Reflexions entorn de la col·laboració interuniversitaria europea en el programa TEMPUS

Durant els últims anys s'ha donat un important moviment de col-laboració entre els països de la Unió Europea (UE) i els països d'Europa Central i de l'Est (ECE), arran de la revolució política que es va produir a partir de l'any 1989, després de la caiguda del mur de Berlín. La UE, en el seu afany d'atreure aquests paisos cap a la seva órbita política i económica, va comengar a ajudar en la transformació de les seves estructures polítiques en democracies liberals i a convertir els seus sistemes planificats en economies de mercat. Per aixó, va finangar, des del moment del canvi, un programa de col-laboració socioeconómica anomenat PHARE. El programa TEMPUS (Programa Transeuropeu de Mobilitat d'Estudis Universitaris) és un subprograma d'aquest (Decisió del Consell, 1990), que es desenvolupa des de fa 10 anys (actualment es troba en fase d'extinció), propugnant com a objectiu fonamental ajudar la modernització de les seves estructures i la integració del sistema universitari en la xarxa d'universitats europees.

Programa d'introducció al dret espanyol per a estudiants d'intercanvi

El projecte "Programa d'introducció al dret espanyol per a estudiants d'intercanvi" s'ha dut a terme a la Facultat de dret de la Universitat de Barcelona des del mes de juny de 2007 al mes de setembre de 2008. Ha consistit en iniciar l’esmentat programa que suposava, pels estudiants d’intercanvi sol·licitants, la consecució d’un Diploma d’Introducció al Dret espanyol, expedit per la Facultat de Dret de la UB, a banda del reconeixement dels crèdits cursats a Barcelona. L’objectiu va ser proposar canvis en el plantejament curricular, en concret la posada en marxa de les assignatures del Diploma: Introducció al Dret Privat, Introducció al Dret públic, Introducció al sistema processal espanyol, i Bases del sistema legal espanyol. Com a tasca prèvia que havia de garnatir l’èxit es va fer una difusió del programa a les universitats d’origen i es va articular un sistema d’acollida als estudiants que es va demostrar molt útil al principi de curs per a informacions diverses, però que després va ser infrautilitzat. Pel que fa a les assignatures, es van plantejar com un anàlisi dels trets fonamentals i diferencials del nostre dret, utilitzant elements de comparació amb els ordenaments dels països dels alumnes, però sense fer un exercici estricte de dret comparat. La taxa de rediment va ser alta – 75% - però es va detectar un problema, la insuficient preparació idomàtica, que depassa l’organització del programa. També es va considerar un repte pedagògic important: la heterogeneïtat dels estudiants tant en la seva formació jurídica prèvia –assignatures cursades en la seva Universitat-, com en relació al sistema legal del país del qual provenien, en relació al sistema espanyol. Per aquest motiu, el plantejament del curs i els materials a utilitzar va dependre en bona mesura del conjunt del grup al qual es va dirigr cada assignatura en concret.

Pla d’actuació contra l’absentisme escolar a Palafrugell: Diagnosi de la realitat socioeducativa i protocol d’actuació contra l’absentisme escolar i la desescolarització

El treball té l’objectiu de dissenyar un protocol d’actuació que contempli aspectes sobre prevenció, detecció i intervenció contra l’absentisme escolar i la desescolarització al municipi. Per a això s’ha desenvolupat una diagnosi municipal d’anàlisi de la realitat sobre el tema, fent èmfasi en la intervenció socioeducativa que s’ha de realitzar per a tractar el fenomen des d’una perspectiva holística i global

A Model for Improving the Quality of Student Internship Placements in Engineering Degrees

Work Internship Placements (WIP) is a new and transversal enterprise internships programme, which is focused on quality improvement, academic control and satisfaction of collaborating enterprises. This programme is addressed to the engineering students of the PolytechnicSchool at the University of Girona (UdG) in Spain. The fundamental WIP infrastructure combines a web-based intranet platform, that provides a complete set of WIP tools, with a protocol of procedures and tasks that are observed and followed at all internship stages by every participating agent, i.e. enterprises, students, coaching professors and administrative staff. Our new programme is centered on a broader, more holistic internship placement procedure than the traditional “career and academic goals” approach. The WIP programme has been found to be a valuable asset in addressing enterprise and student needs in the experiential project

Student Journalism 2.0 : Testing Models for Participatory Learning in the Digital Age

Many educators and educational institutions have yet to integrate web-based practices into their classrooms and curricula. As a result, it can be difficult to prototype and evaluate approaches to transforming classrooms from static endpoints to dynamic, content-creating nodes in the online information ecosystem. But many scholastic journalism programs have already embraced the capabilities of the Internet for virtual collaboration, dissemination, and reader participation. Because of this, scholastic journalism can act as a test-bed for integrating web-based sharing and collaboration practices into classrooms. Student Journalism 2.0 was a research project to integrate open copyright licenses into two scholastic journalism programs, to document outcomes, and to identify recommendations and remaining challenges for similar integrations. Video and audio recordings of two participating high school journalism programs informed the research. In describing the steps of our integration process, we note some important legal, technical, and social challenges. Legal worries such as uncertainty over copyright ownership could lead districts and administrators to disallow open licensing of student work. Publication platforms among journalism classrooms are far from standardized, making any integration of new technologies and practices difficult to achieve at scale. And teachers and students face challenges re-conceptualizing the role their class work can play online.

Eliciting and fostering learners' metacognitive knowledge about language learning in self-directed learning programs: a review of data collection methods and procedures

Són molts els estudis que avui en dia incideixen en la necessitat d’oferir un suport metodològic i psicològic als aprenents que treballen de manera autònoma. L’objectiu d’aquest suport és ajudar-los a desenvolupar les destreses que necessiten per dirigir el seu aprenentatge així com una actitud positiva i una major conscienciació envers aquest aprenentatge. En definitiva, aquests dos tipus de preparació es consideren essencials per ajudar els aprenents a esdevenir més autònoms i més eficients en el seu propi aprenentatge. Malgrat això, si bé és freqüent trobar estudis que exemplifiquen aplicacions del suport metodològic dins els seus programes, principalment en la formació d’estratègies o ajudant els aprenents a desenvolupar un pla de treball, aquest no és el cas quan es tracta de la seva preparació psicològica. Amb rares excepcions, trobem estudis que documentin com s’incideix en les actituds i en les creences dels aprenents, també coneguts com a coneixement metacognitiu (CM), en programes que fomenten l’autonomia en l’aprenentatge. Els objectius d’aquest treball son dos: a) oferir una revisió d’estudis que han utilitzat diferents mitjans per incidir en el CM dels aprenents i b) descriure les febleses i avantatges dels procediments i instruments que utilitzen, tal com han estat valorats en estudis de recerca, ja que ens permetrà establir criteris objectius sobre com i quan utilitzar-los en programes que fomentin l’aprenentatge autodirigit.

Marxism, social metabolism, and ecologically unequal exchange

Authors working on "industrial metabolism" or "social metabolism" look at the economy in terms of flows of energy and materials. Together with the ecological economists, they see the economy as a subsystem of a larger physical system. Marx and Engels followed with a few years’ delay many of the remarkable scientific and technical novelties of their time.

Fair and efficient student placement with couples

We study situations of allocating positions or jobs to students or workers based on priorities. An example is the assignment of medical students to hospital residencies on the basis of one or several entrance exams. For markets without couples, e.g., for ``undergraduate student placement,'' acyclicity is a necessary and sufficient condition for the existence of a fair and efficient placement mechanism (Ergin, 2002). We show that in the presence of couples, which introduces complementarities into the students' preferences, acyclicity is still necessary, but not sufficient (Theorem 4.1). A second necessary condition (Theorem 4.2) is ``priority-togetherness'' of couples. A priority structure that satisfies both necessary conditions is called pt-acyclic. For student placement problems where all quotas are equal to one we characterize pt-acyclicity (Lemma 5.1) and show that it is a sufficient condition for the existence of a fair and efficient placement mechanism (Theorem 5.1). If in addition to pt-acyclicity we require ``reallocation-'' and ``vacancy-fairness'' for couples, the so-called dictator-bidictator placement mechanism is the unique fair and efficient placement mechanism (Theorem 5.2). Finally, for general student placement problems, we show that pt-acyclicity may not be sufficient for the existence of a fair and efficient placement mechanism (Examples 5.4, 5.5, and 5.6). We identify a sufficient condition such that the so-called sequential placement mechanism produces a fair and efficient allocation (Theorem 5.3).

Manipulation via endowments in exchange markets with indivisible goods

We consider exchange markets with heterogeneous indivisible goods. We are interested in exchange rules that are efficient and immune to manipulations via endowments (either with respect to hiding or destroying part of the endowment or transferring part of the endowment to another trader). We consider three manipulability axioms: hiding-proofness, destruction-proofness, and transfer-proofness. We prove that no rule satisfying efficiency and hiding-proofness (which implies individual rationality) exists. For two-agent exchange markets with separable and responsive preferences, we show that efficient, individually rational, and destruction-proof rules exist. However, for separable preferences, no rule satisfies efficiency, individual rationality, and destruction-proofness. In the case of transfer-proofness the compatibility with efficiency and individual rationality for the two-agent case extends to the unrestricted domain. For exchange markets with separable preferences and more than two agents no rule satisfies efficiency, individual rationality, and transfer-proofness.

How tight should one's hands be tied? Fear of floating and credibility of exchange rate regimes

This paper analyzes the linkages between the credibility of a target zone regime, the volatility of the exchange rate, and the width of the band where the exchange rate is allowed to fluctuate. These three concepts should be related since the band width induces a trade-off between credibility and volatility. Narrower bands should give less scope for the exchange rate to fluctuate but may make agents perceive a larger probability of realignment which by itself should increase the volatility of the exchange rate. We build a model where this trade-off is made explicit. The model is used to understand the reduction in volatility experienced by most EMS countries after their target zones were widened on August 1993. As a natural extension, the model also rationalizes the existence of non-official, implicit target zones (or fear of floating), suggested by some authors.

Current Account imbalances, thriftiness and the real exchange rate in a growing economy

This paper analyses the theoretical relevance of the dynamical aspects of growth on the discussion about the observed positive correlation between per capita real income and real exchange rates. With this purpose, we develop a simple exogenous growth model where the internal, external and intertemporal equilibrium conditions of a typical macroeconomic model are imposed; this last one through the inclusion of a balanced growth path for the foreign assets accumulation. The main result under this consideration is that the relationship defended by the Balassa-Samuelson hypothesis is no more so straightforward. In our particular approach, the mentioned bilateral relationship depends on a parameter measuring thriftiness in the economy. Therefore, the probability of ending up with a positive relationship between growth and real exchange rates -as the classical economic theory predicts- will be higher when the economy is able to maintain a minimum saving ratio. Moreover, given that our model considers a simple Keynesian consumption function, some explosive paths can also be possible.

The structural approach of a natrex model on equilibrium exchange rates

Following a general macroeconomic approach, this paper sets a closed micro-founded structural model to determine the long run real exchange rate of a developed economy. In particular, the analysis follows the structure of a Natrex model. The main contribution of this research paper is the development of a solid theoretical framework that analyse in depth the basis of the real exchange rate and the details of the equilibrium dynamics after any shock influencing the steady state. In our case, the intertemporal factors derived from the stock-flow relationship will be particularly determinant. The main results of the paper can be summarised as follows. In first place, a complete well-integrated structural model for long-run real exchange rate determination is developed from first principles. Moreover, within the concrete dynamics of the model, it is found that some convergence restrictions will be necessary. On one hand, for the medium run convergence the sensitivity of the trade balance to changes in real exchange rate should be higher that the correspondent one to the investment decisions. On the other hand, and regarding long-run convergence, it is also necessary both that there exists a negative relationship between investment and capital stock accumulation and that the global saving of the economy depends positively on net foreign debt accumulation. In addition, there are also interesting conclusions about the effects that certain shocks over the exogenous variables of the model have on real exchange rates.

Do market conditions affect gift exchange? Evidence from experimental markets with excess supply and excess demand

We study whether people's behavior in unbalanced gift exchange markets with repeated interaction are affected by whether they are on the excess supply side or the excess demand side of the market. Our analysis is based on the comparison of behavior between two types of experimental gift exchange markets, which vary only with respect to whether first or second movers are on the long side of the market. The direction of market imbalance could influence subjects' behavior, as second movers (workers) might react differently to favorable actions by first movers (firms) in the two cases. While our data show strong deviations from the standard game-theoretic prediction, we find mainly secondary treatment effects. Wage offers are not higher when there is an excess supply of firms, and workers do not respond more favorably to a given wage when there is an excess supply of labor. The state of competition does not appear to have strong effects in our data. We also present data from single-period sessions that show substantial gift exchange even without repeated interactions.

On the choice of an exchange rate regime: target zones revisited

From the classical gold standard up to the current ERM2 arrangement of the European Union, target zones have been a widely used exchange regime in contemporary history. This paper presents a benchmark model that rationalizes the choice of target zones over the rest of regimes: the fixed rate, the free float and the managed float. It is shown that the monetary authority may gain efficiency by reducing volatility of both the exchange rate and the interest rate at the same time. Furthermore, the model is consistent with some known stylized facts in the empirical literature that previous models were not able to produce, namely, the positive relation between the exchange rate and the interest rate differential, the degree of non-linearity of the function linking the exchage rate to fundamentals and the shape of the exchange rate stochastic distribution.

A proposal for a new specification for a conditionally heteroskedastic variance model: the Quadratic Moving-Average Conditional Heteroskedasticity and an application to the D. Mark-U.S. dollar Exchange Rate

Ever since the appearance of the ARCH model [Engle(1982a)], an impressive array of variance specifications belonging to the same class of models has emerged [i.e. Bollerslev's (1986) GARCH; Nelson's (1990) EGARCH]. This recent domain has achieved very successful developments. Nevertheless, several empirical studies seem to show that the performance of such models is not always appropriate [Boulier(1992)]. In this paper we propose a new specification: the Quadratic Moving Average Conditional heteroskedasticity model. Its statistical properties, such as the kurtosis and the symmetry, as well as two estimators (Method of Moments and Maximum Likelihood) are studied. Two statistical tests are presented, the first one tests for homoskedasticity and the second one, discriminates between ARCH and QMACH specification. A Monte Carlo study is presented in order to illustrate some of the theoretical results. An empirical study is undertaken for the DM-US exchange rate.