Teaching Interactive Media Design

In todays, computer-centered society, designing interactive media has emerged as a new profession. Interactive design is often associated with spread of computers as a communication and interaction tool. However, interactive design has been a staple of artists and designers for many centuries. We present a historical perspective upon interactive design and point out the close relationship of this field with different fields of art and design. We argue that interactive media design is a distinct and evolving field and that it is imperative to teach it as such. In this paper, we have adopted this perspective and detailed a new four-year under-graduate curriculum on interactive media design education. This curriculum stresses the various components of interactive media design and its close relationship with computer science. This revised version was published online in July 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

Equilibrium-correction vs. differencing in macroeconometric forecasting

Recent work by Clements and Hendry elucidate why forecasting systems that are in terms of differences, dVARs, can be more accurate than econometric models that include levels variables, EqCMs. For example, dVAR forecasts are in some cases insulated from parameter non-constancies in the long run mean of the cointegration relationships. In this paper, the practical relevance of these issues are investigated for RIMINI, the quarterly macroeconometric model used in Norges Bank (Central Bank of Norway), an example of an EqCM forecasting model. We develop two dVAR versions of the full RIMINI model and compare EqCM and dVAR forecasts for the period 1992.1–1994.4. We also include forecasts from univariate dVAR type models. The results seem to confirm the relevance of the theoretical results. First, dVAR forecasts appear to provide some immunity against parameter non-constancies that could seriously bias the EqCM forecasts. Second, the misspecification resulting from omitting levels information generates substantial biases in the dVAR forecasts 8 and 12 quarters ahead.     

Monetary Policy in the Greenspan Era: A Time Series Analysis of Rules vs. Discretion*

Relationships between the Federal funds rate, unemployment, inflation and the long‐term bond rate are investigated with cointegration techniques. We find a stable long‐term relationship between the Federal funds rate, unemployment and the bond rate. This relationship is interpretable as a policy target because deviations are corrected via the Federal funds rate. Deviations of the actual Federal funds rate from the estimated target give simple indications of discretionary monetary policy, and the larger deviations relate to special episodes outside the current information set. A more traditional Taylor‐type target, where inflation appears instead of the bond rate, does not seem congruent with the data.     

The Environmental Outcome of Emissions-intensive Economic Growth: A Critical Look at Official Growth Projections for Sweden up to the Year 2000

Implications for carbon dioxide, sulphur dioxide and nitrogen oxides emissions from the Swedish government's medium-term economic projections are assessed, considering Sweden's environmental goals. Data from the first environmental accounting matrix of Sweden are exploited within the framework of the interindustry model to give emission multipliers for various components of aggregate demand. In view of these emission multipliers, it is evident that the outlined macro-economic development does not conform with Sweden's environmental goals. The oil price and the structural changes assumed in the economic projections stress still further the need for strong environmental policy measures to attain the emission goals. The allocation of total expenditure is shown here to be a critical factor for bringing down the emissions to accepted levels.