other social scientists have approached estimating the outputs of higher education, and – to the limited extent possible given available research – estimated how various inputs are used to produce these outputs. The chapter reviews two distinct types of approaches: (1) those that correspond to the production function analysis presented in Chapters 11 and 12 – that is, attempts to estimate the factors that affect, in the case of knowledge transfer, the value added of achievement (or earnings) and, in the case of knowledge production, affect some measure of research output; and (2) those approaches that attempt to estimate cost functions in terms of various higher education outputs – that is, total cost as a function of teaching, research, and social services. The chapter assesses a number of studies in various countries that have attempted to measure student gains in achievement and earnings across programs of study. It also reviews several US studies of retention/graduation rates and research output, as well as a case study of varying production functions across higher education programs in Morocco.

Chapter 3 makes the case that education systems are almost universally situated in the public sector, and their role is profoundly shaped by economic and social power relations as reflected in the political structures of the nation-State. The chapter argues that the way power relations are reflected in the State provides the framework for a political theory of education The chapter lays out such a State theory and suggests how it helps explain the nature of conflicts over how much to spend on education, who gets the resources, and how they are used in schools. The theory further helps define the structure in which individuals from different social classes, races, ethnicities, and gender make decisions (exercise agency) regarding education. It also helps define the economic opportunities facing different groups and how the State in market economies defines educational norms, standards, and access to education. The chapter’s final sections discuss how economics of education debates – for example, on the efficiency of the public sector in providing education – are influenced by political ideology, and describe the politics of nation-States’ developing social capital to enhance the efficiency of education, often at the cost of individual rights.