How can exploratory learning with games and simulations within the curriculum be most effectively evaluated?

There have been few attempts to introduce frameworks that can help support tutors evaluate educational games and simulations that can be most effective in their particular learning context and subject area. The lack of a dedicated framework has produced a significant impediment for uptake of games and simulations particularly in formal learning contexts. This paper aims to address this shortcoming by introducing a four-dimensional framework for helping tutors to evaluate the potential of using games- and simulation- based learning in their practice, and to support more critical approaches to this form of games and simulations. The four-dimensional framework is applied to two examples from practice to test its efficacy and structure critical reflection upon practice

A survey of simulation techniques in commerce and defence

Despite the developments in Modelling and Simulation (M&S) tools and techniques over the past years, there has been a gap in the M&S research and practice in healthcare on developing a toolkit to assist the modellers and simulation practitioners with selecting an appropriate set of techniques. This study is a preliminary step towards this goal. This paper presents some results from a systematic literature survey on applications of M&S in the commerce and defence domains that could inspire some improvements in the healthcare. Interim results show that in the commercial sector Discrete-Event Simulation (DES) has been the most widely used technique with System Dynamics (SD) in second place. However in the defence sector, SD has gained relatively more attention. SD has been found quite useful for qualitative and soft factors analysis. From both the surveys it becomes clear that there is a growing trend towards using hybrid M&S approaches

Learning in a Landscape: Simulation-building as Reflexive Intervention

This article makes a dual contribution to scholarship in science and technology studies (STS) on simulation-building. It both documents a specific simulation-building project, and demonstrates a concrete contribution to interdisciplinary work of STS insights. The article analyses the struggles that arise in the course of determining what counts as theory, as model and even as a simulation. Such debates are especially decisive when working across disciplinary boundaries, and their resolution is an important part of the work involved in building simulations. In particular, we show how ontological arguments about the value of simulations tend to determine the direction of simulation-building. This dynamic makes it difficult to maintain an interest in the heterogeneity of simulations and a view of simulations as unfolding scientific objects. As an outcome of our analysis of the process and reflections about interdisciplinary work around simulations, we propose a chart, as a tool to facilitate discussions about simulations. This chart can be a means to create common ground among actors in a simulation-building project, and a support for discussions that address other features of simulations besides their ontological status. Rather than foregrounding the chart's classificatory potential, we stress its (past and potential) role in discussing and reflecting on simulation-building as interdisciplinary endeavor. This chart is a concrete instance of the kinds of contributions that STS can make to better, more reflexive practice of simulation-building.Comment: 37 page

Combining microsimulation with CGE and macro modelling for distributional analysis in developing and transition countries

This paper overviews recent work that has attempted to bring together microsimulation, Computable General Equilibrium (CGE) and macro models to perform distributional analysis in developing and transition countries. Particular attention is paid to applications relating to aspects of economic growth and political economy. Applications in which macro, CGE and microsimulation models are either layered or integrated are considered. It is demonstrated that different combinations of such models, including those where only a single model-type is used, are appropriate for different problems. For short-run impact analysis, microsimulation on its own may be appropriate. For longer-run analyses, where interest is in the interrelationship between changes in disposable income, consumption and labour supply, these models need to be supplemented a combination of microsimulation on the one hand, and general equilibrium price changes or changes in macro variables on the other hand. In the case of national subregions, or countries embedded in free-trade areas, it is argued that microsimulation may adequately be combined with pure macro models. That is, CGE modelling may not be necessary. For distinct national economies, however, the first step beyond microsimulation should likely be integration with CGE modelling. Whilst much promising work has been undertaken on dynamic integrated CGE microsimulation work in developing countries, CGE work is most advanced for Less Developed Countries. At present several groups of development researchers are found to be putting these two approaches together, and in some cases are adding macroeconomic and financial modelling as well. In contrast, with a few conspicuous exceptions, little such work is being done for the transition economies.CGE; political economy; growth

Scaling up infrastructure spending in the Philippines: A CGE top-down bottom-up microsimulation approach

In this paper we use a top-down bottom-up CGE microsimulation model with endogenous labour supply and unemployment to explore the impact of scaling up infrastructure spending in the Philippines. In the current debate on the importance of scaling up infrastructure to stimulate growth, some analysts raise concerns about potential negative macroeconomic impacts (Dutch disease). This study aims to provide some insight into this debate by extending the analysis to include distributional analysis. We draw from the infrastructure productivity literature to postulate positive productive externalities of new infrastructure and from Fay and Yepes (2003) to include operating and maintenance costs associated with new infrastructure. We investigate two fiscal tools and foreign aid as mechanisms to fund the new infrastructure and associated costs. The distributional analysis is performed with FGT indices and growth incidence curves. Our results reveal that infrastructure spending reduces poverty. Foreign aid is shown to be the most equitable funding mechanism, whereas a value added tax provides the strongest poverty reduction.Investment externalities, infrastructure, foreign aid, fiscal reforms, poverty, CGE, microsimulation.

Building capacity in climate change policy analysis and negotiation: methods and technologies

Capacity building is often cited as the reason “we cannot just pour money into developing countries” and why so many development projects fail because their design does not address local conditions. It is therefore a key technical and political concept in international development. Some of the poorest countries in the world are also some of the most vulnerable to the impacts of climate change. Their vulnerability is in part due to a lack of capacity to plan and anticipate the effects of climate change on crops, water resources, urban electricity demand etc. What capacities do these countries lack to deal with climate change? How will they cope? What steps can they take to reduce their vulnerability? This innovative and high-profile research project was part of a larger project (called C3D) and conducted with non-governmental organisations in Senegal, South Africa and Sri Lanka. The research involved several participatory workshops and a questionnaire to all three research centres

Linked lives: the utility of an agent-based approach to modelling partnership and household formation in the context of social care

The UK’s population is aging, which presents a challenge as older people are the primary users of health and social care services. We present an agent-based model of the basic demographic processes that impinge on the supply of, and demand for, social care: namely mortality, fertility, health-status transitions, internal migration, and the formation and dissolution of partnerships and households. Agent-based modeling is used to capture the idea of “linked lives” and thus to represent hypotheses that are impossible to express in alternative formalisms. Simulation runs suggest that the per-taxpayer cost of state-funded social care could double over the next forty years. A key benefit of the approach is that we can treat the average cost of state-funded care as an outcome variable, and examine the projected effect of different sets of assumptions about the relevant social processes

Energy demand models for policy formulation : a comparative study of energy demand models

This paper critically reviews existing energy demand forecasting methodologies highlighting the methodological diversities and developments over the past four decades in order to investigate whether the existing energy demand models are appropriate for capturing the specific features of developing countries. The study finds that two types of approaches, econometric and end-use accounting, are used in the existing energy demand models. Although energy demand models have greatly evolved since the early 1970s, key issues such as the poor-rich and urban-rural divides, traditional energy resources, and differentiation between commercial and non-commercial energy commodities are often poorly reflected in these models. While the end-use energy accounting models with detailed sector representations produce more realistic projections compared with the econometric models, they still suffer from huge data deficiencies especially in developing countries. Development and maintenance of more detailed energy databases, further development of models to better reflect developing country context, and institutionalizing the modeling capacity in developing countries are the key requirements for energy demand modeling to deliver richer and more reliable input to policy formulation in developing countries.Energy Production and Transportation,Energy Demand,Environment and Energy Efficiency,Energy and Environment,Economic Theory&Research

Microsimulation, CGE and Macro Modelling for Transition and Developing Economies

microsimulation, computable general equilibrium, development, transition

Predicting the poverty impacts of trade reform

An important area of research in recent years involves assessing the microeconomic implications of macro-level policies-particularly those related to international trade. While a wide range of research methodologies are available for assessing the microeconomic incidence of micro-policies, as well as for assessing the effect of macro-level policies on markets and broad groups of households, there is a gap when it comes to eliciting the disaggregated household and firm level effects of trade policies. Recent research addresses this knowledge gap and the present survey offers an overview of this literature. The preponderance of the evidence from the studies encompassed by this survey points to the dominance of earnings-side effects over consumption-side effects of trade reform. This is problematic, since household surveys are notable for their underreporting of income. From the perspective of the poor, it is the market for unskilled labor that is most important. The poverty effects of trade policy often hinge crucially on how well the increased demand for labor in one part of the economy is transmitted to the rest of the economy by way of increased wages, increased employment, or both. Further econometric research aimed at discriminating between competing factor mobility hypotheses is urgently needed.Health Economics&Finance,Environmental Economics&Policies,Economic Theory&Research,Labor Policies,Payment Systems&Infrastructure,Environmental Economics&Policies,Economic Theory&Research,Poverty Assessment,Achieving Shared Growth,Health Economics&Finance