The effects of understanding rules and a worked example on the acquisition of procedural knowledge and task performance

Previous research (for example, Bonner and Walker, 1994) has investigated the impact of alternative forms of instruction and practice on both the acquisition of procedural knowledge and task performance. Responding to the call to consider alternative forms of instruction, this study reports the results of an experiment designed to distinguish between the effects of understanding rules and a worked example. Worked examples (such as previously prepared working papers, analysis sheets and spreadsheet templates) are of particular interest as they constitute an important source, frequently used by novice accountants, for understanding and performing various tasks.
The results indicate that understanding rules increase task performance through the acquisition of procedural knowledge, while a worked example provides task-specific heuristics that increase task performance but not procedural knowledge. The different benefits of the two forms of instruction emphasise the importance of matching instruction methods to learning objectives. Furthermore, combining the two forms of instruction lead to the highest levels of task performance even with limited practice and no feedback.
JEL classification: I20; M41     

Accounting records of large rural estates and the dynamics of agriculture in Catalonia (Spain), 1850-1950

In this article the agrarian accounts generated by the large rural estates of Catalonia (Spain) during the period between 1850 and 1950 are studied with a twofold objective. First of all, their formal characteristics and content are described and it is argued that the traits and variations observed are a consequence and reflection of the social conditions under which they were generated. Second, we evaluate the use which Catalan rural historiography has made recently of these documents in order to reconstruct the functioning and evolution of contemporary agriculture.     

Assessment of the effect of the financial crisis on agents’ expectations through symbolic regression

Agents’ perceptions on the state of the economy can be affected during economic crises. Tendency surveys are the main source of agents’ expectations. The main objective of this study is to assess the impact of the 2008 financial crisis on agents’ expectations. With this aim, we evaluate the capacity of survey-based expectations to anticipate economic growth in the United States, Japan, Germany and the United Kingdom. We propose a symbolic regression (SR) via genetic programming approach to derive mathematical functional forms that link survey-based expectations to GDP growth. By combining the main SR-generated indicators, we generate estimates of the evolution of GDP. Finally, we analyse the effect of the crisis on the formation of expectations, and we find an improvement in the capacity of agents’ expectations to anticipate economic growth after the crisis in all countries except Germany.     

School completion in urban Latin America: the voices of young people from an informal settlement

Despite progress in improving secondary school completion in Latin America, a high proportion of young people from urban marginalised neighbourhoods continue to drop out. On the basis of in-depth interviews with young people in an informal settlement of the City of Buenos Aires, the paper aims to broaden the understanding of the processes that lead to school dropout in these neighbourhoods. It does so by examining what young people value being and doing, and how they interpret the value of secondary school in their own lives and contexts. The results point to the critical importance of the family in young peoples’ processes of reasoning and decision-making, the complex interaction between capabilities, and the benefits of schools that provide social and emotional support to students and families. The paper argues that listening to the voices of young people can give significant insights for the design of policies to close the gap in education outcomes in segregated urban contexts.     

Composite indicators of sustainable urban mobility: Estimating the rankings frequency distribution combining multiple methodologies

The contribution of this paper consists in applying several techniques to estimate a composite indicator of sustainable urban mobility for 116 Italian provincial towns, as proposed by Luzzati and Gucciardi (2015). The aim is to provide the decision-maker with a richer set of information on sustainable mobility, making explicit the impact of the techniques used on the values obtained. A set of 16 indicators with a nested structure has been selected and 33 combinations of normalization, weighting, and aggregation techniques are applied. The results are presented by city, by city groupings (size and location), and focusing on the ten largest Italian cities. It is found that small cities perform better in terms of sustainable mobility than medium or large cities. As expected, in some cases (e.g., Milan) the intervals of the results obtained are quite large, indicating that the techniques used to normalize, weight, and aggregate the indicators highly affect the performance indexes. In other cases (e.g., Rome) the results are stable across methodologies.     

Demand for area crop insurance among litchi producers in northern Vietnam

This study examines the need for crop insurance for litchi production in northern Vietnam and how farmers might participate in such a program. Hypothetical insurance programs were developed which proposed all‐risk coverage based on area yields. This coverage was offered to farmers to determine both their interest in the program and how insurance features and farmer characteristics affected their decision to buy insurance. Farmers were also surveyed regarding their production practices, price and yield expectations, and financial and personal characteristics. Even before considering other program costs and government budget constraints, there is not a strong case for establishing a crop insurance program here. Results indicate that while farmer participation would be significant, crop insurance is not needed to achieve policy goals like raising farmer income or guaranteeing subsistence levels of income. Crop insurance is not needed to promote litchi production, which is already expanding rapidly due to its high profitability relative to other farm enterprises. In their choice of coverages, farmers preferred higher yield guarantee levels and lower indemnity prices. Estimated premiums were quite low when expressed as a percent of expected revenue, and farmers were not responsive to changes in premiums. Econometric analysis indicated that high income farmers were more likely to participate, but other farmer characteristics seemed to matter little. Anecdotal evidence suggested that farmers believed the expected area yields used to set insurance coverage levels were too low. Because litchi productivity varies significantly by tree age and the litchi planted area is expanding rapidly, determining appropriate values for expected area yields and insurance coverage levels appeared to be the biggest challenge in program design. It is hypothesized that additional farmer education about the relationship between area and farm yields and other aspects of area insurance could improve such a program's operation. Published by Elsevier Science B.V.     

From feudal colonization to agrarian capitalism in Mallorca: Peasant endurance under the rise and fall of large estates (1229–1900)

The colonization of Mallorca gave rise to a late‐feudal agrarian society that evolved towards capitalism based on large estates owned by noblemen who hired large numbers of wage labourers from among smallholders living in agro‐towns, the dispossessed remnants of a formerly wealthier peasantry. These well‐off peasants originated from when the colonization frontier was open in the 13th and 14th centuries, but had been defeated when three peasant–plebeian revolts were crushed. Afterwards, Mallorca followed a latifundist transition towards agrarian capitalism similar to southern Italy or Spain, in sharp contrast with the middle‐peasant paths seen in Catalonia or Valencia. The land rent rose, while agricultural wages fell from 1659 to 1800. Peasant families could not survive, and had to supplement wages with the products of their own plots. This set a socio‐agroecological limit to growth in this agrarian class structure. The agrarian crisis at the end of the 19th century bankrupted the Mallorcan nobility. Bankers bought much of the land and sold it on as small allotments. This expanded the intensive cropping formerly limited to agro‐town belts, giving rise to a new “peasantization”. Despite their subordination, Mallorcan peasants had survived and created complex agroecological landscapes endowed with a rich biocultural heritage.     

Bounded memory and permanent reputations

A recent result in repeated incomplete information games is that after an arbitrarily long history, any equilibrium of the continuation game must be an equilibrium of the complete information game. This result implies that reputation is a short-run phenomenon. We study a particular class of reputation games and show that bounded memory may lead to permanent reputations. In fact, for a particular range of parameters, a bounded memory player may never be able to learn anything at all.     

Rhetoric or Reality? Do Accounting Education and Experience Increase Weighting on Environmental Performance in a Balanced Scorecard?

We are nearing the end of the United Nations' Decade of Education for Sustainable Development (2005–2014). There has been substantial rhetoric in education and business forums, and many universities have integrated sustainability into their accounting curricula, but what effect is accounting education having? This study considers whether the rhetoric of sustainability is manifest in a greater emphasis on environmental performance by students and practitioners. In an evaluation task using a balanced scorecard we found that third-year accounting students in Australia and Germany recognised lead performance indicators, and penalised poor environmental performance, more than did first-year students. Experienced accounting controllers, however, placed less emphasis on environmental performance than did third-year accounting students. This suggests that the rhetoric taught in universities regarding the strategic importance of environmental performance exceeds the reality of organisational priorities, at least for now.