Werner Z. Hirsch – författare

In May 1998, twenty representatives from the higher education communities of the United States and Western Europe met in Glion, Switzerland to discuss the challenges facing higher education today and to propose effective means for meeting those challenges. "Challenges Facing Higher Education at the Millennium" presents the collection of papers written by members of the colloquium. Key issues discussed include: the role of the university in society; the university and new technologies; new sources of revenue; possible alliances between education, private industry and government; co-operation between disciplines; lifelong learning. The volume concludes with The Glion Declaration, issued by the colloquium and outlining the main conclusions from the meeting.

Social experimentation is a tool that enables economists and policy makers to test proposed economic policies in the real world. Instead of testing policies by analytical methods or by laboratory simulation, the policies are tested on people who would be affected were these policies implemented. The authors describe how such social experiments are set up and carried out, and consider the advantages and disadvantages of social experimentation relative to other means of evaluating economic and social policies. The main part of the book is a review and a critical evaluation of the principal social experiments in economics that have been carried out in the United States, where this method has been used most extensively. The authors examine in detail the first large-scale experiment in the United States (the New Jersey Income Maintenance Experiment) and subsequent experiments with the labour force, electricity rates, and cash housing allowances. A consideration of the social utility of social experimentation follows, and the book closes with a set of recommendations on the conditions under which social experimentation might best be used in evaluating economic and social policies.