Student evaluation of teaching effectiveness: an unresolved dilemma

Content analysis techniques were used to analyse the criteria used for student evaluation of teaching effectiveness in college and university home economics programmes. Student evaluation forms were obtained from 29 state institutions representing 21 states. The evaluation forms varied in length from seven to 36 objective items. Most provided for flexibility. including such options as add-on items, open-ended response format, and choice of forms. The evaluation criteria fell into six categories: course organization and content, course requirements, evaluation procedures, student participation, teaching skills, and global value of course. All of the institutions included items related to teaching skills. This was also the most heavily weighted factor, accounting for nearly 40% of the total evaluation. This is a significant finding, given that many college and university faculty have limited opportunities to develop teaching skills prior to beginning an academic career. Home economics administrators might use the results of the study to design faculty development programmes to help both novice and experienced faculty acquire or improve the skills on which they are being evaluated.     

A New Look at Old Issues: Keynesian Unemployment Revisited

Economists have long sensed that the failure of goods markets to clear is a prime reason for the emergence of unemployment. The novel feature of this paper is that it discovers a new theoretical basis proving this assumption. The paper claims that in a permanently growing economy, unemployment may be due to the failure of the markets to provide consumers with ever‐new varieties of consumption goods. As the difference between desired and available product widens, effective demand declines, leading on the one hand to unemployment, which exhibits a decisive Keynesian flavour as it is the result of goods markets failures, and on the other hand to an increase in involuntary savings, which provide the financial basis to foster innovation and growth. As the higher growth rate increases the probability of failures in effective demand, it further increases unemployment and increases involuntary savings, resulting in a finite multiplier process.     

A Case for Managed Exchange Rates*

The incorporation of adaptive expectations by Dornbusch in a Mundell-Fleming model modifies significantly the traditional results of policy effectiveness in a small, open economy. While monetary policy is still able to influence aggregate demand when flexible exchange rates prevail, the effects of this policy on other important variables in the economy during the adjustment process to a new equilibrium may be considered sufficiently ‘disruptive’ so that the authorities will be hesitant to use their only fully-effective policy instrument for income-stabilization purposes. However, by adding a target level for the exchange rate to their list of goal variables and by using an appropriate mix of monetary and fiscal policies, it appears to be possible for the government to avoid these disruptive side effects.     

Accounting For Goodwill

This article provides a means of resolving one of accounting's ongoing problems—how to account for goodwill in an era where the unidentifiable intangible asset is often an entity's largest value component. Despite the general recognition that, in practice, the two classes of goodwill are indistinguishable in terms of their ability to generate streams of revenue, a distinction is traditionally drawn between internally generated and purchased goodwill. The former should not be brought to account because it is impossible to do so within the accepted rules of double entry bookkeeping and historical cost based accounting. On the other hand, there is no difficulty in bringing purchased goodwill to account, but controversy has always existed as to how to treat the amount once recognized. It can confidently be expected that, as anomalies and practical difficulties manifest themselves in practice, the current impairment regime will, in its turn, be abandoned.     

FINANCIAL CRISES AND INTERNATIONAL STOCK MARKET VOLATILITY TRANSMISSION

This paper examines the interplay between stock market returns and their volatility, focusing on the Asian and global financial crises of 1997–98 and 2008–09 for Australia, Singapore, the UK, and the US. We use a multivariate generalised autoregressive conditional heteroskedasticity (MGARCH) model and weekly data (January 1992–June 2009). Based on the results obtained from the mean return equations, we could not find any significant impact on returns arising from the Asian crisis and more recent global financial crises across these four markets. However, both crises significantly increased the stock return volatilities across all of the four markets. Not surprisingly, it is also found that the US stock market is the most crucial market impacting on the volatilities of smaller economies such as Australia. Our results provide evidence of own and cross ARCH and GARCH effects among all four markets, suggesting the existence of significant volatility and cross volatility spillovers across all four markets. A high degree of time‐varying co‐volatility among these markets indicates that investors will be highly unlikely to benefit from diversifying their financial portfolio by acquiring stocks within these four countries only.     

GHG Targets as Insurance Against Catastrophic Climate Damages

The climate system is an angry beast and we are poking it with sticks 1 . A critical issue in climate change economics is the specification of the so‐called “damages function” and its interaction with the unknown uncertainty of catastrophic outcomes. This paper asks how much we might be misled by our economic assessment of climate change when we employ a conventional quadratic damages function and/or a thin‐tailed probability distribution for extreme temperatures. The paper gives some numerical examples of the indirect value of various greenhouse gas (GHG) concentration targets as insurance against catastrophic climate change temperatures and damages. These numerical exercises suggest that we might be underestimating considerably the welfare losses from uncertainty by using a quadratic damages function and/or a thin‐tailed temperature distribution. In these examples, the primary reason for keeping GHG levels down is to insure against high‐temperature catastrophic climate risks.     

PREMIUM RATEMAKING IN AN ALL RISK CROP INSURANCE PROGRAM1

Fluctuation in farm incomes resulting from variation in crop yield is one of the most significant features in agriculture. Crop insurance is a feasible method by which the farmer can protect his income and his investment from the disastrous effects of crop losses due to natural hazards. This study has attempted to cover two parts. First, it has examined the most important-factors influencing crop yields in connection with the premium rate scheme (i.e. the long-run average yield and the level of coverage). These factors include resource inputs, technology, weather, and stochastic variable. Second, it has developed a refined method of approximating the premium rate. The data used in testing normality were based on the Manitoba Crop Insurance Corporation's annual yield survey covering the years 1916 to 1964. The test shows that none of the annual yield distributions within the area surveyed was normally distributed, revealing that a cartful and exact delineation of a crop risk area is necessary. The findings also show that the cyclical pattern of weather and the upward trend in crop production due to technology were evidently important for the adjustment of the level of coverage and premium rate over time. Additional research relating the effects of weather and technology on crop yields would help to establish a more realistic insurance program. Other aspects should not be overlooked. These include (a) other possible levels besides the existing level of coverage and (b) a livestock or a combined crop-livestock insurance program along with the crop insurance program. The purpose of these additional aspects is to provide farmers with a fuller measure of protection.