Student, school, and country differences in sustained test-taking effort in the 2009 PISA reading assessment

In this article, the change in examinee effort during an assessment, which we will refer to as persistence, is modeled as an effect of item position. A multilevel extension is proposed to analyze hierarchically structured data and decompose the individual differences in persistence. Data from the 2009 Program of International Student Achievement (PISA) reading assessment from N = 467,819 students from 65 countries are analyzed with the proposed model, and the results are compared across countries. A decrease in examinee effort during the PISA reading assessment was found consistently across countries, with individual differences within and between schools. Both the decrease and the individual differences are more pronounced in lower performing countries. Within schools, persistence is slightly negatively correlated with reading ability; but at the school level, this correlation is positive in most countries. The results of our analyses indicate that it is important to model and control examinee effort in low-stakes assessments. (DIPF/Orig.)

Corruption and the size of government: causality tests for OECD and Latin American countries

The purpose of this article is to examine the causality between government size and corruption, and to verify if there is a different pattern of causality between developed Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) countries (excluding Mexico) and developing countries (Latin American countries) during the period 1996 to 2003. Applying Granger and Huang`s (1997) methodology we find evidence that size of government Granger causes corruption in both samples. Since a larger government involvement in private markets today will be followed in future by a higher level of corruption a policy advice would be to enhance governance. The promotion of good governance helps to combat corruption given that it complements efforts to reduce corruption more directly, and it is strongly recommended by the International Monetary Fund, other multilateral institutions, and all worried with the negative impacts of corruption on economic activity.

Inflation Targeting Matters: Evidence from OECD Economies` Sacrifice Ratios

Using data from OECD economies, we show that inflation targeters suffered smaller output losses during disinflations when compared to nontargeters. We also study why some countries choose to inflation target while others do not and find that higher average inflation and smaller debt levels render the adoption of the regime more likely. Applying Heckman`s procedure to control for selection bias does not alter the link between inflation targeting and less costly disinflations.

Health expenditures in the OECD: A political economy analysis using structural breaks

A Masters Thesis, presented as part of the requirements for the award of a Research Masters Degree in Economics from NOVA – School of Business and Economics

Health systems efficiency after the crisis in the OECD

This work evaluates the efficiency position of the health system of each OECD country. It identifies whether, or not, health systems changed in terms of quality and performance after the financial crisis. The health systems performance was calculated by fixed-effects estimator and by stochastic frontier analysis. The results suggest that many of those countries that the crisis affected the most are more efficient than the OECD average. In addition, some of those countries even managed to reach the top decile in the efficiency ranking. Finally, we analyze the stochastic frontier efficiency scores together with other health indicators to evaluate the health systems’ overall adjustments derived from the crisis.

Just's botanischer jahresbericht. Systematisch geordnetes repertorium der botanischen literatur aller länder.

Jahrg. 21, Abt. 2 (1893)

Just's botanischer jahresbericht. Systematisch geordnetes repertorium der botanischen literatur aller länder.

Jahrg. 36, Abt. 1 (1908)

Just's botanischer jahresbericht. Systematisch geordnetes repertorium der botanischen literatur aller länder.

Jahrg. 2 (1874)

Just's botanischer jahresbericht. Systematisch geordnetes repertorium der botanischen literatur aller länder.

Jahrg. 38, Abt. 1 (1910)

Just's botanischer jahresbericht. Systematisch geordnetes repertorium der botanischen literatur aller länder.

Jahrg. 16, Abt. 2 (1888)

Just's botanischer jahresbericht. Systematisch geordnetes repertorium der botanischen literatur aller länder.

Jahrg. 24, Abt. 1 (1896)

Just's botanischer jahresbericht. Systematisch geordnetes repertorium der botanischen literatur aller länder.

Jahrg. 37, Abt. 2 (1909)

Just's botanischer jahresbericht. Systematisch geordnetes repertorium der botanischen literatur aller länder.

Jahrg. 39, Abt. 1 (1911)

Just's botanischer jahresbericht. Systematisch geordnetes repertorium der botanischen literatur aller länder.

Jahrg. 34, Abt. 2 (1906)