Population Aging, Social Security, and the New Immigration Policy in Germany

I construct a heterogeneous agent overlapping generations model with agents differing in age, origin (immigrant or native), and working ability. Calibrating the model to the German economy, I explicitly take into account differences in inter-generational transmission of working ability, fertility, and the main features of the German social security and tax systems. I analyze the impacts of exogenous immigration policy changes on the evolution of population, government accounts, and welfare along the transition path. I find that an inflow of high-skilled immigrants that is equal to 0.2 percent of the population per year increases welfare for all types of agents on the new balanced growth path (by 2.8 to 0.1 percent depending on the type of the agent). The key to the results is the interaction between the German pension system, equilibrium prices, and the decline in pensioner-contributor ratio. My results show that a reasonable immigrant inflow (0.2 percent of the population per year) may increase welfare and reinforce the sustainability of the social security system, which is in contrast to Fehr, Jokisch, and Kotlikoff (2004).International Migration, Social Security, Aging, Overlapping, Generations Model

1680-1747 Ottoman Budgets and Deficits Sustainability in a Period of Fiscal Transition: Wars and Administrative Changes

This paper studies the sustainability of the Ottoman budget for the period from 1680 to 1747, during different sultanates and war eras. Moreover, we investigate whether the relationship between government revenues and expenditures changes in the period of culus. The empirical evidence gathered in this paper suggests that during the sample period, except for the sultanate era of Mahmut I, the Ottoman budget was not sustainable. The other interesting result of the study is that culus payments had a significant tax increasing effect. Moreover, the distribution of culus deteriorated the sustainability of budget.Budget sustainability, Structural factors, Ottoman Empire

Electrospinning Functional Polyacrylonitrile Nanofibers with Polyaniline, Carbon Nanotubes, and Silver Nitrate as Additives

Electrospinning of composite nanofibers has been attracting great attention as a way of producing functional nanofibers. Composite nanofibers are produced with the incorporation of the additives into the polymer melt/solution before electrospinning process and reported to show many superior properties such as high modulus, increased strength, improved thermal stability, or some new functionalities such as flame retardancy, antimicrobial properties, water repellency, soil resistance, decreased gas permeability, electromagnetic shielding, electrical conductivity, and so on. The availability of the wide range of additives makes it possible to produce a wide range of functional nanocomposite nanofibers that are promising for various applications. Polyaniline (PANI) as an inherently conductive polymer is being investigated as an additive for improving conductivity. Carbon nanotubes (CNT) are widely used for either their reinforcement ability or their superior electrical conductivity. Silver nanoparticles (AgNPs) are being incorporated into polymer matrices to obtain antibacterial activity. This chapter provides a comprehensive review about polyacrylonitrile (PAN) nanofibers with PANI, CNTs, AgNPs, and their combinations and highlights the synergistic effects obtained by their combined use

AN INVESTIGATION OF PRESERVICE TEACHERS’ LIFE SKILLS IN TERMS OF VARIOUS VARIABLES

This study aims to investigate whether preservice teachers’ opinion about perspectives on life skills vary by gender, undergraduate program and grade level. It is a survey study. A total of 460preservice teachers from the preschool education and classroom education departments of the Educational Faculty of Afyon Kocatepe University constituted the participants. The Life Skills Scale developed by Bolat and Balaman (2017) was used to collect the data. The scale consists of 30 five-point Likert-type items. The scale has five dimensions: coping with stress and emotions, showing empathy and self-awareness, decision making and problem solving, creative and critical thinking, and communication and interpersonal relationships. Bolat and Balaman (2017) found a Cronbach's alpha coefficient of .90 for the scale. This study also found a Cronbach's alpha internal consistency of .90 for its sample. The data were analyzed using SPSS software. The one-group Kolmogorov-Smirnov test was used to analyze the distribution of the data, and the coefficients of skewness were examined. Since the dataset had a normal distribution, parametric tests were used. The unpaired t-test was used to determine whether the preservice teachers’ perspectives on life skills vary by gender and undergraduate program. The one-way ANOVA test was used to determine whether their perspectives on life skills vary by grade level. The preservice teachers thought that they had the most creative and critical thinking skills. Compared to their male counterparts, the female preservice teachers had more positive perspectives about showing empathy and self-awareness. The preservice teachers’ ability to cope with stress and emotions decrease as their grade level increases.  Article visualizations

The Kalai-Smorodinsky Bargaining Solution Manipulated by Pre-Donations is Concessionary

This study examines the manipulability of simple n-person bargaining problems by pre-donations where the Kalai-Smorodinsky solution is operant. We extend previous results on the manipulation of two-person bargaining problems to the n-person case and show that in a world where a prebargaining stage is instituted in which the bargainers may unilaterally alter the bargaining problem, bargainers with greater ideal payoffs transform the bargaining set into one on which the Kalai- Smorodinsky solution distributes payoffs in accordance with the Concessionary division rule of disputed property.Bargaining Solutions, Pre-donation, Kalai-Smorodinsky

On the Quality of FFO Forecasts

This paper is the first attempt to provide an objective assessment of the quality of real estate funds from operations (FFO) forecasts. The work, which looks past the more primitive question concerning the appropriate measure for real estate earnings, quantifies and tests the quality of real estate investment trust (REIT) FFO forecasts relative to the net income forecasts of several comparison groups. The results show the high quality of REIT forecasts are remarkably robust and are not driven by the level of analyst attention. Investors in a post-Enron and Sarbanes-Oxley era may find the implications for high quality forecasts of real estate earning to be an appealing investment concept.

Search, Moral Hazard, and Price Dispersion

We study the effects of insurance coverage on consumer search behavior and the pricing of services covered by insurance, constructing a general equilibrium model of moral hazard in search with an endogenous price distribution. When an insured event occurs, households request quotes from firms, who offer a homogenous service at various prices. We show that lower coinsurance rates reduce the amount of search by households, allowing firms to increase their prices. Hence, moral hazard in search is far more costly than shown in previous models, which ignored equilibrium firm response to changes in consumer search behavior.

ALBANIAN PERCEPTION OF 1908 REVOLUTION AND ITS EFFECTS ON ALBANIAN NATIONALISM

The Young Turk Revolution of July 1908 marked the return to constitutionalgovernment in the Ottoman Empire. The constitutional movement wanted tomodernize and democratize the empire with a vision of a democratic multi-nationalstate on the one hand and also to preserve what was left of the Empire on the other.Many diverse groups including some of the different ethnic and religiouscommunities gave their supports to this movement hoping that under aconstitutional regime they would gain a grater autonomy /priviliges for their peopleamong whom Albanians were the first group to join the constitutional movementand many of them participated in the Young Turk uprisingThe Young Turk Revolution in almost all respects failed to fulfill what it promised.The promised democracy and decentralization and also racial-harmony andequality and participation in the state by all ethnic groups were abandoned whenYoung Turk leaders realized that this compromised security. The authoritarian andcentralized nature of the government and its attempt to impose a single identity oneveryone led to liberal oppositon of many diverse groups among which theAlbanians saw their future as closely linked with a strengthened, more modernEmpire . Although very much divided in terms of goals, many intellectual Albaniansopposed to the armed struggle that would bring Fearing their end foreignintervention in an era of ethnic Nationalism and irredentist policies of the newlyestablished nation-states in the Balkans. They were involved in an unarmed struggleto achieve cultural autonomy which they perceived as the necessary first steptoward the creation of a national sentiment . This is why Albanian Intellectuals usedall their efforts for the establishment of a more liberal government based on thePrinciples of promised at the beginning of the revolution, which had a vitalexchange of importance for the protection of their nationa

Measurement and assessment in visual art education

Her sanat eğitimi programında, çocuğun programın amaçlarına ulaşıp ulaşmadığını bilmek için ölçme ve değerlendirmeye ihtiyaç duyulmaktadır. Değerlendirme aşaması çocuğun zihinsel, duyuşsal ve sosyal gelişimine katkıda bulunacak önemli bir süreçtir. Çünkü değerlendirme yoluyla sanat etkinliğinin düşünü boyutu harekete geçmekte ve çocuk her seferinde biraz daha ilerleyip yeni düşünme ve uygulama teknikleri geliştirebilmektedir. Görsel sanatlar eğitiminde öğrencinin sanatsal öğrenmesini değerlendirmede kullanılabilecek çeşitli teknikler mevcuttur. Fakat her değerlendirme tekniği sanatsal öğrenmenin farklı boyutlarını ölçmektedir. Öğretmenlerin uygun teknikleri seçebilmeleri için bu farkları bilmeleri gerekmektedir. Bu çalışmada öğrencinin sanatsal öğrenmesini değerlendirmede alternatif değerlendirme tekniklerinin özellikleri, kapsamı, uygulanışı ve değerlendirilmesi üzerine durulmuştur. Böylelikle görsel sanatlar eğitiminde gerçek öğrenme durumlarını ve eksikliklerini belirlemede öğretmenlere yeni bir bakış açısı sağlayacağı düşünülmektedir. Each art education program, it has been needed measurement and assessment to be able to realize whether the child reaches the program’s objectives or not. Assessment stage is an important process which contributes to a child’s mental, affective and social development. Because, intellectual dimension of the art activity activates during the assessment and child can develop his thinking and practicing techniques a little more each time. There are various techniques to be able to assess artistic learning of the student. Nevertheless, in each assessment technique assess different sizes of artistic learning. To be able to choose appropriate techniques, teacher must know the difference among them. In this research, specialty, content, application and evaluation of alternative assessment techniques have been evaluated. In this way it has been thought that this article would be able to provide a new perspective to the art educators about determining real learning ways and shortcoming