WHY HAVE AGGREGATE SKILLED HOURS BECOME SO CYCLICAL SINCE THE MID-1980s?

Austria: Persistent low fertility since the mid-1980s

This chapter offers an in-depth analysis of fertility in Austria, a country which has experienced a low and relatively stable fertility level and a gradual postponement of childbearing since the mid-1980s. We begin by summarising Austrian population trends in the post-World War II period and highlighting recent relatively high migration levels. We outline the long history of sub-replacement fer...

Why Have Americans Become More Obese?

I n the early 1960s, the average American adult male weighed 168 pounds. Today, he weighs nearly 180 pounds. Over the same time period, the average female adult weight rose from 143 pounds to over 155 pounds (U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, 1977, 1996). In the early 1970s, 14 percent of the population was classified as medically obese. Today, obesity rates are two times higher (Ce...

Why Have Climate Negotiations Proved So Disappointing?

Successes and Failures of Development Experience since the 1980s Successes and Failures of Development Experience since the 1980s

This paper reviews the development experience since the 1980's and finds room for guarded optimism about what we can learn from it. Firstly, a global consensus is emerging on the need for macroeconomic stability through prudent fiscal, monetary and foreign exchange policies. However, at the micro or structural level, while governments need to decentralize their decision-making authority more fu...

Helping Students Become Skilled Practitioners

Becoming a skilled practitioner means learning both conceptual and process knowledge. We propose the use of hypermedia to provide components of an apprenticeship learning model for students, in which process and conceptual knowledge learning is integrated. Our model for this use of hypermedia is called an Apprenticeship Based Learning Environment (ABLE). We present seven design principles for a...