外文翻译澳大利亚教育成本上升的分析.docx

外文翻译澳大利亚教育成本上升的分析.docx

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外文翻译澳大利亚教育成本上升的分析

本科毕业论文（设计）

外文翻译

原文：

AnAnalysisoftheRisingCostofEducationinAustralia

（extract）

Abstract

Humancapital,orabettereducatedlabourforce,isamajordeterminantofeconomicgrowthandproductivity.However,recenttrendsinthecostofeducationinAustraliamaycausegrowthandproductivitytosuffer.Forexample,duringtheperiod1982-2003inflationroseonaverageby4.4percentperannum,whereasthecostofeducationgrewoverallonaverageby7.8percent.ThishasmadeeducationarelativelyexpensiveitemamongAustralianhouseholds.ThispapercomparesandcontraststhecostofeducationinAustraliaandcomparableeconomieswiththecostofothergoodsandservicesembeddedintheCPI（ConsumerPriceIndex）basketusingthelatestavailablequarterlydata.Finally,themajordeterminantsoftherisingcostofeducationinAustraliaareexamined.Itisfound,interalia,thatovertheperiod1986-2003theincreasingnumberofstudentsenrolledatnon-governmentalprimaryandsecondaryschoolsandtheintroductionoftheHigherEducationContributionScheme（HECS）weremajorinfluencesontherisingcostofeducation,explainingsome98percentofvariationinthecostofeducationinAustraliaovertime.

1.Introduction

Thereisaconsensusamongeconomiststhathumancapitalplaysasubstantialroleinachievinghighereconomicgrowthandincreasedlabourproductivity.Newgrowththeoriesidentifythechannelsthroughwhicheconomicgrowthoccursandhowreformprocessescanstimulatetherateofinvestmentinphysicalcapital,humancapital,technologicalknow-howandknowledgecapital.Togetherthesefactorsexertasustainedandpositiveeffectonthelong-rungrowthoftheeconomy（Rebelo,1991）.Forinstance,intheirseminalworkBarro（1991）andBarroandLee（1994）echoedtheimportanceofhumancapital（orabettereducatedlabourforce）asamajordeterminantofeconomicgrowthandproductivity.Morerecently,Valadkhani（2003）found,interalia,thatlong-termpoliciesaimedatacceleratingthevarioustypesofinvestmentinhumancapitalwillalsoimprovelabourproductivity.Ashigherproductivitytranslatesdirectlyintohigherpercapitaincome,Australians,asawhole,benefitfromhigherstandardsofhealthcare,educationandpublicwelfare.Veryrecently,Chou（2003,p397）foundthat“42percentofAustraliangrowthbetween1960and2000isattributabletotheriseineducationalattainment”.Therefore,itisimportanttomonitorthecostandaffordabilityofeducationthroughtime.However,comparedwiththepriceofmostothergoodsandservices,itwouldappearthatthecostofeducationinAustraliahasbeenincreasingatanalarmingrate.Moreover,withsimilartrendswitnessedinboththeUnitedKingdomandtheUnitedStates,itseemsthatAustraliaisnottheonlydevelopedcountrythathasexperiencedthisphenomenon.

Abettereducatedworkforcewillalmostcertainlyhavehigherincomeinthefutureandsowedonottakeissueinthispaperwiththeincreasingroleoftheprivatefundingofeducationalexpenses.Itisclearlyself-evidentthattheindefiniteprovisionof“free”educationbythevarioustiersofgovernment,throughcollectingtaxesfromthesocietyasawhole,isneitherequitablenorsustainableintothefuture.However,giventhehigherincomelevelsforgraduatesandthepositiveexternality（orpublicbenefits）associatedwithabettereducatedworkforceforsociety,costsshoulddesirablybesplitbetweenthetaxpayerandthestudentinsomesortofoptimalmanner.Inthecontextofhighereducation,theimportantpointisthatstudentsstudyinginareasyieldingsubstantialsocialbenefits-butperhapsassociatedwithrelativelylowmarketincome-shouldhaveaccesstointerest-free,income-contingentloansaswellasgovernmentdirectfundingforatleastsomeportionoftheirstudycost.However,iftheirareasofstudyarehighlymarketable（e.g.lawandmedicine）,theymayhavelimitedaccesstosuchloans（King,2001,p.192）.Nevertheless,thefundingofschoolsanduniversitiesremainsoneofthemostvigorouslydebatedissuesinAustralia.Itisinterestingtonotethatthetotaloperatingrevenueofthe40highereducationinstitutionsin2002was$11.6billionofwhich16percentwascollectedthroughHECSand41percent（54percentin1997）financedbyCommonwealthGovernmentGrants（DepartmentofEducation,ScienceandTraining,DEST,2002,p.3）.Similarly,in1997theCommonwealthandStateGovernmentsaltogetherfunded:

（i）upto95percentofrevenueforgovernmentschools;and（ii）56percentofrevenuefornon-governmentprimaryandsecondaryschools（Borthwick,1999,p.1）.

Ofcourse,attheoutset,itshouldbenotedthatpurchasingpowerparitystudiesindicateservicesareoftenmoreexpensiveinrichcountriesthaninpoorcountries（see,interalia,Dowrick,2001,andOECD,2001）andsoonemightexpectalabourintensiveservicelikeeducationtobeincreasinginrelativepriceasthecountrygrows.Morebroadly,Baumol（1997）alsoarguesthattherisingcostoflabour-intensiveindustries,suchasthearts,healthcare,andeducation,isinevitable.Pricerisesinserviceindustriescanthereforebeexpectedtobehigheronaveragethantheinflationratefortheeconomyasawhole.

Furthermore,therisingrateofpublic-sectorinflationcanbeexplainedby“thelowproductivityoflabour-intensivegovernmentactivitiescomparedwiththerelativelycapital-intensiveprivatesector”（Fordham,2003,p.574）.MorespecificallyGundlachandW?

βmann（2001）examinedchangesintheproductivityofschoolingforsixEastAsiancountries,supportingtheviewthatthepriceofschoolingrosebymorethanthepriceofotherlabour-intensiveservicesin1980to1994.Therisingpriceofschoolingcanbeattributedtodecliningrelativeproductivityinschooling.AccordingtoGundlachandW?

βmann,thefadingproductivityofschoolinginEastAsiancountriesrelatestoamarkeddeclineinthepupil-teacherratio.

Therefore,itisimportanttonotethatitisquitenormalthatservicessuchaseducationprobablycanbeexpectedtobecomemoreexpensiveforanadvancedcountrysuchasAustralia.However,itnonethelessremainsausefulexercisetoinvestigatetowhatextentthecostofeducationhasbeenincreasingandwhatmaybethepossiblecausesofthisrise.

Thebasicobjectivesofthispaperarethereforeto:

（i）substantiatetheextenttowhichthecostofeducationhasbeenrisinginAustraliaandinternationally;and（ii）determinethemajorfactorscontributingtosuchimportantphenomenawhichundoubtedlywillhaveimplicationsforthelong-runprosperityofAustralia’seconomy.Itisnotourintentiontodelveintoalternativepolicyapproacheswhichattempttodealwiththeissueofthemostappropriatewaytofundtheeducationsystem.ForadetailedaccountoftheliteratureonthevariousviewsonthewayinwhicheducationatalllevelscanbefinancedseeBarr（1998）,Borthwick（1999）,Quiggin（1999）,King（2001）,Chapman（2001）andBurkeandLong（2002）,amongstothers.

2.TheCostofEducationinAustralia,theUKandtheUS

Figure1showsthattheannualisedrateofincreaseinthecostofeducation,asmeasuredbyln（P）t-ln（P）t-4,inAustralia,theUKandtheUShasalmostalwaysbeensubstantiallyhigherthantherateofinflation.Moreover,accordingtoFigures2and3,thegapbetweentheCPI（1996=100）andtheeducationsub-groupindexhasbeenwideningcontinuouslywiththepassageoftime,particularlyintheUKandtheUS.FromFigure4itcanbeinferredthat,tosomeextent,thisgrowinggapmaybeattributedtothedifferencebetweenthegovernmentandprivateexpensesoneducationasaproportionofGDPcomparedwithpublicfundingalone.AscanbeseenfromFigure4,overtheperiod1992-2001,whiletheaverageshareofgovernmentexpensesinGDPwasaround4.8percent,theshareoftotalexpenses（bothprivateandgovernment）inGDPwas5.8percent,suggestingthattheshareofprivatespendingoneducationhasincreased.

Inasimilarway,Figure5showsthatanincreasingproportionofprimaryandparticularlysecondarypupilsstudyatprivateschools.In1986about30percentofsecondarypupilswereattendingprivateschools,whereasin2003thisfigurereachedabout35percent.Totalenrolmentsatbothprimaryandsecondaryprivateschoolsroseby1.7percentperannumoverthe15yearsfrom1986to2001,comparedwithamoremodestincreaseof0.18percentannuallyforgovernmentschools.

InFigure6wepresentthegeometricannualizedaveragegrowthrateofallgroupsintheCPIandtheeducationsub-groupforAustralia,theUKandtheUSduringtheperiod1993-2003.Therearetworeasonsforselectingthisparticularsampleperiod.First,consistentdatawereonlyavailableforallthreecountriesoverthisperiod,andsecond,inthebeginningofthissampleperiodandfollowingmanyotherOECDcountries,inflationtargetingbecametheprimarygoalofAustralianmonetarypolicy.Inthis,theReserveBankofAustraliaisrequiredtokeeptheoverallrateofinflationbetween2-3percentperannumoverthecourseofthebusinesscycle,butwithnosimilarcommitmenttokeepthegrowthrateofanysubgroupoftheCPIincheck.Thischartlendsfurthersupportthatthecostofeducationhasbeengrowingwellaboveinflationinthesethreecountriesovertheperiodinquestion.

AcursorylookatFigure6alsorevealsthattheannualgrowthrateofthecostofeducationinAustraliaisrelativelylowerthanthatintheUKandtheUS.TosomeextentthedifferencebetweenthegrowthrateofthecostofeducationandinflationinAustraliaandtheothertwocountrieswillbenarrowedifweconsidertheinstantaneousgrowthratesinlieuofthecompoundrates.

Table1presentsthecompoundandaverageinstantaneo