Strategic Framing in Contracts Contracts under hidden action

Abstract We provide a model of the principal-agent relationship with hidden action where the agent thinks in terms of gains and losses with respect to a reference point. A loss averse agent's reference point is the fixed payment that he receives, the gains and losses are respectively any bonuses or penalties. When choosing the net payment for each outcome produced by the agent, the principal takes into account that the base wage chosen determines the agent's reference point, and therefore his behaviour. We consider two variants of the model. In a first variant, the agent's reservation utility is not reference-dependent. We show that the principal always employs bonuses in this case. In a second variant, the reservation utility is reference-dependent. In this case, the principal may also use penalties

Dix ans de pratique CLIL en Belgique multilingue. Un résumé des résultats d'apprentissage

III Colloquium on Semi-Immersion in CataloniaIII Encuentro sobre Semi-Inmersión en CataluñaSince 1998, CLIL is an official learning and teaching approach for primary schools in French-speaking Belgium. In 2001 a number of Dutch-speaking schools in Brussels followed this example. This paper traces the practice of CLIL in these two areas and discusses a number of research issues. In the first part the political issues regarding the implementation of CLIL are addressed. It is shown how feelings toward this approach differ throughout the country and why this is the case. In the second part, the practice of CLIL is examined. A number of schools teach as much as 70% of the curriculum in the target language, while others limit themselves to 20%. The didactic consequences of the different approaches are examined. Among the problems addressed are the questions (1) whether it is desirable or not that in the development of pupils' linguistic skills, at a certain point in their development, the target language turns out to be the best language? and (2) whether or not it is desirable that reading starts in the target language rather than in the first one? In the third part the six tenets used by our research group are discussed. These are: (1) knowledge of the target language, (2) knowledge of the mother tongue, (3) knowledge of subject-matter, (4) attitudes and motivation, (5) cognitive development and (6) neuroscientific aspects of the brain of bilinguals. The results indicate that CLIL is a powerful learning approach that goes far beyond language knowledge and development but reaches out to cognitive and neuroscientific aspects as well. This leads us to think of CLIL as a really innovative approach not only to language education but to education in general

TALAT Lecture 5201: Aluminium Surface Pretreatment

This lecture gives an overview of the various pretreatment methods prior to surface treatment of aluminium; it aims at learning about the important parameters and the mechanisms causing surface alterations. Some knowledge of the surface properties, the metallurgy and the electrochemistry of aluminium and familiarity with the subject matter covered in TALAT This lectures 5101- 5105 is assumed.

TALAT Lecture 5102: Reactivity of the Aluminium Surface in Aqueous Solutions

This lecture provides better understanding of the electrochemistry of aluminium; it gives an introduction to the other lectures. Some knowledge in aluminium metallurgy, simple chemistry (thermodynamics and kinetics), electricity and general electrochemistry is assumed.

aluMATTER: Surface Properties of Aluminium

A selection of interactive Flash movies from the award-winning aluMATTER website available to download, which deals with the optical response of aluminium surfaces, and explains how it is related to compositional and morphological surface features.