Contract teachers and student achievement in rural China: evidence from class fixed effects

For schooling to play an important role in the development of human capital, the system of education needs to provide quality education, which among other things requires high‐quality teachers. Facing fiscal constraints and growing enrolments, school systems in developing countries often supplement their teaching staff by hiring contract teachers. However, there is limited evidence on how the effectiveness of these teachers compares to that of civil service teachers. We use a dataset from rural primary schools in western China to estimate the causal effect of contract teachers on student achievement and find that gains in student scores on standardised examinations in mathematics and Chinese are less in classes taught by contract teachers than in classes taught by civil service teachers. The results demonstrate that China's education system needs to focus on producing high‐quality teachers to improve the quality of schooling in its rural education system. The findings imply that educators in developing countries should not only seek to hire increasingly more civil service teachers in rural schools, but they should also identify ways of improving the quality of contract teachers. If efforts to improve teaching can succeed, rural students can learn more, earn higher incomes and contribute more to the productivity of the overall economy.     

Wissenschaftsjournalismus und Wissenschafts-PR im Wandel

People’s interest in science topics is increasing — as is the coverage of science topics in the media. New popular science magazines and science pages are founded, and science programmes are launched on television. This trend stems from the fact that science topics increasingly affect developments in society and people’s everyday lives, and that they arouse emotions and influence other social systems such as politics, the economy, culture, religion and sports. This article offers an analysis of current changes in science journalism and the public relations of science. A market analysis served as basis for telephone interviews with editorial executives and heads of public relations departments. The interviews focused on respondents’ views on the future of science communication, the handling of science topics in newsrooms, and on future qualifications of science communicators. Evidently, science journalism is becoming more current, more controversial and more entertaining. The study formed the basis of a concept of an interdisciplinary bachelor’s program. This is why the article also deals with the consequences for journalism education.     

How do changes in monetary policy affect bank lending? An analysis of Austrian bank data

Using a panel of Austrian bank data we show that the lending decisions of the smallest banks are more sensitive to interest rate changes, and that for all banks, sensitivity changes over time. We propose to estimate the groups of banks that display similar lending reactions by means of a group indicator which, after estimation, indicates each bank's classification. Additionally, we estimate a state indicator that indicates the periods during which the lending reaction differs from what we normally observe. Bayesian methods are used for estimation; a sensitivity analysis and a forecast evaluation confirm our model choice. Copyright © 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Transferable Ageing Provisions in Individual Health Insurance Contracts

Abstract. We consider lifetime health insurance contracts in which ageing provisions are used to smooth the premium profile. The capital stock accumulated for each individual can be decomposed into two parts: a premium insurance and an annuitized life insurance, only the latter being transferable between insurers without triggering premium changes through risk segmentation. In a simulation based on German data, the transferable share declines in age and falls with an increasing age of entry into the contract. In spite of different benefit profiles, it is almost identical for women and men.     

Transfer empirischer Evidenz

For decades, the guiding principle and the programs of journalism studies at German universities have been gyrating around the integration of theory and practice. However, “integration” has been and still is interpreted in different manners: While education programs have, by and large, become non-contentious, research programs have diverged to journalistic practice depending on distance and proximity. Thereby, research is pushing against its limits, while at the same time impeding progress towards the aim of common-identity journalism studies as an integrative teaching and research field at universities. This paper appraises and formulates an amended concept and program. The drive to amend fuels on change in journalism, a context in which—due to the fast pace of innovation—journalistic education and research are faced with novel requisites. The aims and tasks of journalism studies are not any longer perceived as merely reconciling theory and practice into integrative education programs; rather, while acknowledging systemic disparities between science and social practice, the new paradigm includes integrative research that formulates, tests and evaluates transfer methods with a view to implementing evidence-based strategic decision-making in newsrooms. It is an explicitly normative concept: The quality of journalism represents the nexus of theoretical positions, choice and development of methodology, as well as outcome interpretation.