The three papers in this document cover issues related to labor force analysis and educational investment in developing countries. They present an overview of the present situation, advocate the replacement of a dominant technique by a well-structured planning process, and suggest the wide range of analytic approaches available and necessary if labor force analysis is to be improved within this process. The introductory chapter discusses the economic approach to the analysis of education's contribution to social welfare objectives, summarizes governments' rationales to justify educational expansion, examines the debate concerning the appropriate technique to appraise educational projects from a labor force development perspective, and introduces the perspective the other two authors develop further. Chapter 2 argues that the effective management and planning of the labor force development sector is conditional on the existence of a centralized coordinating agency involved in a continuous planning process plus the increased use of cost-effectiveness analysis. The basic concern of chapter 3 is the formulation of more appropriate labor force planning activities, given a conception of labor market operation. Discussion follows of the labor market characteristics of high, middle, and low skill levels in the public and private sectors and of various types of analyses seen as most appropriate for increasing labor market efficiency. (YLB)

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