Designing a study aid for an ESP course: English for joiners

The aim of the MA thesis is to analyse the designing of an ESP course and to design sample units for the joiners of the Tartu Vocational Education Centre. The present research project is vital as there is a need for study materials for joiners. Students learn vocational language alongside general English. The vocational English language is also called English for Specific Purposes or English for Special Purposes (ESP). The thesis has the following objectives: • To provide a short introduction to “English for specific purposes – ESP” • Research how to design a course of English for specific purposes; • To create sample teaching materials for ESP classes in Tartu Vocational Education Centre.http://www.ester.ee/record=b4678068*es

Saving and loan associations vs. commercial banks in Estonia: Responses to the financial crisis

The aim of the paper is to analyze the development of the Estonian credit and saving market, especially considering the sector of households and non-financial corporations, in order to reveal the potential of saving and loan association (SLA) to enhance the economic and social development outside of the main economic centers of Estonia. We show that the SLAs and commercial banks have developed differently during the latest years, with cut-backs in the amount of issued loans by the commercial banks, while the SLAs have increased their corresponding activity. The period of analysis is 2004-2014, as the data for the SLAs is only available since 2004. Moreover, the period covers the pre-crisis period of loan boom triggered by the commercial banks, as well as the crisis itself. We rely on the data of the Bank of Estonia. Unfortunately, only consolidated data is available, such that it is not possible to analyze the regional distribution of the issued loans. The developments in the loans issued by the financial institutions as well as deposits with them are discussed in the context of changed legal environment and general economic situation. Though the share of loans issued by the SLAs is still tiny in Estonia, it cannot be concluded that their total contribution to the economic development of rural areas is significant. However, in light of the recent fast growth in the deposits and loans by the SLAs, their relevance is expected to increase in the future. This is especially the case if they manage to take over the niche left by the commercial banks that have closed down their offices in small towns

The effects of regional subsidies to the spatial distribution of economic activity and welfare in the constructed capital model

The paper asks whether subsidies aiming to redistribute economic activity across regions can be justified with the welfare argument. Moreover, different tax systems are compared with respect to the size of the subsidy needed for achieving a certain spatial distribution of economic activity, and achievable welfare level. The constructed capital model with two regions is chosen as the underlying model, with the regions interpreted as parts of one country. Until now only a little attention has been paid to policy and welfare issues in the NEG literature. It is known that the results of a political intervention meant for increasing welfare could instead decrease it. The paper shows that with an appropriate tax system the adverse effects of subsidies can at least be alleviated. A proportional subsidy to capital increases the overall capital stock, enabling to draw utility from a wider variety of goods. However, the regional effects are different: compared to the no-subsidy case, the subsidized region can enjoy a larger share of locally produced and thus, cheaper goods, while the non-subsidized region has to import more. Moreover, when the subsidy is financed by a uniform income tax, all economic agents bear the tax burden and might face a welfare decrease. If the subsidy is financed by collecting taxes only from the subsidised region, the residents in the non-subsidised region are not hurt by the income loss, but they still lose due to higher price index. The residents of the subsidised region have to give up more of their income for financing the subsidy. Thus, in both cases the net effects are unclear, depending on the values of parameters and the level of trade costs. The Rawlsian and utilitarian welfare function, and the compensated Pareto criterion are applied for welfare analysis. According to the first two concepts the policy can be welfare increasing. The analysis of a potential Pareto improvement through a compensation shows that mostly it is not possible to set a preference order over the policy and no-policy case. However, over some range of trade costs a welfare improvement is possible

Regional inequality and economic growth: interactions of the relationship with the level of economic development and speed of growth

The interaction of inequality and growth and the direction of causality in this relationship have been an extensively discussed topic with several questions but without clear answers both in the theoretical and empirical literature. The current paper contributes mainly into the new economic geography (NEG) literature by focusing on the member states of the European Union. The purpose of the paper is to shed light on the effect of the economic development level and speed of growth on the relationship between economic growth and regional inequality. The research hypothesis of a significant interrelation between regional inequality and economic growth is discussed based on the models of NEG. The empirical part of the paper relies on the regional data of the 27 European Union member states at the classification level NUTS 3 over the period 1996 - 2006. The results of the empirical analysis allow us to conclude that regional inequality has a pro-cyclical character: regional inequality is as a rule higher in countries and time periods when economic growth is faster. However, this relationship varied between the countries of the EU-27 during the period under observation, depending on the development level. While in the Western European countries regional inequality and economic growth are negatively related, in the Eastern European countries regional inequality increases in the periods of fast economic growth. Relying on the NEG models, such differences can be explained by a different weight of internal and foreign markets in trade relations of countries and regions. Possibly the result also refers to disparities in congestion costs in Western and Eastern European core regions. We conclude that growth enhancing policy measures should be implemented at a different regional scale, depending on the level of economic development and growth of the countries. Growth supporting policies in poor countries should first of all concentrate on achieving sustainable national growth, not on reducing regional disparities

Cheating in Europe: underreporting of self-employment income in comparative perspective

Various national studies have used the expenditure method (Pissarides and Weber in J Public Econ 39(1):17–32, 1989) to estimate income underreporting by the self-employed relative to the wage earners. Within Europe, the studies mostly consider the UK or individual Nordic countries, while no data are available for most Southern European and Eastern European countries. This paper is the first to apply the expenditure method to a large number of EU countries using harmonised microdata and a common model specification to enhance cross-country comparability. We extend the number of countries studied using the expenditure method and contribute to the scarce comparative literature on tax non-compliance in general. Our estimates show substantial variation in income underreporting across countries, from under 10% to more than 40% of self-employed household income on average. The shares of underreporting do not appear to be related to the development level of the countries

Why East Germany Did Not Become a New Mezzogiorno

Economic integration is generally thought to favour convergence in the economic performance of previously separated regions; but this is far from universally true, as the experience of the members of the Eurozone testifies. The paper considers the two sharply contrasting cases of East and West German convergence following reunification and the enduring poverty of the Italian Mezzogiorno since Italian unification a century and a half ago. In both countries, political integration delivers much higher consumption in the lagging relative to the leading region than of per capita GDP. Consumption convergence can be supported by transfers but ‘production’ convergence ultimately requires catch-up in the production of tradeables. The paper demonstrates the radically different performance of the tradeable sector in the two cases, and suggests that this may be the result of differences in labour market flexibility, in investment performance and in the social norms required for the production of complex manufacturing

Translation of the New Testament during Swedish rule: manuscripts, translators and Estonian literary language

Väitekirja elektrooniline versioon ei sisalda publikatsioone.Väitekirjas käsitletakse eesti piiblitõlke ja eesti kirjakeele ajaloo aspekte 17. sajandi keskpaigast kuni tallinnakeelse Uue Testamendi ilmumiseni 1715. aastal. Töö koosneb seitsmest artiklist: kahes on käsitletud Tartus Ajalooarhiivis hoiul olevaid Uue Testamendi käsikirju, mida varem polnud süstemaatiliselt uuritud. Kaks artiklit on pühendatud 1680. aastate lõpus ja 1690. aastate algul eesti keele üle peetud diskussioonidele. Ülejäänud kolmes artiklis on käsitletud teemaga seotud üksikküsimusi: Heinrich Gösekeni sõnaraamatu koostamise põhimõtteid, kuningas Karl XI poolt 1680. aastate algul eestikeelse Uue Testamendi tõlkimise ja trükkimise kohta antud korraldusi ning tartukeelse kirikukirjanduse väljaandja Adrian Virginiuse autobiograafiat. Allikate kriitiline analüüs ja detailuuring on võimaldanud ümber lükata mõned senistes uurimustes levinud ekslikud seisukohad ning käibesse tuua uusi allikaid, mis seni pole uurijate tähelepanu pälvinudThe thesis concentrates on the history of Estonian Bible translation and literary language from the mid-17th century to the publication of the New Testament in Tallinn language in 1715. The thesis includes seven articles: two articles analyse the manuscripts of the New Testament in the Estonian Historical Archives that previously have not been studied systematically. Two articles are dedicated to Estonian language discussions from the end of 1680s and the beginning of 1690s. Three remaining articles cover individual questions relating to the topic: the principles for compiling Heinrich Göseken’s dictionary, the autobiography of Adrian Virginius, the publisher of church literature in Tartu language, and the orders by Charles XI from the beginning of the 1680s relating to the translation of the New Testament into Estonian and the publishing of the translation. The thesis has successfully applied a critical analysis and detailed study of sources thereby enabling to refute some opinions that have prevailed in previous studies and bring to light new sources that until now have passed unnoticed

Regionaalpoliitika heaoluefektid konstrueeritud kapitali mudelis

Regional issues have recently received a lot of attention by economists, especially the case of the EU where regional inequalities are expected to increase in the course of deepening integration. Since the mid-1990s, the discussion of the effects and tools of regional policy relies often on the models of the new economic geography (NEG), which also predict an increase of regional disparities in response to decreases in trade costs. The dissertation aims to evaluate the desirability of regional policies from the viewpoint of the society as a whole based on the constructed capital model with asymmetric regions. In reviewing the models of NEG, it is concluded that they are applicable for policy relevant analysis as the results hold over a wide variety of assumptions and there is empirical evidence for their relevance in the real world. Further it is argued that the objectives of regional policy are often unclear in practice, though justified with reducing inequality and improving efficiency. Also based on the NEG regional policies can be justified with both of these arguments as the spatial distribution of economic activities achieved as the market outcome might not correspond to the socially preferred one. In spite of that, the ways of achieving a specific spatial distribution of economic activities has not gained sufficient attention in the NEG literature. Finally it is shown that social desirability of a simple policy of subsidising capital and taxing consumption expenditures depends on the underlying welfare concept and that subsidising the richer region instead of the poorer one might be preferred from the viewpoint of the whole society. Policy tools that barely directed to redistribution might not increase social welfare. Therefore, in implementing regional policies caution is needed.Majandusteadlaste huvi regionaalarengu temaatika vastu suurenes 1990. aastate alguses, seda eriti Euroopa Liidus toimuvate integratsiooniprotsesside taustal, kuna arvatakse, et süveneva integratsiooniga kaasneb regionaalse ebavõrdsuse suurenemine. Selline tulemus on omane ka paljudele uue majandusgeograafia (UMG) mudelitele, mida kasutatakse üha enam regionaalarengu küsimuste käsitlemisel. Poliitiliste meetmete mõju ühiskondlikule heaolule on seni neis teoreetilistes mudelites pälvinud siiski vaid vähest tähelepanu. Doktoritöö eesmärgiks on hinnata regionaalpoliitika soovitatavust ühiskonna kui terviku seisukohalt, tuginedes konstrueeritud kapitali mudelile. UMG mudelite ülevaatest järeldub, et nende tulemused ei sõltu oluliselt analüüsil tehtud eeldustest. UMG mudelite kasutamist rakenduslike küsimuste analüüsiks toetab ka kooskõla majandustegevuse regionaalset paiknemist iseloomustavate andmetega. Sekkumist regionaalarengusse põhjendatakse praktikas nii ebavõrdsuse vähendamise kui ka efektiivsuse parandamise sooviga. Samad argumendid tuuakse välja majandusteoorias turumajanduse protsessidesse sekkumise põhjustena ning on kasutatavad ka UMG mudelites, kuna turulahendina kujunev majandustegevuse regionaalne jaotus e pruugi kattuda ühiskondlikult eelistatavaga. Töös näidatakse, et tarbimismaksuga finantseeritava kapitali tulusust tõstva subsiidiumi rakendamine soovitatavus ühiskonna seisukohalt sõltub kasutatavast heaolukontseptsioonist. Teatud juhtudel võib soovitatavaks osutuda hoopis rikkama regiooni subsideerimine vaesema regiooni asemel. Regionaalpoliitika vahendite valikul tuleb olla ettevaatlik, ainult ümberjagamisele suunatud poliitikad ei pruugi ühiskondlikku heaolu suurendada

CAN WELFARE BE IMPROVED BY RELOCATING FIRMS? THE CASE OF THE CONSTRUCTED CAPITAL MODEL

In the literature of new economic geography several authors have shown that a benevolent social planner would choose a different spatial distribution of economic activity than the one achieved through market forces. So far little has been done to evaluate the welfare effects of specific redistribution policies. This is the main contribution of the paper. We look at two policy schemes: location permits policy and a tax-subsidy policy in the context of the constructed capital model (due to Baldwin 1999). It is shown that with a tax on final consumption expenditures and a capital subsidy there is more room for welfare improvement than under the location permits policy due to increased variety of goods. Nevertheless, relying on the numerical simulations, no situation is possible where the residents of both regions would gain from the policy. Also compensated Pareto improvements are unachievable.