Transferring and Transforming Technology Education: A Study of Norwegian Teachers’ Perceptions of Ideas from Design & Technology

What happens when educational ideas cross national and cultural borders? How do teachers respond to ideas originating in a different school system and a different national culture? This article reports on an empirical study investigating the transfer of ideas from Design &; Technology as a subject in England and Wales into Norwegian schools. A sample of teachers participating in a specific project on technology teaching inspired by this subject has been studied by means of interviews and classroom observation. Results of the study show that while some elements of Design &; Technology are adopted by the teachers, essential ideas of the subject are significantly transformed. Drawing on Barnes, (1992, Teachers and Teaching: From Classrooms to Reflection (pp. 9–32), The Falmer press, London) concept of teachers' professional frames for teaching, it is shown how specific aspects of the national and educational culture have had a considerable effect on?the teachers' interpretation of the nature of technology as a subject of teaching and its place in the curriculum. The study illustrates the importance of the cultural context in how educational ideas are interpreted, reshaped and realized in schools.     

我国现行融资制度功能的理论及实证分析

内生于经济增长的融资制度应具备筹资功能、降低交易成本功能、价格发现功能、流动性功能和风险转移功能等五方面的功能.我国现行融资制度基本能够有效地进行储蓄动员,但在向资本转化方面存在着一定的障碍;作为公共资源的政府融资仍然发挥着相当重要的作用,但金融市场对经济的促进作用有进一步弱化的趋势;在地区间和企业间存在着资源的逆配置现象,总体上资本的运用效率较低,而非正规金融发挥了不可或缺的作用;严格的利率管制使中介的价格发现功能几乎没有,而市场的价格发现功能一直较弱;此外,存在较高的交易成本,流动性水平整体较低,风险转移功能也相对缺乏.     

Population Aging and the Possibility of a Middle-Income Trap in Asia

We present three conditions for a demography-driven middle-income trap and show that many economies in East, South, and Southeast Asia satisfy all of them. The conditions involve (1) the support ratio of workers to consumers has an impact on economic growth, (2) economic development accompanies more investment in human capital and lower fertility due to the quantity–quality trade-off, and (3) a current low level of fertility corresponds to very low support ratios for keeping up with frontier economies in the long run. Panel analysis for 178 countries shows that (1) and (2) are satisfied for Asia with higher elasticity than others. As for (3), we set up a dynamic model for simulations, showing that approximately two-third of Asia’s developing countries have an unsustainable level of support ratios, implying possibility of a middle-income trap due to future demographic headwinds.     

Collaboration strategy decision-making using the Miles and Snow typology

Engaging in collaboration may be the best way for a firm to enhance its competitive advantages, since this can offer faster access to both resources and capabilities. This study aims to develop a framework for making collaboration partner choice decisions. The authors design a strategic game model of collaboration using Miles and Snow typology. An empirical data set collected from the S&P COMPUSTAT database is adopted to verify the model, and several managerial implications are derived. This model helps a company choose a competitor as a collaborative partner and helps in the selection of a collaboration strategy.     

Why do companies transfer the trading compartment of their common stocks

We analyze the motives and determinants of voluntarily stock exchange section switching on the NYSE Euronext. By strategically deciding trading-section transfer when it is beneficial, managers expect to reduce their liquidity and invisibility costs, cost of capital, or their listing costs. We show that managers decide to change the trading compartment of their common stocks based on various factors including firm's size, liquidity level, debt ratio, and expected growth opportunities. Firms that move voluntarily from a less or non regulated compartments to a more regulated one are likely to have transferred to increase their credibility, improve their stocks’ liquidity, re-balance their leverage, and to finance their growth opportunities. Whereas those that move their common stocks toward a less-regulated compartments do it mainly for costs saving reasons.     

The potential for technology and knowledge transfers between foreign and local firms: A study of the construction industry in Ghana

Multinational corporations (MNCs) and other foreign firms can be conduits for technology and knowledge (T&K) transfer to host countries in the developing world. Most of the existing research focuses on T&K transfers through FDI and are drawn from Asia not Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA), although SSA is increasingly receiving foreign investment. There is a paucity of research that gives insights into project-level T&K transfer issues in SSA countries. Using the Ghanaian construction industry as an empirical focus, this article explores T&K transfer potential. The findings reveal significant weaknesses in T&K transfer across industry subsectors and between foreign and local firms. This arises from the potentially complementary but dissimilar resource and knowledge bases. The weaknesses are compounded by the absence of coherent government T&K development policies.     

甘肃省承接产业转移的行业间技术溢出效应影响因素分析

利用计量经济模型和通径分析法，该文对甘肃省工业行业的区际产业转移行业间溢出效应的影响因素进行分析。计量回归结果显示：人力资本、资本密集度对技术溢出具有显著的促进作用，技术差距对技术溢出具有显著的抑制作用，行业发展水平与技术溢出没有显著的相关关系。通径分析法与多元回归结论基本一致，但通径分析法比多元回归更加优越。分析结果表明，技术溢出效应的影响因素应该是承接地一系列因子指标的一个集合。     

Compliance of land cover changes with municipal land use planning: Evidence from the Lisbon metropolitan region (1990–2007)

In the past few decades, urbanisation has become a major phenomenon in European cities, thus representing one of the key human land cover changes with socio-economic and environmental impacts. In the Lisbon metropolitan region it is estimated that 17% of natural and farmland have been transformed into artificial areas. Since the end of 1990s, specific EU guidelines have been issued to contain urban sprawl and preserve agricultural land. Spatial planning in Portugal obviously is integrating these assumptions into the statutory land-use master plans. But what is the performance of this land use planning system regarding land cover evolution itself? Based on the Lisbon metropolitan region (LMR), one of the major areas of urban growth in Portugal, we examine spatio-temporal land cover patterns between 1990 and 2007 by integrating cross-matrix analysis, spatial metrics, and gradient analysis. Additionally, we overlay these land cover dynamics with municipal master plans that regulate land development in order to assess the compliance levels of this land-use regulatory system. Results indicate that: artificial areas are growing by coalescence and/or by scattered development along an urban–rural gradient; agricultural land is reducing and fragmentation is increasing to enlarge peri-urban spaces; there are high levels of conversion of agricultural land into urban land in protected areas, thus showing a lack of compliance to the land use regulatory system visible in the existing gaps between the original land-use assignments of the master plan and the actual developments.     

Impact of the Sloping Land Conversion Program on rural household income: An integrated estimation

The objective of this study is to identify the pathways of the potential impacts of the Sloping Land Conversion Program (SLCP) on household income and quantify these impacts along the identified pathways. We fulfill this objective by developing an integrated analytic framework and using data collected from Wuqi county of Shaanxi for the period 2004–2010. This integrated analytic framework enables us to formulate a structural equation model for testing hypotheses regarding the direct and indirect impacts of the SLCP. It is found that the direct effect of the SLCP on household income is positive but very small and insignificant, suggesting that retiring cropland has, at least, not reduced income from farming. Moreover, the SLCP has had a much higher and even increasing indirect impact on household income through promoting labor transfer and relaxing liquidity constraints. Overall, the SLCP's total impact on household income ranged from 3% in 2004 to 9% in 2010 excluding the insignificant direct impact. The research and policy implications of our work are discussed.     

对称性交易：破解农村信贷供需衔接困局的内在逻辑——基于山东农村金融创新案例的分析

摘要：在现有农村土地产权制度下，土地及依附于其上的各类生产要素不具有充分交易的条件，进而因缺乏合格的交易客体而使农村金融交易呈现非对称状态。人民银行济南分行立足于满足枣庄流转土地和寿光蔬菜订单的需求，在谋求对称农村金融交易主体上寻求突破，较好顺应了农村土地规模化和集约化经营的主流趋势，对破解农村金融交易困境有一定借鉴意义。