Gender and Student Achievement in English Schools

The widening gap between the average educational achievementof boys and girls has been the subject of much discussion. Thisgap is especially controversial for students taking nationalexams at the end of their compulsory education. However, thegender gap is also apparent at earlier and at later stages ofeducation. In this paper, we analyse changes over time in thegender achievement gap at the different stages of compulsoryeducation in English schools. We first use a combination ofdata sources to paint a picture of how gender gaps have evolvedover time and in what context they are most marked. Then weconsider possible explanations for the observed gender gaps.We look at the relevance of school inputs, teaching practice,and the examination system for explaining the gender gap. Wealso discuss the potential influence of wider social and economicchanges as reflected, for example, in the much higher educationlevels of mothers relative to those of previous generations.Analysis of this issue is important in the context of researchon the gender wage gap. However, it is also raises policy-relevantissues in relation to whether changes in the school system caneffect a change in the gender gap in educational achievement. Footnotes ¹ E-mail addresses: s.machin{at}ucl.ac.uk, s.mcnally1{at}lse.ac.uk     

贸易模式与不完全汇率传递——基于扩展的古诺模型的解释

本文采用一个扩展的古诺模型分析证明了贸易模式与不完全汇率传递的关系。首先,本文从破解人民币升值背景下中国贸易规模和贸易顺差仍持续增长这一谜题出发,分析了中国贸易模式和出口结构特征,描述了中国在国际生产价值链上的角色,阐述了垂直型产业内模式和中间产品占比较大的贸易结构对人民币汇率传递水平的影响。其次,对Dornbusch采用的古诺模型进行拓展,引入贸易模式变量,构建了一个局部均衡的理论模型。模型分析表明,产业市场结构、本国供应商的市场地位和贸易模式是影响出口价格的汇率传递水平的重要因素。最后,根据模型分析结论,提出相应的政策建议。     

The Effect of High School JROTC on Student Achievement,Educational Attainment,and Enlistment

The Junior Reserve Officers' Training Corps (JROTC) is a high school initiative that serves many at‐risk students. Its goals range from reducing dropout rates and improving academic achievement to preparing students for military careers. Using data from High School and Beyond (HSB) and the National Educational Longitudinal Study (NELS), we estimate average treatment effects on students attending schools that typically host JROTC. Applying a two‐stage matching technique, we find that JROTC participants have poorer academic outcomes than other students; although, a large portion of these differences is explained by their at‐risk status. In addition, program effects appear to differ by demographic group, with black participants having lower dropout rates than white participants. The program also appears to improve self‐esteem scores of females. Although the majority of JROTC participants do not join the military, we find large marginal enlistment effects.     

Comparing Student Achievement across Experimental and Lecture-Oriented Sections of a Principles of Microeconomics Course

An increasingly popular alternative to the lecture-oriented “chalk-and-talk” approach to teaching principles of microeconomics is the use of classroom experiments. Like other alternatives to traditional teaching methods, there exists little more than anecdotal evidence supporting the effectiveness of the experimental approach. We estimate the effect of participating in classroom experiments on student achievement in a principles of microeconomics course. Nine sections (300 students) participated in the study, two of which (59 students) relied heavily on classroom experiments throughout the semester. The remaining seven sections (241 students) used no experiments. We find that students in the experimental sections experienced significantly higher gains in Test of Understanding in College Economics (TUCE) scores but differed little on other more qualitative outcomes. Additionally, results indicate that certain student characteristics, including gentler, major, and grade point average, can be used to predict a student's likely success when choosing between courses that rely on experiments and those that employ more traditional forms of pedagogy.     

关于中美经贸关系的几点不同解读

今天我想讲三个问题.第一个问题简单介绍中美经贸关系的现状.第二个问题分析美国以及中国对于现在中美经贸关系的不同解读,最后想提一点个人的看法和评论.     

An Experimental Investigation of Explanations for Outcome Effects on Appraisals of Capital-Budgeting Decisions*

Abstract. Studies investigating effects of outcomes on judgments and decisions have been increasing within the business/accounting research literatures. No study, however, has addressed the presence or absence of such effects in terms of potential explanations and the conditions affecting their viability. Three such explanations are the foci of the present study: cognitive reconstruction, self-enhancing motive, and an escalation-of-commitment analogue. The viability of these explanations was investigated experimentally in an accounting context in which subjects evaluated a capital-budgeting committee's funding priority decisions with or without project outcome information (five-year operating results). Experimental results fully support the cognitive reconstruction explanation for outcome effects on decision appraisals but provide only limited support for the self-enhancing motive and escalation-of-commitment explanations. Results of additional experimentation are presented, further supporting logic inherent in the hypothesis derived from the cognitive reconstruction explanation. The relationship of the present study to prior research and implications for future research and practice are discussed. Résumé. Les études portant sur l'analyse de l'incidence de l'issue d'une situation sur les jugements posés et les décisions prises par la suite se sont multipliées dans la recherche en gestion et en comptabilité. Aucun chercheur ne s'est pourtant penché sur la présence ou l'absence d'une telle incidence en s'interrogeant sur son explication potentielle et sur les facteurs qui influent sur sa viabilité. La présente étude s'articule autour de trois de ces explications: la reconstruction cognitive, la promotion personnelle et un équivalent de l'escalade de l'engagement. La viabilité de ces explications a été soumise à une étude expérimentale dans un contexte comptable dans lequel les sujets évaluaient les décisions d'un comité chargé du choix des investissements dans le cadre de l'établissement des priorités en matière d'affectation des fonds, avec ou sans information sur l'issue des projets (résultats d'exploitation de cinq ans). Les résultats de l'expérience confirment sans équivoque l'explication de la reconstruction cognitive relativement à l'incidence de l'issue des projets sur les évaluations décisionnelles, mais ils n'appuient que de façon mitigée les explications de la promotion personnelle et de l'escalade des engagements. Les auteurs exposent les résultats d'autres expériences, qui viennent étayer la logique sous-jacente à l'hypothèse fondée sur l'explication de la reconstruction cognitive. Ils analysent enfin la relation entre la présente étude et les travaux de recherche antérieurs de même que ses conséquences éventuelles sur la recherche et la profession.     

减缓气候变化经济评估结论的科学争议与政治解读

经过来自发达和发展中国家的252位学者[1]近五年[2]的努力,政府间气候变化专门委员会(IPCC)第三工作组关于减缓气候变化的第四次经济评估报告于2007年初完成定稿,其《决策者概要》于2007年4月30日-5月3日在泰国曼谷经过IPCC180个成员国政府代表逐行审议通过,已公布于世.笔者或作为该报告的主要作者,在学术层面参与了评估报告的撰写和定稿,或作为中国政府代表团的一员,在政治层面经历了该报告《决策者概要》文本的政治谈判与审议.IPCC的评估报告基于文献资料,具有科学属性,但又需IPCC成员国政府代表审议通过,显然具有一定政治色彩.     

Financial Integration in the GCC Region: Market Size Versus National Effects

Open Economies Review - This paper examines financial spillovers between the four largest equity markets (by market capitalization) in the GCC region using a VAR-GARCH (1,1) framework that sheds...     

Inflation Differentials in a Currency Area: Facts,Explanations and Policy

The determinants of inflation differentials in a currency area are analyzed both from an empirical and a theoretical perspective. The empirical analysis shows that a sizeable dispersion of HICP inflation rates across euro-area countries arises mostly in the components based on non-traded goods. There is also a significant cross-country heterogeneity in the response to changes in a common latent factor which accounts for a large fraction of the dispersion in national inflation rates. A stylized model of a currency area is used to understand the interrelation among shocks, structures and policies in driving the data generating process. The model shows that the dynamic of the inflation differentials is largely driven by the variability of productivity in the non-tradable sector of the more flexible economy. Conversely, the output differentials is largely driven by the variability in the productivity of the tradable sector, also of the more flexible economy. Optimal policy is investigated together with an analysis of the optimal adjustment to adopting a common currency with initial incorrect real exchange rate parity.     

Nonlinearity in the Returns-Earnings Relation: Tests of Alternative Specifications and Explanations*

Abstract. Several authors recently challenged the linearity of the returns-earnings relation. In this article, we test the adequacy of alternative nonlinear specifications and examine the validity of various explanations put forth for the returns-earnings nonlinearity. Our main findings are (1) that the nonlinearity persists even when the returns-earnings relation is estimated on annual data (most previous studies used quarterly data) and by a nonparametric procedure that does not impose a specific functional form on the relation; (2) that some nonlinearity exists in the relation between stock returns and earnings levels (previous studies have considered earnings surprises), although it is much less pronounced than the returns-earnings surprise nonlinearity; (3) that the main nonlinear estimation methods used in previous studies and in the current one appear to characterize equally well the underlying returns-earnings relation; predictions of subsequent stock returns based on each of the three specifications the authors examined are largely indistinguishable with respect to their accuracy; (4) that although “special items,” usually identified as transitory by the accountants, appear to contribute to the nonlinearity, there are probably additional contributing factors; the authors find that when all extraordinary items and “special items” are removed from earnings, the returns-earnings relation still exhibits nonlinearity, (5) that the inclusion of cash flow or accrual information also does not eliminate the nonlinearity; and (6) that the returns-cash flow relation is also nonlinear. The authors conclude that nonlinearity of the returns-earnings relation is quite robust across several alternative specifications. However, the candidate explanations they examined do not fully explain the observed nonlinearity. The search for the underlying cause of nonlinearity must therefore continue. Résumé. Plusieurs auteurs remettaient récemment en question la linéarité de la relation rendements-bénéfices. Les auteurs de l'article qui suit vérifient, pour leur part, si les formes non linéaires envisageables sont appropriées et examinent la validité de diverses explications mises de l'avant pour éclairer la non-linéarité de la relation rendements-bénéfices. Leurs principales observations sont les suivantes: (1) la non-linéarité persiste même lorsque la relation rendements-bénéfices est estimée à partir de données annuelles (la plupart des études précédentes s'appuyaient sur des données trimestrielles) et au moyen d'un procédé non paramétrique qui n'impose pas de forme fonctionnelle précise à la relation; (2) une certaine non-linéarité existe dans la relation entre le rendement des actions et les niveaux de bénéfice (les chercheurs avaient, jusque-là, pris en considération les bénéfices inattendus), bien que cette non-linéarité soit beaucoup moins accentuée que la non-linéarité des rendements-bénéfices inattendus; (3) les principales méthodes d'estimation non linéaire utilisées dans les études précédentes et dans la présente étude semblent définir tout aussi bien la relation sous-jacente rendements-bénéfices; les prédictions relatives aux rendements subséquents des actions en fonction de chacune des trois formes que les auteurs ont examinées sont, dans la majorité des cas, impossibles à différencier en ce qui a trait au degré d'exactitude; (4) bien que des éléments ? exceptionnels ?, habituellement définis comme étant provisoires par les comptables, semblent contribuer à la non-linéarité, d'autres facteurs y contribuent probablement aussi; selon les auteurs, lorsque tous les éléments extraordinaires et les ? éléments exceptionnels ? sont exclus des bénéfices, la relation rendements-bénéfices demeure non linéaire; (5) la relation demeure aussi non linéaire si l'on tient compte de l'information relative aux flux de trésorerie ou aux engagements; et (6) la relation rendements-flux de trésorerie est également non linéaire. Les auteurs concluent que la non-linéarité de la relation rendements-bénéfices, envisagée sous plusieurs formes différentes, résiste assez bien à l'analyse. Toutefois, les causes possibles qu'ils ont choisi d'examiner n'expliquent pas entièrement la non-linéarité observée, et les recherches doivent se poursuivre.     

中国FDI净流入与贸易条件恶化:悖论及解释

一、引言 随着国际投资与国际贸易的日益融合,作为国际投资主要形式的外商直接投资对国际贸易产生重大影响:FDI流入推动了一国进出口贸易的迅速发展,同时又改变着一国的资本存量,影响一国的资源禀赋状况,进而影响一国的贸易模式和贸易条件.中国作为一个贸易大国和吸收FDI大国,有必要考虑二者之间的关系.     

Landowners and tenants in Norway

Abstract

During the past two decades Norwegian historical research has to a considerable extent been concentrated on problems connected with the peculiar nature of the distribution of landownership in Norway before 1661, in which year the king of Denmark and Norway embarked upon a large-scale selling of Crown lands and secularised ecclesiastical estates. The results of the investigations so far carried out have for the most part been published only in parish or other local histories or in short articles in Norwegian periodicals, especially in Heimen, the organ of Norwegian local historians. It is only quite recently that a more comprehensive work has been published in this field, Halvard Bjørkvik's Jordeige og jordleige i Ryfylke i eldre tid.¹ In the present article I propose first to review this book and then to supplement it with a survey of the results of earlier research.     

The Mystery of Missing Real Spillovers in Southern Africa: Some Facts and Possible Explanations

Anecdotal evidence suggests that the economies of South Africa and its neighbours (Botswana, Lesotho, Mozambique, Namibia, Swaziland and Zimbabwe) are tightly integrated with each other. The multiple interconnections suggest that South Africa's GDP growth rate should affect positively its neighbours'. However, our review of the available econometric evidence and our panel growth regressions suggest that there is no strong evidence of real spillovers in the region after 1994, once global shocks are controlled for. More generally, we find no evidence of real spillovers from South Africa to the rest of the continent post‐1994. We investigate the possible reasons for this lack of spillovers. Most importantly, the economies of South Africa and the rest of Sub‐Saharan Africa might have decoupled in the mid‐1990s. That is when international sanctions on South Africa ended and the country re‐integrated with the global economy, while growth in the rest of the continent accelerated due to a combination of domestic and external factors.     

创业教育内容对学生创业意愿的影响

本文从创业教育内容的视角,研究学生在校经历、创业知识和创业能力对大学生创业意愿的影响。研究发现,学生的个人特质（本研究采用前瞻性人格）对创业态度的影响显著,学生在校经历、创业知识和创业能力对创业意愿的标准化总效应依次为0．254、0．098和0．197。由此建议创业教育须有针对性地培养大学生创业方面的人格特质;或者甄别出具有前瞻性人格特质的学生进行专门的指导和教育。     

日本年金制度的改革模式及其效果分析

日本的年金制度面临着人口老龄化、少子化、经济增长缓慢等诸多问题,已严重影响了年金制度的可持续发展.日本学界和政府对其进行了多方面的探讨,最终以政府政策形式出台了"2004年年金改革方案",改革效果模拟表明,改革措施能够在一定程度上缓和传统年金制度中的矛盾,但彻底解决还需要作出多方面努力.     

发达国家制造业回流现象及成因分析:以日本为例

近十年来,一些发达国家相继出现制造业回流的现象,即跨国公司的海外子公司撤出或部分撤出东道国,把生产基地迁回国内。文章以日本为案例,分析近年日本制造业回流以及在华日资企业撤资的现象并做一些理论探讨,试图找出制造业回流背后更本质的影响因素。     

Electrification and industrialisation: An assessment of the industrial breakthrough in Norway

Abstract

The article relates the ‘industrial breakthrough’ in Norway to the introduction of electricity in manufacturing production. Viewing electricity as a General Purpose Technology (GPT), the new device fostered advances across a broad spectrum of sectors. Several other key technologies (e.g., within chemical industries) also played their part. However, in Norway, electricity took an extraordinarily strong position. By presenting quantitative evidence of the electrification process, and relating it to annual estimates of employment, productivity and value added between 1896 and 1920, it is shown that the manufacturing sector was too small to form a ‘breakthrough’ before the turn of the century. It was not until the widespread introduction of electricity and electric motors gained some momentum in the first decades of the twentieth century that the economy become really industrialised.