1、中文 2965 字 本科毕业论文（设计） 外 文 翻 译 原文 ： An Analysis of the Rising Cost of Education in Australia (extract) Abstract Human capital, or a better educated labour force, is a major determinant of economic growth and productivity. However, recent trends in the cost of education in Australia may cause growth an
2、d productivity to suffer. For example, during the period 1982-2003 inflation rose on average by 4.4 per cent per annum, whereas the cost of education grew overall on average by 7.8 per cent. This has made education a relatively expensive item among Australian households. This paper compares and cont
3、rasts the cost of education in Australia and comparable economies with the cost of other goods and services embedded in the CPI(Consumer Price Index)basket using the latest available quarterly data. Finally, the major determinants of the rising cost of education in Australia are examined. It is foun
4、d, inter alia, that over the period 1986-2003 the increasing number of students enrolled at non-governmental primary and secondary schools and the introduction of the Higher Education Contribution Scheme(HECS)were major influences on the rising cost of education, explaining some 98 per cent of varia
5、tion in the cost of education in Australia over time. 1. Introduction There is a consensus among economists that human capital plays a substantial role in achieving higher economic growth and increased labour productivity. New growth theories identify the channels through which economic growth occur
6、s and how reform processes can stimulate the rate of investment in physical capital, human capital, technological know-how and knowledge capital. Together these factors exert a sustained and positive effect on the long-run growth of the economy (Rebelo,1991).For instance, in their seminal work Barro
7、(1991)and Barro and Lee(1994)echoed the importance of human capital(or a better educated labour force)as a major determinant of economic growth and productivity. More recently, Valadkhani (2003)found, inter alia, that long- term policies aimed at accelerating the various types of investment in human
8、 capital will also improve labour productivity. As higher productivity translates directly into higher per capita income, Australians, as a whole, benefit from higher standards of health care, education and public welfare. Very recently, Chou(2003,p397)found that“42 per cent of Australian growth bet
9、ween 1960 and 2000 is attributable to the rise in educational attainment”. Therefore, it is important to monitor the cost and affordability of education through time. However, compared with the price of most other goods and services, it would appear that the cost of education in Australia has been i
10、ncreasing at an alarming rate. Moreover , with similar trends witnessed in both the United Kingdom and the United States, it seems that Australia is not the only developed country that has experienced this phenomenon. A better educated workforce will almost certainly have higher income in the future
11、 and so we do not take issue in this paper with the increasing role of the private funding of educational expenses. It is clearly self-evident that the indefinite provision of “free” education by the various tiers of government, through collecting taxes from the society as a whole, is neither equita
12、ble nor sustainable into the future. However, given the higher income levels for graduates and the positive externality(or public benefits)associated with a better educated workforce for society, costs should desirably be split between the taxpayer and the student in some sort of optimal manner. In
13、the context of higher education, the important point is that students studying in areas yielding substantial social benefits-but perhaps associated with relatively low market income-should have access to interest-free, income-contingent loans as well as government direct funding for at least some po
14、rtion of their study cost. However, if their areas of study are highly marketable(e.g. law and medicine),they may have limited access to such loans(King,2001,p.192).Nevertheless, the funding of schools and universities remains one of the most vigorously debated issues in Australia. It is interesting
15、 to note that the total operating revenue of the 40 higher education institutions in 2002 was$11.6 billion of which 16 per cent was collected through HECS and 41 percent(54 percent in 1997)financed by Commonwealth Government Grants(Department of Education, Science and Training,DEST,2002,p.3).Similar
16、ly, in 1997 the Commonwealth and State Governments altogether funded:(i)up to 95 per cent of revenue for government schools； and(ii) 56 per cent of revenue for non-government primary and secondary schools(Borthwick,1999,p.1). Of course, at the outset, it should be noted that purchasing power parity
17、studies indicate services are often more expensive in rich countries than in poor countries(see, inter alia, Dowrick, 2001,and OECD,2001)and so one might expect a labour intensive service like education to be increasing in relative price as the country grows. More broadly, Baumol(1997)also argues th
18、at the rising cost of labour-intensive industries, such as the arts, health care, and education, is inevitable. Price rises in service industries can therefore be expected to be higher on average than the inflation rate for the economy as a whole. Furthermore, the rising rate of public-sector inflat
19、ion can be explained by “the low productivity of labour-intensive government activities compared with the relatively capital- intensive private sector”(Fordham,2003,p.574).More specifically Gundlach and W? mann (2001)examined changes in the productivity of schooling for six East Asian countries, sup
20、porting the view that the price of schooling rose by more than the price of other labour-intensive services in 1980 to 1994.The rising price of schooling can be attributed to declining relative productivity in schooling. According to Gundlach and W?mann, the fading productivity of schooling in East
21、Asian countries relates to a marked decline in the pupil-teacher ratio. Therefore, it is important to note that it is quite normal that services such as education probably can be expected to become more expensive for an advanced country such as Australia. However, it nonetheless remains a useful exe
22、rcise to investigate to what extent the cost of education has been increasing and what may be the possible causes of this rise. The basic objectives of this paper are therefore to:(i)substantiate the extent to which the cost of education has been rising in Australia and internationally； and(ii)deter
23、mine the major factors contributing to such important phenomena which undoubtedly will have implications for the long-run prosperity of Australias economy. It is not our intention to delve into alternative policy approaches which attempt to deal with the issue of the most appropriate way to fund the
24、 education system. For a detailed account of the literature on the various views on the way in which education at all levels can be financed see Barr(1998),Borthwick(1999), Quiggin(1999),King (2001),Chapman(2001)and Burke and Long(2002),amongst others. 2.The Cost of Education in Australia, the UK an
25、d the US Figure 1 shows that the annualised rate of increase in the cost of education,as measured by ln(P)t- ln(P)t-4,in Australia, the UK and the US has almost always been substantially higher than the rate of inflation. Moreover, according to Figures 2 and 3,the gap between the CPI(1996=100)and the education
