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Contracting out publicly funded vocational education: A transaction cost critique

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 January 2023

Phillip Toner
Phillip Toner*
Affiliation:
The University of Sydney, Australia
*
Phillip Toner, Department of Political Economy, The University of Sydney, City Rd, Darlington, NSW 2006, Australia. Email: [email protected]
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Abstract

Contracting out publicly funded vocational education and training (VET) in Australia to private providers has been accompanied by persistent concern at decline in the quality of training. Using transaction cost economics, this outcome is ascribed to the characteristics of publicly funded VET as a commodity and the conditions under which it is privately produced and consumed. The article concludes that, in general, publicly funded VET does not meet the minimum conditions for efficient contracting out. The economic and social consequences of inadequate quality VET provision are potentially severe.

Keywords

I280Contracting outtransaction cost economicsvocational education and training
Type
Symposium Articles
Information
The Economic and Labour Relations Review , Volume 25 , Issue 2: Symposium - Some Impacts of Neoliberalism , June 2014 , pp. 222 - 239
Copyright
Copyright © The Author(s) 2014

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