Attitudes of Economic Educators toward Markets in Eastern Europe & the Former Soviet Union by Reform Status of the Educator's Country
ABSTRACT This article assesses attitudes toward the market economy among educators of the Former Soviet Union and Eastern Europe before and after a one-week intensive seminar in economic education. Specifically, it looks at how attitudes differ, at the start of the seminar, by the reform status of the educators' countries and how those attitudes change after a week of market-based economics instruction. Analysis shows that attitudes do indeed vary by reform status, with educators from the more reformed countries showing much more positive attitudes at the start of the seminar than those from the less reformed countries. Additional influences on attitude include gender, education level, economics knowledge, years in education, and prior western-style economics education. After an intensive seminar in economic education, all educators show improved attitudes toward markets, with greater gains among those from the less reformed countries. INTRODUCTION From 1995 through 2006, the Council for Economic Education (CEE) in New York, through its Cooperative Education Exchange Program (CEEP), conducted a series of economics seminars for educators from Eastern Europe and the Former Soviet Union (EEFSU). The Cooperative Education Exchange Program (CEEP) is a program is funded by the U.S. Department of Education and is conducted in coordination with the U.S. Department of State. CEEP economics, a program of the National Council on Economic Education, brings together U.S. economic educators with their counterparts from central and eastern Europe, the former Soviet Union, and other transition and developing countries in Africa, Asia, Latin America, and the Middle East, and provides technical assistance and training to help educators and their students to better understand the global market economy. In-country teacher training conducted by U.S. faculty in Eastern Europe and the Former Soviet Union provided the dataset for this paper. "The in-country teacher training program emphasizes an active learning approach and introduces basic economic concepts to teachers with limited background in economics." (CEE, 2008). One CEEP component, a six-day introductory-level seminar for secondary teachers, was conducted in thirteen countries (Albania, Azerbaijan, Bulgaria, Croatia, Estonia, Georgia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgystan, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Ukraine, and Uzbekistan) by American university economics faculty. The introductory seminar covered basic and market economic theory and methods and material for teaching economics at the secondary or introductory postsecondary levels. A key underlying assumption of CEEP training and of this study is that, as the youth of EEFSU enter the newly reformed market economies they must understand and embrace the economic concepts that underlie the transformed economic order and that educators have a key role in this process. Both Watts and Walstad (2002) and Pleskovic, et. al. (2002), highlight the need for well-trained teachers who see the importance of teaching solid market-based economics in the primary and secondary grades, as well as at higher education levels, to assure a flow of citizens who can make informed decisions as voters and as policymakers. Previous research has shown that formal economic education significantly increases knowledge of economics and yields a more positive attitude toward markets (Watts, Walstad, and Skiba, 2002; Walstad, 2002) or toward market economics as a subject (Walstad and Soper, 1989; Soper and Walstad, 1983). As experience is also a powerful teacher, one might speculate that attitudes of educators toward free markets and economic issues and policies might depend on, in addition to formal training, their own economic status and experiences. Over the years since the collapse of the Soviet Union, the status of reform has varied widely among the transforming countries (Âslund, 2002). The purpose of this study is twofold: One, it is to look at attitudes of economic educators in the countries of EEFSU to determine if, before a one-week seminar in market economics and economic teaching methods, these attitudes vary by the reform progress of the educators' own nations and, if so, in just what ways. …
The Effects of Inservice Training on Participating Teachers and Students in Their Economics Classes.
In a fairly elaborate study, the author found that inservice teacher training in economics improved the achievement scores of participating teachers and their students. In addition, as their achievement scores improved, both teachers and students developed more positive opinions about economics. At the time of the study, inservice training seemed to be more effective than preservice training.
Economics of Disaster Risk and Resilience in Small Island Developing States
The four essays investigate the impacts and implications of climate change and disasters in Small Island Developing States (SIDS) in the Pacific by examining disaster risk, resilience, response, and recovery in Tuvalu.  The first chapter starts with a survey on the conceptual framework of disaster risk which relies on its associated components of hazard, vulnerability and exposure. It is an introductory literature review that sets the scene for the other chapters. It is not intended to make an original contribution nor a critical review of the literature justified to be publishable. How we measure these risks depends on how we define disaster risk and its components. Though there are diverse views on these definitions in different disciplines, we can capitalise on their commonalities to frame disaster risk models.  The second chapter investigates the vulnerability of households to climatic disasters in Tuvalu. Small Island Developing States, particularly the atoll islands, are considered to be the most vulnerable to climatic change, and in particular to sea-level rise and its associated risks. From the Tuvalu Statistics Department household survey, we construct poverty and hardship profiles for households on the different islands of Tuvalu, and combine these with geographic and topographic information to assess the exposure differentials among different groups using spatial econometric models. Besides the observation that households in hardship are more vulnerable to negative shocks because they lack the resources to respond, we also find that they are also more likely to reside in highly exposed areas to disasters (closer to the coasts and at lower elevation) and have less ability to migrate (between and within the islands).  The third chapter examines cyclones. The intensity of cyclones in the Pacific is predicted to increase and sea levels are predicted to rise, so an atoll nation like Tuvalu can serve as the `canary in the coal mine' pointing to the new risks that are emerging because of climatic change. Based on a household survey we conducted in Tuvalu, we quantify the impacts of Tropical Cyclone Pam (March 2015) on households, and the determinants of these impacts in terms of hazard, exposure, vulnerability and responsiveness. Households experienced significant damage due to the storm surge caused by the cyclone, even though the cyclone itself passed very far away (about a 1,000 km). This risk of distant cyclones has been overlooked in the literature, and ignoring it leads to significant under-estimation of the disaster risk facing low-lying atoll islands. Lastly, we constructed hypothetical policy scenarios, and calculated the estimated loss and damage they would have been associated with { a first step in building careful assessments of the feasibility of various disaster risk reduction policies.  The fourth chapter examines the financing of disaster risk management. Future climate and disaster risks are likely to impose increasing financial pressure on the governments of low-lying atoll nations. The aftermath of a disaster such as a cyclone requires financial means for quick response and recovery. Hence, we quantify appropriate levels of financial support for expected disasters in Tuvalu and Kiribati by building on the Pacific Catastrophe Risk Assessment and Financing Initiative (PCRAFI) calculated likely costs for disasters. To these, we add estimates of the potential effects of distant cyclones, droughts, sea level rise and climate change as they are predicted to affect low-lying atoll islands. There are several potential financial instruments available for disaster risk management in the Pacific Islands. We focus on the potential contribution of the sovereign wealth funds (SWF) of Tuvalu and Kiribati in reducing reliance on foreign aid for both ex-ante and ex-post disaster risk management. We forecast the future size of the SWF using Monte Carlo simulations and an Auto-Regressive Integrated Moving Average model. We examine the long-term sustainability of the SWF, and the feasibility of extending their mandate to cover and pay for at least some climate change adaptation and disaster risk reduction.