Chapter X

This chapter describes an economic approach to understanding education policy implementation. Economists helped establish policy analysis as a field of study in the middle of the last century and economic methods long have been brought to bear on examinations of various policy processes essential to education outcomes from Congressional voting behavior to education productivity (Becker, 1993; Hanushek, 1986, 1997). However, explicit discussions of the relationship between economic methods and education policy implementation are rare. Economists seldom use the term “implementation” when addressing policy processes and outcomes, not defining it as a separate field of inquiry from policy analysis. Yet, recent trends in education policy bring to light the utility of economic methods for education policy implementation studies. For example, economic constructs fit well with assumptions about various incentives imbedded in accountability policies and alternative wage policies to increase teacher workforce supply and quality. This chapter highlights the utility of an economic framework for understanding the implementation of contemporary education policies. The defining feature of this approach is its focus on individual actors at multiple levels of educational systems—teachers, principals, school board members, community residents, governors, and others— and how implementation is