Norms as a tool of analysis in the economics of education: A contribution of Massy and Zemsky

Abstract

This paper suggests how Massy and Zemsky's concept of decision-making norms has promise as a tool to support the modeling of economic choices within educational organizations. This concept's practical value would be supported by: analysis of how informational economies are achieved through the delegation of certain relatively routine decisions reflected in norms to administrative personnel; developing criteria for inferring whether observed deviations from decision-making norms are permanent or transitory; and, most important, the development of informationally efficient mechanisms for making norms forward looking in terms of changes in the environment affecting the organization's productivity and financing.