Training initiatives Edinburgh

This article reviews the training projects and initiatives supported by Edinburgh District Council and draws conclusions from the successful track record of a number of the projects. These refer mainly to factors which contribute to the success of training for the long-term unemployed and therefore may be useful to anyone developing new training projects. Similarly, they may help those who are pondering how Employment Training may usefully develop.

Edinburgh District Council's support for training lies within its economic development function, as opposed to the Regional Council, where it lies with their education function. With this in mind, the District Council's criteria for supporting training have had to be plainly established. These are, that projects must be “exemplary, innovative, and catalytic”, and there must be no duplication of other provision. They should address specific needs amongst the unemployed, and must supply skills which are needed for the development of Edinburgh's economy.     

Capacity Building for Post-Disaster Mental Health Since Katrina: The Role of Community Health Workers

The floods and devastation of Hurricanes Katrina and Rita contributed to socioeconomic instability and psychosocial trauma for the affected communities and populations, significantly for people of limited economic means and persons of color. Though more than 1/3 of the adult population from impacted areas experienced significant psychological distress, few people had access to or received appropriate health or mental health services in the months and years that followed. Community health workers (CHWs)—defined as lay community members whose backgrounds are similar to those for whom they provide such services as culturally relevant health education, individual- and community-level advocacy, and links to the health care system— may represent a particularly promising workforce strategy to increase access to quality mental health services and overcome racial and ethnic disparities in care. In this paper, we briefly review a post-disaster mental health training program for CHWs from the greater New Orleans area. We present preliminary evidence that CHWs remain engaged in addressing post-disaster concerns, and that there is community support for further CHW education. We discuss implications for CHW participation in recovery from future disasters and we highlight the work of Cynthia Carriere, a CHW from the Lower 9th Ward in New Orleans.     

An Index‐Based Model for Determining the Investment Benchmark of Renewable Energy Projects in South Africa

In a globalised world, financial markets observe the optimal level of asset allocation and returns based on risk inherent in the economies. Whether public or private investors, they need to have an optimal return on their investment given the finite resources. In relatively new sectors like grid‐connected renewable energy, many investors face difficulty in assessing proper return, making them more averse to financing such projects, affecting transborder project development opportunities. In developing countries like South Africa, which has tremendous potential for renewable energy projects, an arbitrary choice of the required rate of return for project evaluations can negatively affect funding decisions. This paper explores an index‐based model to make fair estimates of the required equity benchmark internal rate of return (IRR) using financial markets observation for renewable energy projects in South Africa. The index‐based model is parsimonious and captures common macroeconomic factors. More specifically, it provides a simple and effective mechanism to calculate IRR for renewable energy projects given different gestation periods.     

Can East Asia rise again?

In recent times, the economies of East Asia have been confronted by two major economic recessions, the first caused by the East Asian financial crisis, and the second by the slump in the ‘new economy.’ The causes of these two recessions, their scope and their influences differ significantly and during these periods of economic downturn the economies affected have adopted various monetary policies aimed at reducing interest rates and tax rates, and pursuing the expansion of government expenditure. However, these policies have obviously not yet been as effective as expected.This paper sets out to determine those factors affecting the possibility of East Asia rising again from the recent economic slump, a slump which has stemmed from excessive investment in the electronics and information industries. The paper begins with an overview of the East Asian economy, with particular reference to the recent serious decline following the steady recovery from the East Asian financial crisis and a review of the measures taken to counter it. Proposals are then made with regard to a number of lessons to be learned from the recent slump.There are three major issues involved in the question of whether East Asia can rise again from the current economic slump. First of all, many of the economies of East Asia have tried their utmost to upgrade their industrial structures from labor- to technology-intensive, or towards a knowledge-based economy and, to some extent, have actually been quite successful in achieving their goals. Secondly, almost all of the East Asian economies have paid particular attention to educational development, with many families having sent their children to foreign countries to receive advanced education in the hope that when they return they can make a substantial contribution to the progress of their home economies—examples of this trend are provided by Taiwan and India. Thirdly, there are abundant natural resources in East Asia along with rich sources of manpower with a hard-working spirit; these two factors can create comparative advantages and strengthen the competitiveness of these economies.In view of the recent developments towards regionalism, it is imperative for the economies of East Asia to form an East Asian Community in the near future, and many of the economies in this region are currently endeavoring to realize this vision, despite many obstacles still facing East Asia which will ultimately need to be overcome.     

From communal grazing to ‘economic’ units: Changing access to land in a Namaqualand reserve

Because of their predominantly technical and economic orientation, many development agencies tend to overlook the social implications of the development projects that they initiate. People's perceptions and wishes are often not taken adequately into account, and existing social patterns are severely compromised, if not destroyed, by such undertakings. This article assesses the impact of a development project in the Richtersveld rural Coloured area of Namaqualand and argues that the impact of such schemes, as well as people's reactions to them, must ultimately be seen within the context of their broader regional and South African political and economic setting.     

高职院校学生心理现状及教育对策

高职大学生是我国高校学生中的一个特殊和重要的群体,高职生素质的高低,尤其是心理素质的高低,对我国的经济建设和社会发展有着重要意义。本文分析了高职学生常见的心理问题及产生原因,据此提出了高职院校开展心理健康教育的途径和方法。     

Socializing adaptation: A perspective on world capitalism

This paper proposes a hypothesis on world capitalist development: capitalist societies have responded to the major economic problems which they have generated by ‘socializing adaptation’; now, in response to the development of a world economy with world economic problems, there is emerging a new process of global socializing adaptation. The paper discusses the nature of socializing adaptation in response to national problems, the nature of global socializing adaptation, and possible LDC development orientations.     

中国农村人力资本投资与农村经济发展

文章认为,目前我国农村广泛存在着教育投资动力不足和教育能力缺乏的问题,其中原因主要是农村人力资本的投资收益率不高。除此之外,教育体制方面的不健全、学校教育与农村经济发展状态脱节的事实以及农业职业教育力度不够,在很大程度上制约了农村人力资本的投资额。但在现代新农村环境下,只有依靠加大对农村人力资本投资才能够真正实现农村经济的可持续发展。在这种现实的背景条件下,文章对人力资本投资和农村经济发展之间的相互关系进行了说明和分析,以试图对农村人力资本收益与农村经济发展提供一些思路。     

Modelling the influence of caring for the elderly on migration: estimates and evidence from Indonesia

In a society where children are expected to support the elderly, the ill health of an elderly parent is likely to influence an individual's propensity to migrate. Using data from the Indonesian Family Life Survey, we examine the manner in which the responsibility to care for an elderly parent who is in poor health affects the migration decisions of working-age adults. Our analysis suggests that individuals will be less likely to migrate if they have elderly parents who are in poor health. These findings are robust to specifications using alternative measures of poor health.     

Parental migration,educational achievement,and mental health of junior high school students in rural China

China's rapid development has led to an unprecedented increase in migration rates as an ever-growing number of rural residents migrate to urban areas to seek better job opportunities and help alleviate family poverty. Economic pressures and structural restrictions force many of these migrant workers to leave their children behind in their rural homes, which has led to the emergence and expansion of a new subpopulation in China: left-behind children (LBCs). This study examines the impacts of parental migration on the educational outcomes (specifically math achievement) and mental health (specifically anxiety) of LBCs using data covering 7495 children in a prefecture of Shaanxi Province (from three surveys conducted between 2012 and 2014). We distinguish between “both parents migrating,” “one parent migrating,” “only a father migrating,” and “only a mother migrating.” We also explore the impacts on male versus female LBCs. We find no significant impact of parental migration on the math achievement of LBCs. In terms of mental health, however, our results indicate that left-behind girls were negatively affected by one parent migrating, especially if the migrating parent was the father. The findings suggest that it may not be necessary for policy makers to design special programs to improve educational outcomes of LBCs in general. However, local committees, schools, and parents should pay particular attention to left-behind girls living with only one parent, as they may be more vulnerable to mental health problems than their peers.     

财政支持中小企业发展的思考与对策

中小企业在经济发展中的作用越来越多地被政府重视，但是我国中小企业发展中还存在不少问题，借鉴国外中小企业发展的成功经验，积极运用各项财政政策工具为中小企业创造更加良好的发展环境和机遇，促进中小企业的健康发展，使其在经济中能更好地发挥应有的功能和作用。     

老工业区创意转型及路径依赖突破：一个综述的视角

20世纪80年代以来,老工业区的转型路径问题受到理论工作者和政策制定者越来越多的关注。近些年来,从演化经济地理学角度研究老工业区的振兴、转型问题成为老工业区研究的热点之一。本文首先介绍了老工业区传统转型路径及其存在的问题,引出创意转型这一概念。在总结创意转型的研究特点和主要研究思路的基础上,指出了实现创意转型路径的理论工具——路径依赖理论,分析了路径依赖理论在实现老工业区创意转型中的应用及思想上的局限性。     

Identifying the effects of migration on parental health: Evidence from left-behind elders in China

This study pioneers the application of the New Economics of Labor Migration theory to outline and estimate two opposite effects of labor loss driven by the migration and remittances of adult children on the health of left-behind elderly parents through the changing rural market constraints. We use China's rural household survey data and simultaneous equation econometric techniques to estimate the effects of migration on the physical and mental health of left-behind elders. Results indicate that the loss of labor due to migration has a significantly negative effect on the health of left-behind elders, but remittances from migrants can compensate for the adverse effect. This study provides a comprehensive understanding that remittances from migration relax the constraints on household resource allocations in undeveloped rural areas with imperfect market conditions. Overall, left-behind elderly parents benefit from migrant children both physically and mentally.     

Inflation and the Consumption Function

Conclusion Nominal interest payments that come as a compensation for a fall in the real value of monetary assets can hardly be counted as income, if that variable is to have economic content. In spite of this obvious fact, and in a time when consumers are quite often modeled as being extremely rational, most econometric studies still use the disposable income data as if they were a good approximation of an economically meaningful variable even in times of inflation. Both theoretical and empirical work indicate that this is not the case. Perhaps the fact that the empirical work performed also has remarkably good prediction properties will help make econometricians think more carefully about the economic content of the data series they use.     

Long-term consequences of the atomic bombing in Hiroshima

This paper examines long-term consequences of one of the most serious catastrophes ever inflicted on humankind: the atomic bombing that occurred in Hiroshima in 1945. While many victims died immediately or within a few years of the bombing, there were many negative effects on survivors in terms of both health and social/economic aspects that could last many years. Of these two life factors, health and social/economic aspects, the latter has largely been ignored by researchers. We investigate possible long-lasting effects using a new dataset covering the middle and older generations in Hiroshima some 60 years after the tragedy. Our empirical results show that Atomic Bomb Survivors did not necessarily suffer unfavorable life experiences in terms of the average marriage status or educational attainment but did experience significant disadvantages some aspects including the husband/wife combination of married couples, work status, mental health, and expectations for the future. Thus, survivors have suffered for many years after the catastrophe itself.     

Co-Morbidity and Other Complexities Affecting Black Women’s Health

This paper presents some of the major health concerns that affect black women, and examines how various individual health problems co-exist and coincide to create complex health concerns for women. It posits the idea that to effectively address a Black woman’s health, her mental, emotional, social, economic and even spiritual health must be considered as well as her physical condition. The paper focuses largely on the information from individual health-related research presentations at “The Invisible Woman” conference held at Bennett College in March 18–19, 2011 in Greensboro, North Carolina. At this event, scholars presented new research on HIV, obesity and mental health—three areas of critical concern for African–American women—examining ways in which these conditions affect Black women. The paper also addresses the role of health care access and policy in addressing these and other health concerns among women and within the black community. The review of the literature highlights the importance of examining health—perhaps especially Black women’s health—from social, cultural, behavioral, environmental and economic perspectives. It also points out the continued need for research that includes women and people of color.     

贫困是否影响农村中老年人的精神健康——基于CHARLS数据的实证研究

农村老年人在经济上是最为弱势的群体,他们的贫困发生率远远高于城市老人。贫困不仅体现为物质上的剥夺,更会引起认知退化和抑郁等精神健康上的问题。文章使用中国健康与养老追踪调查数据,实证考察经济状况对农村中老年人精神健康的影响。多层线性模型估计结果表明：家庭人均年收入每提高一千元,反映认知状况的情景记忆显著提高0.132分、精神状态显著提高0.121分,而反映抑郁程度的CES-D则显著下降0.293分。进一步分析表明,收入对精神健康的促进作用对高收入者更大。考虑到农村更加严重的老龄化程度,通过减贫实现农村中老年人精神健康状况的改善将具有重要的现实意义。     

Selection from Many Investments with Managerial Private Information*

We investigate capital investment problems when a manager knows the costs of a set of available projects, while the owner only holds probabilistic beliefs about these costs. With mutually exclusive projects, an optimal policy can be defined by a series of cost targets, one for each of the possible projects. The project with the lowest reported cost relative to the target is chosen, and funded as if the cost were equal to the target. The optimal investment policy can deviate from a traditional policy of selecting the project with the highest, positive net present value (NPV) in a number of ways. First, under-investment arises to limit the manager's ability to capture the economic rents. Second, when investment takes place, it is not always the project with the highest NPV that is implemented. Third, projects with lower cost variability can be favored. We extend the analysis to non-mutually exclusive projects. With two independent projects, batch processing is superior to individual appraisal whenever both optimal individual appraisal cost targets are interior. Individual appraisal ignores the impact of individual targets on incentives to report the costs of other potential projects. Batch processing can improve individual assessment by cost effective switching of investment away from the individual projects and into the batch as a whole. The results suggest that the common practice of analyzing batches of capital requests in an annual capital budgeting cycle provides advantages in the organization's attempt to deal with asymmetric information and incentive problems.     

Renewable energy and local development: Seven lessons from the mining industry

Having long depended on fossil fuels for energy generation, South Africa is now investing in renewable energy. Like its mining operations, its renewable energy plants will have local implications. Renewable energy companies are therefore required by government to engage with communities to contribute to socio-economic development. We present seven lessons we believe the renewable energy sector can learn from the mining industry. We argue that the new industry must: manage social disruption, understand community complexities, create responsive institutions and the capacity to support industry practice, employ trained community practitioners, be clear about the aims of local development, encourage economic diversification in remote areas and, importantly, in view of problems caused by downscaling in the mining industry, plan for the possible closure of projects. Renewable energy projects could then serve and shape local development.     

回迁儿童的心理冲突与调适

当前,社会变迁、经济结构的调整,大量农民工失业返乡,农民工子女也将不得不离开城市回到农村。成长环境的变化将不可避免地使回迁农民工子女受到影响,其中心理冲突问题尤为严重,甚至影响其未来的成长及将来其对社会的定位。本文阐述了回迁儿童的心理冲突,分析了其产生的原因并提出了调适此冲突的策略。