Open Educational Resources and Practices

In the last few years, Open Educational Resources (OER) have gained much attention. From January 2006 to December 2007 the Open e-Learning Content Observatory Services (OLCOS), a project co-funded by the European Commission under the eLearning Programme, explored how OER can make a difference in teaching and learning. The project aimed at promoting OER through different activities and products such as a European OER roadmap and OER tutorials. In this paper we present some results of the roadmap which provides an overview of the OER landscape and describes possible pathways towards a higher level of production, sharing and usage of OER. Moreover, the roadmap provides recommendations on required measures and actions to support decision making at the level of educational policy and institutions.The roadmap emphasises that the knowledge society demands competencies and skills that require innovative educational practices based on open sharing and the evaluation of ideas, fostering creativity and teamwork among the learners. Collaborative creation and sharing among learning communities of OER is regarded as an important catalyst of such educational innovations.The OLCOS project also developed free online tutorials for practitioners. The objective of these tutorials is supporting students and teachers in the creation, re-use and sharing of OER. To promote hands-on work, the tutorials advise on questions such as the following: How to search for OER? Which materials may be re-used and modified? How to produce and license own OER? The tutorials will be accessible and, potentially, will evolve beyond the end of the OLCOS project, because they are published on an open and successful Wiki based platform (Wikieducator.org) and can be updated by anybody.Originally published in eLearning Papers, No 7. ISSN 1887-1542. www.elearningpapers.eu

Domains of application and 'Skopos' of the German Cato translations in the late middle ages

When we look for evidence of multilingualism in the Middle Ages, we will eventually find the type of source which consists of the translation of Latin classroom texts into various vernaculars. Since the high Middle Ages traditional standard works of grammar - dominantly Latin - were translated frequently into vernaculars. A prominent example are the 'Disticha Catonis'. This late antique work contains about 100 hexameter couplets, which convey a multitude of fundamental rules of life and conduct. A linguistically rather simple work, it was precisely for that reason all the more effective

Fiscal crises in US cities: Structural and non-structural causes

Financial difficulties of U.S. cities have recently become a major issue of concern. However, there is little agreement on why certain cities experience crises while others do not. Two arguments are put forward: Cities suffer from (1) structural problems like high immigration, congestion etc. (2) nonstructural political problems like the weakness of the mayor, union-power etc. Starting from a common pool model of municipal goods we estimate demand equations for spending and debt with structural variables. The estimation is based on 900 US cities in 1985, 1991 and 1999. Structural factors predicted by the model explain most of the variation of spending and debt levels. Furthermore coefficients are stable over time. However, excessively high debt burdens as indicators of potential crisis, and high spending levels are outliers and not explained by structural factors. --

Challenges for the euro area and implications for Latvia

This Policy Contribution reviews the major challenges faced by the euro area, and discusses recent initiatives and the way forward. Some implications are drawn out for Latviaâ??s euro accession, which is likely to be beneficial on balance. The euro area faces three major challenges: (1) high private and public debt in some of its parts together with a requirement for competitiveness adjustment that in some countries has barely started; (2) weak growth outlook; (3) continued banking-sector fragility that, with sovereign stress, feeds a negative feedback loop. The euro area has agreed many significant measures to overcome these problems, including the European Stability Mechanism and the fiscal compact. The 21 February agreement on Greece removes a major source of financial instability even though it is likely that further debt reductions will be needed. Significant concerns remain, the most important of which are the slow real economic adjustment and the largely unaddressed banking-sovereign fragility. The fiscal compact raises the issue of appropriate fiscal stabilisation tools at the euro-area level. Countries that will soon join the euro should actively shape the debate about the further development of the overall set-up. For Latvia, joining the euro makes sense because Latvia has kept its exchange rate fixed and has undergone internal adjustment. In its euro-area accession negotiations, Latvia should ensure that it does not participate in any of the currently ongoing financial assistance programmes. This Policy Contribution reproduces evidence given by Guntram B. Wolff to the Latvian parliamentâ??s European affairs committee, 22 February 2012.

The Euro area's macroeconomic balancing act

The European Systemic Risk Board (ESRB) and the proposed prevention and correction of macroeconomic imbalances regulation (EIP) are designed to avoid imbalances. However, these instruments overlap, and need clarification. Both the ESRB and the Commission, which is given certain powers by the EIP, must identify and act early on risks. Acting in the face of strong economic and political pressure is difficult. Complementing the current approach with transparent and rules-based mechanisms will reduce this problem. The EIP and ESRB can complement each other in terms of analysis and policy, and close collaboration will be vital. The EIP regulation can be used to ensure that ESRB recommendations are followed up. In the area of financial recommendations relevent to macroeconomic imbalances, the Commission should have a more formal requirement to act on ESRB recommendations. The EIP regulation would benefit from a clause allowing recommendations to be addressed not only to member states. Conflicts between the ESRB and Commission could arise. In this case, the Treaty requires the Commission to issue a recommendation even if the ESRB issues a negative finding. Legally, it might not be possible to exclude the use by the Commission of confidential information obtained in the ESRB.

Is recent bank stress really driven by the sovereign debt crisis?

Stress in the interbank market has increased dramatically since July and bank stock market valuation has fallen by 22 percent on average for 60 of the most important banks tested in the EBA stress tests. I find evidence that bank stock valuation is significantly and economically meaningfully affected by the bankâ??s exposure to Greek debt. Greek banks are particularly affected. Holdings of debt of the other four periphery countries does not however appear to be a strong determinant of stock price movements. Policy announcements of 21 July of no haircut on any sovereign but Greece appear to be perceived as credible. The exposure to Greece cannot explain the general and large decline in euro area banksâ?? market cap. Instead, a general confidence crisis of the euro area banking system, or more deeply the euro area construction, might be driving the fall in stock prices. The summit of 23 October should focus on restoring confidence in euro-area policymakersâ?? ability and determination to put the euro area on a sound footing. Recapitalisation of banks can only be only one aspect. A credible solution to Greece and a way forward for the larger institutional set-up, including a federal fiscal back-stop of the banking system, are of at least equal importance.

Measuring tax burdens in Europe

This paper calculates effective macro-economic tax rates for the 25 EU countries following the methodology developed in Mendoza, Razin, and Tesar (1994). The available Eurostat data allow to compute the tax wedge on consumption, labor and capital. We show that effective tax rates in the 10 new member states of the EU are on average 10 percentage points lower on labor, and 5 percentage points lower on capital and consumption. There is no tendency of convergence in effective tax burdens on capital. The newly computed tax rates are in line with the effective tax rates of the EU Commission for EU 15. Effective tax rates on capital are only weakly connected to statutory tax rates on corporate income. As they are calculated from macroeconomic data they provide only limited information on the actual tax burdens of individual corporations or households. --Effective tax,Europe

Should non-euro area countries join the single supervisory mechanism?

Irrespective of the euro crisis, a European banking union makes sense, including for non-euro area countries, because of the extent of European Union financial integration. The Single Supervisory Mechanism (SSM) is the first element of the banking union. From the point of view of non-euro countries, the draft SSM regulation as amended by the EU Council includes strong safeguards relating to decision-making, accountability, attention to financial stability in small countries and the applicability of national macroprudential measures. Non-euro countries will also have the right to leave the SSM and thereby exempt themselves from a supervisory decision. The SSM by itself cannot bring the full benefits of the banking union, but would foster financial integration, improve the supervision of cross-border banks, ensure greater consistency of supervisory practices, increase the quality of supervision, avoid competitive distortions and provide ample supervisory information. While the decision to join the SSM is made difficult by uncertainty surrounding other elements of the banking union, including possible burden sharing, we conclude that non-euro EU members should stand ready to join the SSM and be prepared for negotiations on the other elements of the banking union

Fool the Markets? Creative Accounting, Fiscal Transparency and Sovereign Risk Premia

We investigate the effects of official fiscal data and creative accounting signals on interest rate spreads between bond yields in the European Union. Our model predicts that risk premia contained in government bond spreads should increase in both the official fiscal position and the expected “creative” part of fiscal policy. The relative importance of these two signals depends on the transparency of the country. Greater transparency reduces risk premia. The empirical results confirm the hypotheses. Creative accounting increases the spread. The increase of the risk premium is stronger if financial markets are unsure about the true extent of creative accounting. Fiscal transparency reduces risk premia.risk premia, government bond yields, creative accounting, stock-flow adjustments, gimmickry, transparency