How does education affect economic and social outcomes, and how can it inform public policy? Volume 3 of the Handbooks in the Economics of Education uses newly available high quality data from around the world to address these and other core questions. With the help of new methodological approaches, contributors cover econometric methods and international test score data. They examine the determinants of educational outcomes and issues surrounding teacher salaries and licensure. And reflecting government demands for more evidence-based policies, they take new looks at institutional feaures of school systems. Volume editors Eric A. Hanushek (Stanford), Stephen Machin (University College London) and Ludger Woessmann (Ifo Institute for Economic Research, Munich) draw clear lines between newly emerging research on the economics of education and prior work. In conjunction with Volume 4, they measure our current understanding of educational acquisition and its economic and social effects. Chapter 1: Econometric Methods for Research in Education Costas Meghir, Steven Rivkin Chapter 2:The Economics of International Differences in Educational Achievement Eric A. Hanushek, Ludger Woessmann Chapter 3: Education and Family Background: Mechanisms and Policies Anders Bjorklund, Kjell Salvanes Chapter 4: Peer Effects In Education: How Might They Work, How Big Are They and How Much Do We Know Thus Far? Bruce Sacerdote Chapter 5: Teacher Compensation and Collective Bargaining Michael Podgursky Chapter 6: Licensure: Exploring the Value of this Gateway to the Teacher Workforce Dan Goldhaber Chapter 7: The Economics of Tracking in Education Julian R. Betts Chapter 8: School Accountability David Figlio, Susanna Loeb Chapter 9: The GED James Heckman, John Eric Humphries, Nicholas Mader Chapter 10: Housing Valuations of School Performance Sandra Black, Steven Machin Chapter 11: Apprenticeship Stefan C. Wolter, Paul Ryan