ABSTRACT
This chapter examines motivations in the public sector and whether they can be crowded out by the introduction of market-type policies. If economic agents are only in part self-interested then policies and incentives geared to mobilize those particular aspects of their make-up may crowd out ethical/intrinsic motivations. The chapter outlines the rise of 'the public' as a historical formation and why its demise, is of significant importance. The standard economic model, and public policy thinking since the 1980s, assumes that in reality people are 'knaves' rather than 'knights'. The possibility of crowding-out, however, is even more problematic since it suggests economic agents may actually reduce their effort levels. The university is, then, eminently the site of all kinds of public goods. The growing influence of neoclassical economics in academic circles, then, needs to be looked at in conjunction with the rise of neoliberalism.
