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The dissertation investigates support by economists for the global policy shift away from unfunded public pension schemes towards funded private pension schemes. Influential economists and institutions, including the World Bank, present a suite of economic arguments that suggest that this shift will have positive effects on national economies, particularly in the context of aging. The arguments may be categorised according to their relation to the operation of three sets of institutions: capital markets, labour markets and political systems. In capital markets, the transition is purported to increase private and national saving, increase the quantity and quality of investment, and provide more efficient private administration. In labour markets, it is claimed that the shift will reduce labour market distortions associated with public pensions, which inhibit competitiveness, produce unemployment and encourage early retirement. According to the World Bank, public pensions systems cause these distortions without achieving their stated objective of reducing inequality. In the political sphere, the shift is purported to insulate the pension system from political pressures, which otherwise inevitably lead to crisis. The thesis provides evidence which refutes these claims. The best research, including studies by orthodox economists, indicate that the shift does not increase savings or investment, or improve the quality of financial investment. The main effect of tax concessions associated with private pension systems is to divert to private pension funds savings that would occur in any case via other mechanisms. The tax concessions are also regressive, even in systems with compulsory elements. Private administration of pensions, particularly in a plural consumer market setting, is highly inefficient, with customers at a disadvantage in dealing with providers due to the complexity and opacity of products and pricing. A negative relationship is found between public pension spending and levels of elderly poverty, suggesting that reducing public pension spending increases levels of elderly inequality. Public pensions are found not to explain differences in economic growth between regions. Elements of system design which distort labour markets, such as by encouraging early retirement, can easily be adjusted. However, such elements are explicit government policy in several countries. A review of public and private pensions finds that examples of public system crisis are associated with instances of economic and political collapse, rather than system design. Private funded systems are found to be more vulnerable, not less, to the same external influences. Relatively generous universal public pension systems are found to be financially sustainable despite demographic change, assuming modest levels of economic growth.

Over the past thirty years, the World Bank has intensified its activities relating to education in developing countries. Notable developments in the World Bank’s policy on education include promotion of “innovative delivery”, which refers to the use of new and existing Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) in education. The World Bank claims that the unique characteristics of ICTs have the potential to produce new forms of delivery in higher education that can overcome existing barriers to education and facilitate student-centred learning (World Bank, 1999, 2005). Many forms of innovative delivery, such as distance education and open learning, are not new forms of instruction. However, promotion of innovative delivery as a global priority for education in developing countries is new. In this thesis, I interrogate the World Bank’s assumptions concerning innovative delivery as expressed in their landmark policy statement on education, the 1999 Education Sector Strategy Report (ES99) (World Bank, 1999). I focus on the assumptions that underlie views put forward in the ES99 on the nature of technology and its role in education, the role of innovative delivery in overcoming existing barriers to education, and the potential of innovative delivery to facilitate student-centred learning. A central aim of this thesis was to better understand the socio-cultural and pedagogical issues that may arise when these assumptions are put into practice in different cultural contexts. This was achieved by comparing the assumptions put forward in the ES99 with the reported perceptions of, attitudes toward, and use of ICTs by students and lecturers from three different cultural contexts. Qualitative and quantitative methodologies were used to gather detailed empirical data on end-users’ perceptions, attitudes to and use of online technologies at universities in Australia, Malaysia and the United States. The findings suggested that across all three cultural contexts, respondents’ attitudes were not consistent with the World Bank’s technocratic view of innovative delivery. Moreover, the findings cast doubt on the extent to which technology-mediated education can overcome existing barriers to education and facilitate a student-centred approach to education. I conclude by suggesting that the World Bank needs to adopt a more questioning stance toward the potential effectiveness of innovative delivery. Other findings point to the contextual nature of technology adoption and the pedagogical implications of this mode of delivery across cultural contexts.

Zugl.: Zürich, University, Diss., 2007.

Zugl.: Ilmenau, Techn. Universiẗat, Diss., 2007.

Zugl.: Tübingen, Univ., Diss., 2005

Zugl.: Zürich, Univ., Diss.

Zugl.: Oestrich-Winkel, Europ. Business School, Diss., 2006.

Zugl.: Aachen, Techn. Hochsch., Diplomarbeit, 2003

Zugl.: Köln, Fachhochsch., Diplomarbeit.