Education and social development current pedagogical trends

The aim of this study is to investigate the role of education on social development in order to understand the dynamic relationship between these two concepts. Current pedagogical trends and their impact on learning and development are analysed. Primary emphasis was placed on raising social responsibility on the part of educators and institutions to raise awareness of the socioeconomic and ethical inequalities issues in the new generations of students. Indications of future work conclude the paper

The quest for banking stability in the euro area: The role of government interventions

We build upon a Markov-Switching Bayesian Vector Autoregression (MSBVAR) model to study how the credit default swaps market in the euro area becomes an important chain in the propagation of shocks through the entire financial system. The study sheds light on the regime-dependent interconnectedness between the risk of investing in banking and public sector bonds and provides novel evidence that a rise in sovereign debt, due to the countercyclical fiscal policy measures, is perceived by stock market investors as a burden on growth prospects. We also document that government interventions in the banking sector deteriorate the credit risk of sovereign debt. Higher risk premium required by investors for holding riskier government bonds depresses the sovereign debt market, it impairs banks’ balance sheets, and it depresses the collateral value of loans leading to bank retrenchment. The ensuing two-way banking-fiscal feedback loop indicates that government interventions do not necessarily stabilize the banking sector

Reaching for Yield and the Diabolic Loop in a Monetary Union

We use the theoretical framework of Acharya and Naqvi (2019) to introduce a macro-financial model where the “reaching for yield” incentivized by a loosening monetary policy in the United States mitigates the diabolic loop in a Monetary Union. We provide empirical evidence that the introduction of an accommodative monetary policy by the Fed lowers the yields in US assets and increases liquidity and, by extension, the threshold above which a liquidity shock can damage a bank. This, in turn, incentivizes bank managers to optimize their portfolios by investing in risky assets. We use a monetary VAR to provide novel empirical evidence that there is an increase in the flow of funds to European assets, a result which can be attributed to the “reaching-for-yield” incentive. This portfolio balance channel attenuates the effects of financial fragility and improves government funding costs as well as credit conditions by providing liquidity to domestic banks and assets. As a result, the “reaching-for-yield” incentive mitigates the diabolic loop effect

Challenges of rapid migration to fully virtual education in the age of the Corona virus pandemic: experiences from across the world

The social disruption caused by the sudden eruption of the Corona Virus pandemic has shaken the whole world, influencing all levels of education immensely. Notwithstanding there was a lack of preparedness for this global public health emergency which continues to affect all aspects of work and life. The problem is, naturally, multifaceted, fast evolving and complex, affecting everyone, threatening our well-being, the global economy, the environment and all societal and cultural norms and our everyday activities. In a recent UNESCO report it is noted that nearly a billion and a quarter (which is 67,7 % of the total number) of learners have been affected by the Corona Virus pandemic worldwide. The education sector at all levels has been one of the hardest hit sectors particularly as the academic/school year was in full swing. The impact of the pandemic is widespread, representing a health hazard worldwide. Being such, it profoundly affects society as a whole, and its members that are, in particular, i) individuals (the learners, their parents, educators, support staff), ii) schools, training organisations, pedagogical institutions and education systems, iii) quickly transformed policies, methods and pedagogies to serve the newly appeared needs of the latter. Lengthy developments of such scale usually take years of consultation, strategic planning and implementation. In addition to raising awareness across the population of the dangers of the virus transmission and instigating total lockdown, it has been necessary to develop mechanisms for continuing the delivery of education as well as demanding mechanisms for assuring the quality of the educational experience and educational results. There is often scepticism about securing quality standards in such a fast moving situation. Often in the recent past, the perception was that courses and degrees leading to an award are inferior if the course modules (and sometimes its assessment components) were wholly online. Over the last three decades most Higher Education institutions developed both considerable infrastructure and knowhow enabling distance mode delivery schools (Primary and Secondary) had hardly any necessary infrastructure nor adequate knowhow for enabling virtual education. In addition, community education and various training providers were mainly delivered face-to-face and that had to either stop altogether or rapidly convert materials, exercises and tests for online delivery and testing. A high degree of flexibility and commitment was demanded of all involved and particularly from the educators, who undertook to produce new educational materials in order to provide online support to pupils and students. Apart from the delivery mode of education, which is serving for certificated programmes, it is essential to ensure that learners’ needs are thoroughly and continuously addressed and are efficiently supported throughout the Coronavirus or any other future lockdown. The latter can be originated by various causes and reasons that vary in nature, such as natural or socioeconomical. Readiness, thus, in addition to preparedness, is the primary key question and solution when it comes to quality education for any lockdown. In most countries, the compulsory primary and secondary education sectors have been facing a more difficult challenge than that faced by Higher Education. The poor or in many cases non-existent technological infrastructure and low technological expertise of the teachers, instructors and parents, make the delivery of virtual education difficult or even impossible. The latter, coupled with phenomena such as social exclusion and digital divide where thousands of households do not have adequate access to broadband Internet, Wi-Fi infrastructure and personal computers hamper the promising and strenuous virtual solutions. The shockwaves of the sudden demands on all sectors of society and on individuals required rapid decisions and actions. We will not attempt to answer the question “Why was the world unprepared for the onslaught of the Coronavirus pandemic” but need to ascertain the level of preparedness and readiness particularly of the education sector, to effect the required rapid transition. We aimed to identify the challenges, and problems faced by the educators and their institutions. Through first-hand experiences we also identify best practices and solutions reached. Thus we constructed a questionnaire to gather our own responses but also experiences from colleagues and members of our environment, family, friends, and colleagues. This paper reports the first-hand experiences and knowledge of 33 co-authors from 27 institutions and from 13 different countries from Europe, Asia, and Africa. The communication technologies and development platforms used are identified; the challenges faced as well as solutions and best practices are reported. The findings are consolidated into the four areas explored i.e. Development Platforms, Communications Technologies, Challenges/Problems and Solutions/Best Practices. The conclusion summarises the findings into emerging themes and similarities. Reflections on the lasting impact of the effect of Coronavirus on education, limitations of study, and indications of future work complete the paper

Rapid migration from traditional or hybrid to fully virtual education in the age of the coronavirus pandemic: challenges, experiences and views of college and university students

The abrupt outbreak of the coronavirus pandemic throughout the world in March 2020 resulted in the sudden closure of all schools, colleges and universities, institutions, and an unprecedented pivot to remote learning. Students and teachers were confronted with the overwhelming challenge of migrating from the traditional face-to-face or hybrid mode of education to fully virtual learning and assessment environments within an extremely short amount of time. This migration was exceptionally difficult, as it took place halfway through the academic or school year in most countries. While pandemic restrictions currently vary across different regions, the 2020-2021 academic session continues to pose challenges despite the experience gained. In addition to a review of the current state-of-the-art in relation to the effects of COVID-19 on teaching and learning, this paper reports on an empirical study carried out in 26 countries (from Asia, Europe, Africa and America), by 36 academics from 29 academic institutions. Through an extensive global survey of college and university students, information was collected about the challenges (technological, economic, psychological) faced by them, as a result of the pandemic. We also asked the students’ to offer their ideas and suggestions for further improvements in teaching and learning, as we look toward a post-COVID world. In this paper, we address issues relating to the availability of, and accessibility to, necessary digital technologies (e.g., learning and communication platforms), isolation, disconnection, and loneliness among students, the overall impact of the pandemic on learning and academic performance, and the reliability of assessment methods., cybercrime dangers and fake information. A total of 1005 responses to the survey were received and analysed. The results are presented in this paper together with reflections of the authors. The paper concludes with a summary of suggestions for process improvements in distance education, and the need for preventive preparedness in the post-COVID period

Asymmetric Dependence in International Currency Markets

We find new channels for the transmission of shocks in international currencies, by developing a model in which shock propagations evolve from domestic stock markets, liquidity, credit risk and growth channels. We employ symmetric and asymmetric copulas to quantify joint downside risks and document that asset classes tend to experience concurrent extreme shocks. The time-varying spillover intensities cause a significant increase in cross-asset linkages during periods of high volatility, which is over and above any expected economic fundamentals, providing strong evidence of asymmetric investor induced contagion. The critical role of the credit crisis is amplified, as the beginning of an important reassessment of emerging currencies which lead to changes in the dependence structure, a revaluation and recalibration of their risk characteristics. By modelling tail risks, we also find patterns consistent with the domino effect

Financial market dynamics in an enlarged European Union.

This paper provides evidence of integration in European equity and bond markets over the period January 2, 1997 to October 1, 2006. Our focus is to examine time-varying correlation dynamics in Euro-area, Central European (CE) and Balkan financial markets, modifying the asymmetric generalized dynamic conditional correlation (AG-DCC) model developed by Cappiello, Engle and Sheppard (Journal of Financial Econometrics, 2006). Using structural breaks, we identify the optimal time decay where financial markets share highest comovement. The results show an increase in the level of dependence during the period of the internet bubble collapse (2000), the Balkan countries start formally discussions to join European Union (2000), the introduction of Euro banknotes and coins (2002) and the entry of CE countries in EU (2004). The CE European and Balkan countries become gradually more integrated with the EMU countries, which is consistent with the interpretation that these countries may be expected to join the Euro in the future

Financial crises and stock market contagion in a multi-variate time varying asymmetric framework.

This paper investigates financial contagion in a multivariate time-varying asymmetric framework, focusing on four emerging equity markets, namely Brazil, Russia, India, China (BRIC) and two developed markets (U.S. and U.K.), during five recent financial crises. Specifically, both a multivariate regime-switching Gaussian copula model and the asymmetric generalized dynamic conditional correlation (AG-DCC) approach are used to capture non-linear correlation dynamics during the period 1995–2006. The empirical evidence confirms a contagion effect from the crisis country to all others, for each of the examined financial crises. The results also suggest that emerging BRIC markets are more prone to financial contagion, while the industry-specific turmoil has a larger impact than country-specific crises. Our findings imply that policy responses to a crisis are unlikely to prevent the spread among countries, making fewer domestic risks internationally diversifiable when it is most desirable