United Liberty

It is is a widely held assumption (whether right or wrong is not the point of this post) that governments, the education industry, and healthcare industry generally are less efficient than other industries, such as technology. The high of levels of typical annual costs growth in these industries, often well above the rate of inflation, gives some statistical data to back up these “peformance lag” perceptions. Assuming that the perception of a peformance lag in these industries is correct, then why is this the case? The reasons are countless, with many coming down to basic organizational, pricing, and incentive structures. But there is an additional factor (the extent of importance which is unknown) of who is in these industries.

The data clearly shows that public administration PhD students, followed by education PhD students, produce significantly lower GRE testing scores than other fields that are generally considered more innovative. In fact these two concentrations scored the lowest of all 28 fields surveyed. While there are many individuals in public administration and education of exceptional intellectual abilities, the data indicates that the two fields are not attracting the best and the brightest. Maybe- this is just a hunch- it is the fact that it’s the government that employs most educators and public administrators. This could be the main reason, or at minimum a contributing reason, to why these industries generally do not attract the top talent and thus are comparatively low in innovation.

Thanks to Econphd.net for data & h/t to Dr. Mark Perry.