Why is education performance so different across Latvian schools?

This paper aims to identify the school characteristics consistently associated with better performance of pupils in state exams in Latvia and understand the reasons behind substantial exam score gap between urban and rural schools. We find that exam scores are positively related to school size and teacher salaries, but negatively related to teacher age. Oaxaca–Ransom decomposition shows that the whole urban–rural exam score gap can be attributed to a few observable characteristics of schools, teachers and pupils.     

The perils of working with big data,and a SMALL checklist you can use to recognize them

The use of big data to help explain fluctuations in the broader economy and key business performance indicators is now so commonplace that in some instances it has even begun to rival more traditional measures. Big data sources can very often provide advantages when compared with these more traditional data sources, but with these advantages also come potential pitfalls. We lay out a checklist called SMALL that we have developed in order to help interested parties as they navigate the big data minefield. Based on a set of five questions, the SMALL checklist should help users of big data draw justifiable conclusions and avoid making mistakes in matters of interpretation. To demonstrate, we provide several case studies that demonstrate the subtle nuances of several of these new big data sets and show how the problems they face often closely relate to age-old concerns that more traditional data sources are also forced to tackle.     

美日生产资料分销体制的比较及对我国的启示

我国传统的生产资料分销体制带有浓厚的计划经济色彩。加入WTO后，我国的分销领域将进一步向外国企业开放。如何借鉴发达国家的生产资料分销体制来进一步改革我国的生产资料分销体制具有重要意义。本文通过对美日两国生产资料分销体制的比较，说明了美国的分销模式在一定程度上代表了工业化国家的一般趋势，同时，对我国生产资料分销体制的改革提供了启示。     

多层次资本市场的产业内涵

资本市场已经成为人们关注的焦点。然而,我们需要什么样的资本市场是我们理论与实践中必须解决的问题。本文从资本市场的本质特征出发,研究资本市场长期选择功能发挥的前提在于建立多层次的资本市场;从理论上证明多层次资本市场在产业层面上所产生的巨大作用;从发达国家的经验上说明多层次资本市场对主导产业形成的影响;最后提出发展多层次资本市场的对策。     

Residential investment and recession predictability

We assess the importance of residential investment for the prediction of economic recessions for an unbalanced panel of 12 OECD countries over the period 1960Q1–2014Q4. Our approach is to estimate various probit models with different leading indicators and evaluate their relative prediction accuracies using the area under the receiver operating characteristic curve as our forecasting performance metric. We document that residential investment contains information that is useful for predicting recessions both in-sample and out-of-sample. This result is robust to adding typical leading indicators, such as the term spread, stock prices, consumer confidence surveys and oil prices. It is shown that residential investment is particularly useful for the prediction of recessions for countries with high home-ownership rates. Finally, in a separate exercise for the US, we show that the predictive ability of residential investment is — in a broad sense — robust to employing real-time data.     

产业政策促进全球价值链升级的有效性研究——基于出口加工区的准自然实验

本文利用我国出口加工区(EPZs)成立之初所实施的“主导产业”扶持政策构造“准自然实验”,实证检验了该政策对于企业全球价值链(GVC)升级的效果并进一步探讨政府实施产业政策的有效性,发现:(1)EPZs的“主导产业”政策对我国出口企业GVC升级存在负向影响,而这种负向影响在多重稳健性检验下均成立;(2)异质企业视角下考察产业政策对GVC升级的影响发现在国有资本份额较大的企业和重工业企业中产业政策对GVC升级的负向影响尤为明显;(3)对EPZs的“主导产业”政策发挥作用的前提进行检验,发现在比较优势较强的行业,产业政策对GVC升级的负向影响不明显甚至存在正向影响;同时,在错配程度较低的行业负向影响也不明显。由此本文认为,政府在推动GVC升级方面应当“有所作为”,但也不能“无所限制”,即产业政策要针对比较优势“精准定位”,但也应当以不造成资源严重错配为前提。     

Sustainable crop production intensification in the Senegal and Niger River basins of francophone West Africa

This paper reports on how the farmer field school (FFS) approach has been used to successfully catalyse important changes among stakeholders in the savannah zones of West Africa. Improved agronomic practices, better decision-making skills and diversification of smallholder farms in developing countries are shown to provide farmers the opportunity to rebuild soil fertility, optimize input use and introduce new sources of food and nutrition and marketable products for local populations. This is a knowledge-intensive endeavour best addressed through community-based processes of education. By the end of 2010, approximately 116,000 rice, vegetable, cotton and other farmers would have been involved in season-long FFS in four West African countries, resulting in improved yields and incomes and ushering substantial progress in both reducing the use of chemical pesticides and improving the use of fertilizers and organic amendments. The programme is increasingly being successfully integrated into local, provincial and national structures. Experienced personnel are being employed to initiate similar programmes in nearby countries. The evolving network of experienced actors and committed countries provides a platform for collaboration by a growing set of partners and represents a large-scale, long-term programmatic approach to helping sustainably intensify and develop agriculture in Africa.     

典型任务教学法在高职建筑类专业课的应用

高等职业教育的培养目标是具有职业能力与长足发展的高技能应用型人才,具体体现在合理科学的课程设置与课程内容。用典型工作任务教学法可为课程内容体系提供充分的依据。从建筑类是的一门专业课土力学地基与基础入手分析典型任务教学法的具体应用。     

Teaching Methods-Using Discussions in the Classroom

ABSTRACT

Some instructors like to use a variety of pedagogical methods throughout the semester. Using discussions in the classroom is a way to add variety. The benefits of utilizing discussions include enhanced problem-solving and communications skills, and a higher retention rate of information. Suggestions for leading effective discussions are followed by a sample class discussion format.     

证据排除规则相关问题的思考及启发、建议

作者在考察违法证据排除规则历史发展和评价其利弊的基础上 ,提出不同与以往的新的观点 (选择性地排除非法证据材料说 ) ,从权利保障与维护宪法尊严、实体与程序的价值冲突、依法治国、司法、超前立法、公正等角度思索此问题 ,试图得出些有益的结论。