ABSTRACT
The outcomes of market reforms in education are determined by the interplay between the preferences of parents and teachers, the nature of the process of schooling and the incentives created by market structures and regulation. We introduced our economic analysis of schooling markets in Chapter 1 and in the previous chapter we have outlined the general economic and social environment within which reforms have been developed. In this chapter we concentrate on parents’ and pupils’ preferences and the nature of the schooling process. In so doing, we lay some theoretical and, to a lesser extent, empirical foundations for the following chapters. In particular, we prepare for our analysis of empirical evidence of parental choice in Chapter 5 and schooling market behaviour in Chapter 8.
