Reviving reputation models of international debt

A traditional explanation for why sovereign countries repay debt is that they want to keep a good reputation so they can easily borrow more. This explanation does not hold if a country has access to an adequate means of savings regardless of the country's past actions. With such access, a country gets only transient benefits from maintaining a good relationship with bankers, and such benefits cannot support borrowing. However, if a country is involved in a myriad of trust relationships, the country's reputation can spill over to a nondebt relationship which has enduring benefits. Such a spillover can allow a country's reputation to support a large amount of borrowing.International finance

Reputation spillover across relationships: reviving reputation models of debt

A traditional explanation for why sovereign governments repay debts is that they want to keep good reputations so they can easily borrow more. Bulow and Rogoff show that this argument is invalid under two conditions: (i) there is a single debt relationship, and (ii) regardless of their past actions, governments can earn the (possibly state-contingent) market rate of return by saving abroad. Bulow and Rogoff conjecture that, even under condition (ii), in more general reputation models with multiple relationships and spillover across them, reputation may support debt. This paper shows what is needed for this conjecture to be true.Debt

Self-fulfilling debt crises

We characterize the values of government debt and the debt's maturity structure under which financial crises brought on by a loss of confidence in the government can arise within a dynamic, stochastic general equilibrium model. We also characterize the optimal policy response of the government to the threat of such a crisis. We show that when the country's fundamentals place it inside the crisis zone, the government is motivated to reduce its debt and exit the crisis zone because this leads to an economic boom and a reduction in the interest rate on the government's debt. We show that this reduction may be quite gradual if debt is high or the probability of a crisis is low. We also show that, while lengthening the maturity of the debt can shrink the crisis zone, credibility-inducing policies can have perverse effects.Debt

Cloning in young adult fiction

The purpose of this study was to discover the issues raised about human cloning in young adult fiction. This study determined the themes found in the young adult fiction selected and if those themes reflected issues about human cloning. The questions asked in the study were: 1. Does young adult fiction confront the complexity of ethical issues about human cloning? 2. Do the plots and characters in young adult fiction about cloning provide substance to provoke reader response to the ethical controversies that surround cloning? A thematic analysis was conducted. The researcher read each book and recorded themes that were present. This list of preliminary themes was grouped to create six final themes: Utilitarianism, Exceptionality of Clones, Individuality, The Fight for or Against Control, Dislike or Hatred of Clones, and Justification of Cloning. Both print and electronic resources were used to gather titles of young adult fiction books that dealt with human cloning. This list of titles was compared with WorldCat search results showing the number of OCLC member libraries owning the books. Those books owned by more than 200 libraries were considered. Nineteen books were chosen. Eight titles were removed from the list which left eleven books eligible for the study. The study found that young adult fiction about human cloning did address the ethical issues about the topic that were reported in the news or discussed in research. The books in the study addressed the complexity of the issues to varying degrees. Books that included human cloning as a main part of the story discussed the issues and the complexity of those issues with more detail than those books where human cloning was just an incidental part of the storyline

Improving Teacher Effectiveness In Implementing Comprehensive Health Education

Comprehensive Health Education/Growing Healthy (GH) was not being taught for the required number of hours as was indicated in the pupil progression plan for this community. The objectives of the practicum were to increase the number of trained teachers by 60 percent; thereby increasing the instructional time GH was taught, and to place, and organize all commercial instructional-support materials within the elementary school. The author designed a six-week long training program, conducted an inventory of all GH materials, and color coded all commercial instructional-support materials by phase and grade level. The researcher received administrative support from the school\u27s administration to provide the necessary training program designed to enhance teacher behavior and improve student achievement as indicated by the effective schools research. The results noted that instructional time increased due to the effectiveness of the training program and the success of the organization of the commercial instructional-support materials. The author will share with other elementary health educators the color-coded strategy designed and training opportunities for the Growing Healthy curriculum. Appendices include a teacher survey, the Growing Healthy training program for kindergarten through fifth grade, and sample check lists and results

Evaluating the effectiveness of virtual reality learning in a mining context

UNSW’s Schools of Mining Engineering and Psychology have developed training modules for working at heights in above-ground mines. These modules implement best-available, evidence-based instructional methods combined with a range of immersion. The present paper describes a controlled evaluation of this approach for training novices in the safe operating procedure for a basic maintenance task. All participants received a sequence of instructions using a large-screen, computer-driven visual display accompanied by audio narration in one of three modes: (1) an animated depiction of the target procedure for which the pace of instruction was controlled by the individual participant (Animated + Individual, AI), (2) the same animated depiction but presented to a group with the pace controlled by the trainer (Animated + Group, AG), and (3) a sequence of static slide images presented to a group with trainer pacing (Static + Group, SG).During the training, the participants’ active processing of the information was encouraged by preceding each step of the instruction with a challenge question and feedback. Immediately following the module, the participants were given a multiple-choice test, which was repeated after a one-week retention interval. Across all three modes of presentation, the module yielded a high level of acquisition and retention. Among the three modes of presentation, the AI mode produced the highest level of test performance relative to both the AG and SG modes. When the participants were surveyed regarding their immersion in the virtual environment, they generally reported a moderate level of “presence,” with the animations (AI, AG) producing higher levels than the static images (SG). These positive outcomes provide a foundation for the further development and testing of additional modules combined with different levels of immersion aimed ultimately at economically producing personnel who can safely and proficiently apply their knowledge and skills in real mines