I28 - Education: Government PolicyReturn

This article focuses on common and different attributes of education and health from economic and social perspective. Education and health are not usually analyzed together so this could be considered to be an innovative approach. Article contains knowledge which reflects empirically known dependencies in the area of education and health determinants and relationships of education and health to human capital. It also emphasizes and argues for the importance of lifelong learning and availability of high-quality health care as economic development prerequisites. While the education and health is by its own nature bound to an individual and its investments, the question of equal chances to educate and consume health care is highly important in the modern society. Based on the identified attributes and relationships of education and health, the article shows their economic characteristic, social aspects and summarizes their importance for the economic development.

In the paper we analyze economic university research and education in transition countries. University system differs from industry in the nature of output that it produces. University system is engaged in production of public goods rather than private goods. The sector also suffers from the measurement problem of quality of its output. We argue that because of these factors reforms were slower in this sector leading to low productivity growth. Pressure groups succeeded in gaining significant control inside administrative structures regulating the sector. By creating the accreditation commission the state decreases the communication cost of pressure groups making lobbing activity cheaper. A case study from the Czech Republic and Slovakia shows that the accreditation commission which is composed from representatives of state universities and established research institutes succeeded in maintaining their dominant position and set evaluation criteria fitting their interests. This institutional setting led to low university research productivity. The results also show that in Slovakia economic research is still predominantly carried out by central research institutes and universities are engaged mainly in teaching.