Michael R. Baye is the series editor of Advances in Applied Microeconomics, an annual research volume published by Elsevier Science.

While we adhere to  Elsevier's high editorial standards, Advances utilizes an enhanced editorial and review process that significantly reduces the lag between submission and publication. This permits us to publish high-quality frontier research in a timely fashion, well in advance of other outlets.

In addition, our page constraints are less binding than most journals, therefore permitting authors to more thoroughly present their findings.

Volume 14: Improving School Accountability: Check-ups or Choice (2006). (T. Gronberg and D. Jansen, guest editors).

The existing state of K-12 public education in the United States is perceived as unacceptable by a large number and a wide variety of critics. One common thread of argument stresses the need to increase accountability as a strategy for improving the quality of public schools.

There are two broad classes of mechanisms for increasing accountability. If the current outcomes are too low, then setting acceptable performance standards is one approach to generating quality improvements. The task becomes one of defining appropriate accountability standards and then establishing a system of incentives to implement those standards. Alternatively, the low current performance may reflect weak productivity incentives traceable to the limited competition which many school operators face. The suggested remedy is a dose of increased choice either increased public sector offerings, such as charter schools, or increased private sector choice via voucher-type programs.

This volume brings together ten papers that tackle important economic issues surrounding accountability reforms.

Volume 15 is tentatively titled The Economics of Communication Games. Please contact guest editor Rick Harbaugh if you have a paper you would like to have considered for publication.

Contributors of accepted papers are asked to closely follow Elsevier's manuscript preparation guidelines to guarantee the timely production of each volume.

• Volume 6: Auctions (1996)
• Volume 7: Contests (1998)
• Volume 8: Oligopoly (1999)
• Volume 9:  Industrial Organization (2000)
• Volume 10: Advertising and Differentiated Products (2001)
• Volume 11: The Economics of the Internet and E-Commerce (2002)
• Volume 12: Organizing the New Industrial Economy (2003).
• Volume 13: Experimental and Behavioral Economics (2005).