Search

This report shares the findings and lessons learned from an investigation into the economics of disaggregated models for assessing and accrediting informal learners undertaking post secondary education. It presents some key economic and governance challenges for universities to consider in implementing OER assessment and accreditation policies. It also includes discussion of findings from a small-scale survey conducted by two of the authors on perceptions, practices and policies relating to openness in assessment and accreditation in post secondary institutions, with a particular focus on the "OER universitas" (OERu) concept. [This paper was presented at the OpenCourseWare Consortium Global Conference (Ljubljana, Slovenia, April 23-25, 2014).]

To build postsecondary institutions that educate responsible citizens as well as competent employees and consumers, it is important that people must teach and learn themselves about the context--domestic and global--in which work is to be done, and the purposes which economic and technological development serve. One aspect of that context is the tremendous human cost of modern prosperity. A moral inquiry into human suffering is surely at least as important as the passing on of the technical skills needed to keep the machinery in motion. A significant historical example concerns the 10 million inhabitants of the Congo Free State who paid the price for King Leopold II's greed and brutality when he opportunistically forced them into slave labour to extract sap from rubber trees to sell to the embryonic automobile industry in the 1890s. Today, externalization of costs insidiously hides cheap labour, unsafe and unhealthy working conditions, destruction of the environment and ubiquitous toxins which have worked their way up to the top of the food chain in mother's milk. Shockingly, human life has become an externalized cost as a direct consequence of the unsustainable lifestyle of people in North America. Literally millions of people have died or been injured as a result of their extravagant lifestyle which, for example, requires enormous quantities of fossil fuels for transportation and the manufacture of consumer or capital products. Paradoxically, due to their consumption habits and lifestyle, they are assigning a value to human life which can be calculated by dividing the resulting excessive purchases germane to perpetual unsustainable growth divided by the number of casualties who have become victims of the American pursuit of economic advantages. Human life has no price. It is alarming that it is held in such low regard, and it is unconscionable that people in North America pay so little attention to their own culpability in social injustice at home and abroad.

"This paper investigates the association between population age structure, particularly the share of the population in the 'prime saving years' 45-60, and the returns on stocks and bonds. The paper is motivated by the claim that the aging of the 'Baby Boom' cohort in the United States is a key factor in explaining the recent rise in asset values. It also addresses the associated claim that asset prices will decline when this large cohort reaches retirement age and begins to reduce its asset holdings. This paper begins by considering household age-asset accumulation profiles. Data from the Survey of Consumer Finances suggest that while cross-sectional age-wealth profiles peak for households in their early 60s, cohort data on the asset ownership of the same households show a much less pronounced peak.... The paper then considers the historical relationship between demographic structure and real returns on Treasury bills, long-term government bonds, and corporate stock. The results do not suggest any robust relationship between demographic structure and asset returns.... The paper concludes by discussing factors such as international capital flows and forward-looking behavior on the part of market participants that could weaken the relationship between age structure and asset returns in a single nation.", (excerpt)

National contributions to science are influenced by a number of factors, including economic capacity, national scientific priorities, science policy, and institutional settings and cultures. Nations do not have equal opportunities to access the global scientific market, and therefore, often seek out international partners with complementary resources and expertise. This study aims at investigating national collaboration strategies, with a focus on research leadership—measured through corresponding authorship—and its relationship with scientific impact. Results show that countries with higher R&D investments are more scientifically independent, and confirm that international collaboration is positively related to citation impact. However, leadership in international collaboration is inversely related with a countries’ share of international collaboration and there is a very little relationship between citation impact and international leadership. For instance, most countries—and particularly those that have fewer resources—have higher scientific impact when they are not leading. This suggests that, despite increasing global participation in science, most international collaborations are asymmetrical, and that the research system remains structured around a few dominate nations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

"This paper steps back from the current political debate [in the United States] over the social security trust fund and examines the more general question of how serious a macroeconomic problem aging is and how policy should respond to it. We focus primarily on issues relating to saving and capital accumulation. We do not consider the broader question of whether the current U.S. national saving rate is too high or too low, but focus on the effect of demographic changes on the optimal level of national saving. In addition, we consider the effects of demographic change on productivity growth and the optimal timing of tax collections. Our general conclusion is that demographic changes will improve American standards of living in the near future, but lower them slightly over the very long term. Other things being equal, the optimal policy response to recent and anticipated demographic changes is almost certainly a reduction rather than an increase in the national saving rate.", (excerpt)

Major demographic changes around the world. Disproportionate sovereign debt. A shift from North America, Western Europe, and Japan to emerging economies as centers of growth. Unprecedented levels of market risk and volatility. The structure of the global economy is undergoing significant changes. Michael Oyster, managing principal of Fund Evaluation Group, explored this topic with Sam DeRosa-Farag, principal of the investment team at Morgan Creek Capital Management, and Stephen Wood, chief market strategist at Russell Investments.

"This paper examines the amount, spatial pattern, and correlates of migration in Canada at the census division scale. The effects of distance, economic prosperity, social and cultural conditions, community size, and the housing market are investigated.... Poisson regression techniques were used to avoid the estimation problems frequently encountered in log-normal regression.", (excerpt)

Economic crises carry a substantial impact on population health and health systems, but little is known on how these transmit to health workers (HWs). Addressing such a gap is timely as HWs are pivotal resources, particularly during pandemics or the ensuing recessions. Drawing from the empirical literature, we aimed to provide a framework for understanding the impact of recessions on HWs and their reactions. We use a systematic review and best-fit framework synthesis approach to identify the relevant qualitative, quantitative and mixed-methods evidence, and refine an a priori, theory-based conceptual framework. Eight relevant databases were searched, and four reviewers employed to independently review full texts, extract data and appraise the quality of the evidence retrieved. A total of 57 peer-reviewed publications were included, referring to six economic recessions. The 2010-15 Great Recession in Europe was the subject of most (52%) of the papers. Our consolidated framework suggests that recessions transmit to HWs through three channels: (1) an increase in the demand for services; (2) the impacts of austerity measures; and (3) changes in the health labour market. Some of the evidence appeared specific to the context of crises; demand for health services and employment increased during economic recessions in North America and Oceania, but stagnated or declined in Europe in connection with the austerity measures adopted. Burn-out, lay-offs, migration and multiple jobholding were the reactions observed in Europe, but job opportunities never dwindled for physicians during recessions in North America, with nurses re-entering labour markets during such crises. Loss of motivation, absenteeism and abuse of health systems were documented during recessions in low-income countries. Although the impacts of recessions may vary across economic events, health systems, labour markets and policy responses, our review and framework provide an evidence base for policies to mitigate the effects on HWs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A substantial amount of evidence has emerged indicating that a majority of the world's largest multinational enterprises concentrate activities in their home region. However, there are relatively few studies which test whether such concentrations are consistent with economic theory. This paper works to fill the void. It tests whether regional concentrations of OECD exports and outward FDI are consistent with predictions of a gravity model. The empirical evidence provided here indicates that exports are far more regional than the model predicts. As for FDI, the empirical evidence shows that intra-regional FDI in Europe is larger than the model predicts, whereas intra-regional FDI patterns within North America are consistent with gravity. Overall, this paper provides further support for Rugman's thesis that MNEs are best described as regional as opposed to global actors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The adoption of the shared prosperity goal by the World Bank in 2013 and Sustainable Development Goal 10, on inequality, by the United Nations in 2015 should strengthen the focus of development interventions and cooperation on the income growth of the bottom 40 percent of the income distribution. This paper contributes to the incipient literature on within-country allocations of development institutions and assesses the geographic targeting of World Bank projects to the bottom 40 percent. Bivariate correlations between the allocation of project funding approved over 2005–14 and the geographical distribution of the bottom 40 as measured by survey income or consumption data are complemented by regressions with population and other potential factors affecting the within-country allocations as controls. The correlation analysis shows that, of the 58 countries in the sample, 41 exhibit a positive correlation between the shares of the bottom 40 and World Bank funding, and, in almost half of these, the correlation is above 0.5. Slightly more than a quarter of the countries, mostly in Sub-Saharan Africa, exhibit a negative correlation. The regression analysis shows that, once one controls for population, the correlation between the bottom 40 and World Bank funding switches sign and becomes significant and negative on average. This is entirely driven by Sub-Saharan Africa and not observed in the other regions. Hence, the significant and positive correlation in the estimations without controlling for population suggests that World Bank project funding is concentrated in administrative areas in which more people live (including the bottom 40) rather than in poorer administrative areas. Furthermore, capital cities receive disproportionally high shares of World Bank funding on average. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Are public officials more responsive to requests from affluent or poor constituents? A growing body of evidence suggests that lawmakers are more responsive to the rich when they craft policy. However, some scholars theorize that officials also exhibit a corresponding bias in favor of the poor when they handle casework, essentially giving policy to the rich and services to the poor. In this paper, we test this casework prediction using four experiments in which confederates sent simple requests to state or local officials. In each, our confederates’ reported social classes were randomly assigned and signaled with a brief introductory statement mentioning the sender’s occupation or economic situation. Across our samples, we find precisely-estimated null effects of social class biases: the officials we studied were equally likely to respond regardless of the constituent’s class. These findings raise doubts about whether casework is really a class-biased process. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In recent years the North American sustainable coffee market, consisting of Fair Trade, organic and shade-grown certified varieties, has steadily increased. This paper explores the local history and daily practice of sustainable coffee cultivation among a group of Guatemalan small coffee growers and investigates the extent to which these are accurately reflected in certification standards and marketing. Their participation in the organic coffee market generates three sources of tension: first, the tension between a place- and time-bound indigeneity, and the reality of the growers' sophisticated organic production and processing strategies. Second, the tension between the regional history of organic production as liberatory practice, and the organic consumer movement whose meanings and practices historically have been defined in North America and Europe. Finally, a tension exists between certification standards developed primarily in the interest of tropical conservation and the ways that producers' understandings of their landscape and environment are shaped by how they produce their livelihoods. The paper explores each of these in turn and in doing so illuminates how the sustainable coffee market is capable of moulding political-economic forces and distant places while reshaping livelihoods and processes of cultural identification. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This is the first of a two-part paper, which reviews the evolution of the supply management function from the 18th century to 1940. A second paper will examine the continued evolution of supply management from 1940 until the present. The 1830–1940 period in North America was one of tremendous development for purchasing. It started with occasional reference in management texts and, particularly after 1900, saw the evolution of a host of ideas representing the foundation of today's perspective on supply management. At no time did purchasing practitioners and academics see the function as a narrow buying activity. Clearly, our predecessors were well aware of the benefits of integration and would have been comfortable with today's supply chain management precepts. They also recognized value, cost and price analysis, value analysis, purchasing research, talent management, outsourcing the supply function, supplier relationships, strategy and the need for performance measurement. They strived to contribute effectively to organizational goals and strategies, well aware of the potential impact of their actions on organizational success. An understanding of supply's evolution may not only assist today's supply management practitioners and academics in placing current practices and theories in context but also in charting our future. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Many people in North America believe that prevailing commission rates for residential real estate brokers are too high, even though such beliefs are not based on a formal model. This paper presents a general equilibrium model of the housing market in which real estate brokers serve as matching intermediaries. We use this model to construct an illustrative example which is calibrated using data consistent with a typical housing market. The example suggests that the commission rate which maximizes aggregate efficiency is considerably below the prevailing rate. Moreover, this finding appears to be robust to changes in the matching process. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Urban transport policies are characterized by a wide range of impacts, and trade-offs and conflicts among these impacts. The task of integrating and reconciling these impacts poses challenges, because they are incommensurable, and they affect different groups differentially. Further, impacts such as those related to social equity are hard to define and measure. In this paper we address two inter-related questions: How is social equity conceptualized, operationalized, and prioritized relative to environmental and other objectives; and how might social equity be more effectively integrated in urban transportation plans in North America? We critically analyze how social equity is incorporated into transportation plans in 18 large North American metropolitan areas, in terms of the quality of the related objectives, how meaningfully their achievement is assessed through the choice of performance measures or indicators, and their prioritization relative to other objectives. We observe that social equity goals and objectives are in many cases not translated into clearly specified objectives, and appropriate measures for assessing their achievement in a meaningful, disaggregated manner are often lacking. At the same time, there are good examples of social equity objectives and measures in several plans. In general, there is a stronger focus on the local environment (and congestion reduction) than on social equity in the plans. We end the paper with a discussion related to considerations for generating objectives and measures for better integrating social equity into urban transportation plans. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Extant agritourism studies have employed positivistic methodologies and quantitative approaches. As such, these approaches have predominately concluded that economics motives the diversification in agritourism at the expense of uncovering the complexity of multiple factors involved. Captured in this paper are the experiences of two, independent North American (agri)tourism researchers who used interpretative research approaches, specifically interpretative phenomenological analysis and appreciative inquiry, for getting at a deeper understanding of the complexity of agritourism on family farms. Agritourism is revealed as a transitional process, and supporting farms getting into agritourism would best be accomplished through building business skills and entrepreneurial capacities. Likewise, networks are critical, especially farmer-to-farmer connections. Interpretative research methods uncovered a more holistic and complex understanding of agritourism. This perspective will better inform farmers, their families, as well as policy-makers when they design and implement new businesses, programmes, and policies in the best interest of farm families and rural communities. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The rise of the institutionalist school of economics, in the 1910s and 1920s, has recently been given the historical attention it deserves. However, historical studies of the school have left two questions unanswered. First, to what extent was the institutionalist's interest in academic psychology (frequently declared in their meta-economic writings) realized in their economic writings? Second, what evidence of a fruitful collaboration with institutional economics can be found in the work of psychologists? In this paper I consider the meta-economic statements of three key institutionalists, Wesley C. Mitchell, John M. Clark, and Walton H. Hamilton, and two key economic works by Mitchell and Clark. I contend that these works show little systematic engagement of academic psychology. A study of psychological literature of the period yields the same conclusion; in particular, industrial psychology did not come into fruitful contact with institutional economics, despite the parallel interests of the two fields and their parallel rise after World War I., (Copyright 2010 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.)

Water claims in many of the world's arid basins exceed reliable supplies. Water demands for irrigation, urban use, the environment, and energy continue to grow, while supplies remain constrained by unsustainable use, drought and impacts of climate change. For example, policymakers in North America's Upper Rio Grande Basin face the challenge of designing plans for allocating the basin's water supplies efficiently and fairly to support current uses and current environments. Managers also seek resilient institutions that can ensure adequate supplies for future generations. This paper addresses those challenges by designing and applying an integrated basin-scale framework that accounts for the basin's most important hydrologic, economic, and institutional constraints. Its unique contribution is a quantitative analysis of three policies for addressing long term goals for the basin's reservoirs and aquifers: (1) no sustainability for water stocks, (2) sustaining water stocks, and (3) renewing water stocks. It identifies water use and allocation trajectories over time that result from each of these three plans. Findings show that it is hydrologically and institutionally feasible to manage the basin's water supplies sustainably. The economic cost of protecting the sustainability of the basin's water stocks can be achieved at 6-11 percent of the basin's average annual total economic value of water over a 20 year time horizon. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The rising prominence of intra-industry trade and huge multinationals has transformed the way economists think about the gains from trade. In the past, we focused on gains that stemmed either from endowment differences (wheat for iron ore) or inter-industry comparative advantage (David Ricardo's classic example of cloth for port). Today, we focus on three sources of gains from trade: 1) love-of-variety gains associated with intra-industry trade; 2) allocative efficiency gains associated with shifting labor and capital out of small, less-productive firms and into large, more-productive firms; and 3) productive efficiency gains associated with trade-induced innovation. This paper reviews these three sources of gains from trade both theoretically and empirically. Our empirical evidence will be centered on the experience of Canada following its closer economic integration in 1989 with the United States-the largest example of bilateral intra-industry trade in the world-but we will also describe evidence for other countries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• An outlook toward the cullet collection, marketing, and applications was provided. • Several cullet end markets from construction to ceramics industries were discussed. • Restricting cullet landfilling applications should be encouraged by governments. • Selecting a dual-stream system makes cullet processing stage more cost-effective. • Developing stable high-demand markets benefits both end consumers and recyclers. Waste glass cullet (WGC) recovered from almost all waste streams is contaminated with mixed-color sources of variable compositions. Consequently, over 60% of the cullet is discarded in landfills in North America. The present work provides an overview of the potential end markets for the cullet with a focus on collection systems, marketing strategies, safety and environmental issues as well as the economics of the target applications. Cullet can find major applications in construction industry as a substitute to natural aggregates integrated with different proportions of concrete to build pavements, and roads Cullet could be widely used in different applications due to its desirable physical, mechanical, and chemical properties. This makes cullet an appropriate alternative for natural resources. Although various applications discussed in this paper have well-established markets, low proportion of cullet has been implemented in those applications. This could be attributed to the higher preprocessing cost of cullet compared to the natural aggregates. Different measures are required by the governments to continue to develop the potential post-consumer markets for recycled cullet such as encouraging recycling of WGC and restricting the use of landfilling activities for WGC. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]