The Macro-Social Benefits of Education, Training and Skills in Comparative Perspective [Wider Benefits of Learning Research Report No. 9]

This report, the second from the Centre's strand of comparative research, complements an earlier WBL research report (Education, Equity and Social Cohesion: A Distributional Model) in exploring further themes of societal comparison and the distributional effects of education systems. Despite generally high levels of educational attainment there is huge diversity amongst Western Societies in terms of crime, tolerance, trust and social cohesion. In this report, we take a comparative approach to investigating relationships between education and these outcomes at a societal level. Through an interdisciplinary review of literatures from sociology, history, economics and psychology we examine the role of education systems from a number of countries in influencing trends in, and levels of, these variables. Whilst the importance of country and historical context is stressed throughout we arrive at some general conclusions concerning the role of education systems in the development of various forms of social cohesion. This report will be of interest to policy makers, researchers and practitioners who are interested in the social impact of education systems. In particular, we examine implications for current UK policy targeted at increasing national educational attainment

Education and Social Cohesion: Re-Centering the Debate

Social Capital theory has tended to treat social cohesion as a mere aggregation of individual and community level characteristics, ignoring the long tradition of theory on social solidarity and social cohesion at the societal level. However, the key indicators of social capital – associational membership and social trust – do not co-vary cross nationally and societies rich in community level social capital are not always cohesive societies. Social capital and societal cohesion are not necessarily the same thing and education may have different effects on each. This article seeks to put the analysis of education and societal cohesion back in the centre of the picture. We do this firstly through a critical review of some of the existing literature on education and social capital which points to the limitations of individual level analysis of what are fundamentally societal issues. Secondly, we outline some alternative models for understanding how education impacts on social cohesion in different societies, drawing on an analysis of some of the aggregated cross-national data on skills, income distribution and various indicators of social cohesion. The argument suggests some causal mechanisms for the social impacts of education that are quite different from those which normally underpin arguments about human and social capital

Road Transport Investment Projects and Additional Economic Benefits

The paper examines the linkages between transport and the economy with particular focus on the basis for additionality of wider economic benefits from road transport infrastructure improvements. A major weakness of current appraisal practice of road transport infrastructure projects is its basis on partial equilibrium analysis. The partial equilibrium approach implies that the linkage from changes in the transport market is ignored creating the scope for a less than comprehensive consideration of all benefits and costs. The importance of ignoring other markets in transport appraisal has been subject to much analysis in the available literature: A key research question is whether such wider economic impacts are additional to the time and cost savings generated from transport policy interventions. The key condition under which wider economic effects are additional to a standard CBA is the extent to which the economy departs from the economic model of perfect competition. If imperfect competition dominates then it is possible that the wider economic effects can be additional to the CBA result. The context in which perfect competition is not a valid assumption involves imperfectly competitive output and input markets and/ or existence of subsidies and taxes. Furthermore, external costs such as air pollution or congestion from the transport sector as well as from economic activities across the different sectors can influence the CBA result. Computable General Equilibrium (CGE) models represent a possible solution to the problem of partial equilibrium analysis. The paper will review available theoretical and empirical evidence of how road transport improvements are linked to the wider economy including the possibility for addditionality. It will re-assess the role of Computable General Equilibrium models in measuring these additional benefits. Finally, it will consider the feasibility of examining the additional benefits that Britain’s motorway network has brought to the national economy.

Education, Equity and Social Cohesion : A Distributional Model [Wider Benefits of Learning Research Report No. 7]

This report - the first from the Centre’s comparative strand of research - focuses on the effects of education on social cohesion at the societal level. The research involved two elements. The first was a theoretical analysis and critique of models in the existing international and comparative literature on education, social capital and social cohesion. This led to the development of a new hypothetical model relating skills distribution to social cohesion. The second part of the research used cross-national, quantitative techniques to test the model on aggregated data for 15 countries. The analysis suggests that educational distribution may be a very significant influence on societal cohesion in certain contexts. Improving levels of education alone may not foster social solidarity if inequalities of skill and income persist. The findings here have important policy implications. Existing policies focus on developing the individual resources and competences which will help to build social capital and community cohesion. However, these will not necessarily impact on cohesion at the societal level. Creating a more cohesive society is likely to require policies that are also designed to increase equality through narrowing educational outcomes

The chimera of competitiveness: varieties of capitalism and the economic crisis

In this paper we assess the different definitions and theories of economic competitiveness at the firm and national levels. First we contrast the theories of classical liberal economists with those of the German historical school of national economics, noting the importance of the historical school for theories of national economic competitiveness. Drawing on the comparative political economy literature on ‘varieties of capitalism’, we hen discuss the factors underlying competitiveness in social market economies, social democratic economies, and liberal economies. These models f capitalism are compared under six headings: labour markets and labour market institutions; financial markets; corporate funding and governance; inter-firm relations; the role of the state; and economic culture and history. In the penultimate section of the paper we discuss how the different odels of capitalism have responded to the economic crisis and the impact of the crisis on their economic competitiveness. The paper concludes with a summary of the key points to emerge from the analysis and looks to how the scene may evolve as national economies begin to adapt

Making meaningful comparisons between road and rail – substituting average energy consumption data for rail with empirical analysis

Within the transport sector, modal shift towards more efficient and less polluting modes could be a key policy goal to help meet targets to reduce energy consumption and carbon emissions. However, making comparisons between modes is not necessarily straightforward. Average energy and emissions data are often relied upon, particularly for, rail, which may not be applicable to a given context. Some UK train operating companies have recently fitted electricity metres to their trains, from which energy consumption data have been obtained. This has enabled an understanding to be gained of how energy consumption and related emissions are affected by a number of factors, including train and service type. Comparisons are made with existing data for road and rail. It is noted that although more specific data can be useful in informing policy and making some decisions, average data continue to play an important role when considering the overall picture

Brand Logos More Prevalent In Recent News Sports Photos

The exposure is non-intrusive, serving as a backdrop to the sports action occurring at the arena. Because it cannot be separated from the action, this communication form is difficult to tune out perceptually

An application of design knowledge captured from multiple sources

The Hubble Space Telescope Operational Readiness Expert Safemode Investigation System (HSTORESIS) is a reusable knowledge base shell used to demonstrate the integration and application of design knowledge captured from multiple technical domains. The design of HSTORESIS is based on a partitioning of knowledge to maximize the potential for reuse of certain types of knowledge