ASSESSMENT OF DEMAND FOR PUBLIC GOODS IN THE NON-MARKET SERVICES SECTOR

Abstract

The article is devoted to the development and approbation of approaches to the assessment of demand for public goods. It presents the results of the assessment of demand for civic education as a public good of the nonmarket services sector. The assessment is based on the application of various research methods: desk research (analysis of publications, reviews, reports), qualitative research (focus groups, in-depth interviews), quantitative research (sociological survey). In this article is carried out the analysis of scientific publications devoted to the analysis of demand for public goods, and the actual aspects of researches are allocated. The object of research is the process of forming and meeting the demand for civic education. For analysis of the market of educational needs was conducted a comparison of the population's requests for educational services and data of the number of activities carried out by providers of educational services. The result of research is the proof of hypotheses about low demand for civic education in the conditions of absence of high level of civic competence and in the conditions of mismatch of supply and demand in the field of civic education. Regarding various areas of civic education, the results of the analysis showed that the greatest demand is in creative studios, and this demand is quite satisfied. Next in the ranking are educational services in the field of leadership and personal development, but these needs are satisfied with less than half. The rest of the needs are unmet, and at the same time we see that due to the actions of service providers, the interest of citizens in political or civic education is approaching to satisfaction level. At the same time, low satisfaction of the needs in financial literacy, critical thinking, and media literacy indicates the necessity to develop and offer educational services of this type. Demand for family psychology, relationship psychology, public speaking and business education is also unmet. The conclusions of the study formulate proposals for matching demand and supply for civic education through non-market mechanisms. In particular, it is justified the need for the formation of effective demand from local authorities and local public institutions (local schools, universities, businesses, NGOs).