ABSTRACT
The income which any individual commanded would be determined by the value of the economic services which he provided. A variety of both non-economic and economic reasons was gradually established which might explain non-competitive types of economic activity. In contrast to the earlier position in which taxation, for example, might be extensively discussed, but government spending either ignored or quickly glossed over, there is now considerable economic literature on public sector spending and activities. To discuss education in economic terms, a framework is needed which is appropriate to this pattern of mixed public and private activity which may contain both competitive and philanthropic elements. Since this is also the procedure which will be adopted here, it will be convenient first to summarise and illustrate the manner in which this piecemeal approach has been developed, both in the general case and in the specific area of education.
