--Translating concepts into the form which can be measured.
It is needed when producing questions but sometime it's difficult to get the right translated definitions of questions and get to an agreement among researchers. e.g. unemployment,poverty
Example 1:
Hypothesis: Higher rates of literacy make democracy more likely.
Defining Concepts: Literacy is defined as the completion of six or more years of formal education." Democracy is defined as a system of government in which public officials are selected in competitive elections.
Operational Definitions: Literacy is the percentage of people in a country that have completed six or more years of formal education.Democracy is a country where the secondplace finisher for the chief executive office has received at least 25% of the vote in an electionheld in the last eight years.
Example 2:
Hypothesis: Highly educated people tend to be liberal.
Defining Concepts: Highly educated is defined as at least some college education.Liberalis defined as believing the government should help those who are less well .
Operational Definitions: Highly educated is having completed at least two years at a college or university." Liberal is answers `yes' to the question `Should the government provide low income housing for citizens?"'
Thursday, 14 May 2009
Blog Homework!!- Research methods 1.
1.“The popularity of questionnaires is undoubtedly due to to the considerable range of advantages they offer to researchers” – Discuss
- Questionnaire is a form of questions produced by researchers to ask for respondents' opinions,in which responses can be provided though alternatives or respondents can answer in their own words. Undoubtedly,questionnaire is a common and popular way to collect data and informations as what we can see always from schools or those assignned by people in the streets.
Considering the usefulness of questionnaire as a whole,they tend to be desighed as quantitative data which is easier to see the preference of respondents and to compare and code the answes into different categories. Compared to other research method like experiments or observations,it takes less time cost less money of the researchers.
However,whether the questionnaires are good or not should depend on different types of questionnaires and distinct types of questions they use. There are two types of questions used in questionnaires,they are,closed questions and open questions. Closed questions are more likely to be seen that the range of responses is fixed by researchers and respondents have to choose from the alternatives(tend to be quantitative data). This type is less time-consuming,cost less money and easier to discover correlation between variables and to be coded. But it can't provide more details and depth to explain the respondents' behaviour or ideas. In contrast,open questions (quanlitative data) allow respondents to answer questions in their own words which provides more scope and detailed pictures. But it is not preferred by respondents for that it's complicated to answer and takes longer time to think about. Therefore,sometimes the data may not be valid as respondents may aim to finish them quickly without thinking carefully.
Besides,self-complete questionnaires and structured interviews questionnaires have different advantages and disadvantages.Self-complete questionnaires can be postal questionnaires that they are more efficient by sending questionnaires to a large number of people in the same time and cost less money. Furthermore,they can explore some questions of embarrasing areas because the respondents will not meet with the researchers. But on the other hand,the respondense rate is relatively low and sometimes the respondents may not understand the questions because of low literacy. Also,the answers can be fake,invalid. Opposite to that,questionnaires of structured interviews have high respondense rate and respondents can fully understand the questions with the help of interviewers but it costs more money,more time and the anwers may include bias.
What's more? There is a difficult problem involved -operationalising concepts. This part is significant for designing questions and sometimes researchers find difficult to reach an agreement of the form of measurement to replace the concepts. The inaccuracy operationalising questions may affect the validity of answers. But the pilot study can be used to identify some proplems of the questionnaires.
Overall,questionnaires contain a considerable range of advantages like less time-consuming,less cost,easier to get a conclusion but also involve some problems which researchers should consider with caution. Besides,the benefits depend on which type of questionnaires is used.
0 comments
- Questionnaire is a form of questions produced by researchers to ask for respondents' opinions,in which responses can be provided though alternatives or respondents can answer in their own words. Undoubtedly,questionnaire is a common and popular way to collect data and informations as what we can see always from schools or those assignned by people in the streets.
Considering the usefulness of questionnaire as a whole,they tend to be desighed as quantitative data which is easier to see the preference of respondents and to compare and code the answes into different categories. Compared to other research method like experiments or observations,it takes less time cost less money of the researchers.
However,whether the questionnaires are good or not should depend on different types of questionnaires and distinct types of questions they use. There are two types of questions used in questionnaires,they are,closed questions and open questions. Closed questions are more likely to be seen that the range of responses is fixed by researchers and respondents have to choose from the alternatives(tend to be quantitative data). This type is less time-consuming,cost less money and easier to discover correlation between variables and to be coded. But it can't provide more details and depth to explain the respondents' behaviour or ideas. In contrast,open questions (quanlitative data) allow respondents to answer questions in their own words which provides more scope and detailed pictures. But it is not preferred by respondents for that it's complicated to answer and takes longer time to think about. Therefore,sometimes the data may not be valid as respondents may aim to finish them quickly without thinking carefully.
Besides,self-complete questionnaires and structured interviews questionnaires have different advantages and disadvantages.Self-complete questionnaires can be postal questionnaires that they are more efficient by sending questionnaires to a large number of people in the same time and cost less money. Furthermore,they can explore some questions of embarrasing areas because the respondents will not meet with the researchers. But on the other hand,the respondense rate is relatively low and sometimes the respondents may not understand the questions because of low literacy. Also,the answers can be fake,invalid. Opposite to that,questionnaires of structured interviews have high respondense rate and respondents can fully understand the questions with the help of interviewers but it costs more money,more time and the anwers may include bias.
What's more? There is a difficult problem involved -operationalising concepts. This part is significant for designing questions and sometimes researchers find difficult to reach an agreement of the form of measurement to replace the concepts. The inaccuracy operationalising questions may affect the validity of answers. But the pilot study can be used to identify some proplems of the questionnaires.
Overall,questionnaires contain a considerable range of advantages like less time-consuming,less cost,easier to get a conclusion but also involve some problems which researchers should consider with caution. Besides,the benefits depend on which type of questionnaires is used.
0 comments
Monday, 4 May 2009
Sociology mock before about family&Comment.
Family and Households Questions.
a) Explain what is meant by the expressive role?
It's defined by Parsons about the role of women inside family including emotional support, childcare and housework which are aimed to create comfort for family members.
Comment:All people can get the key word--woman,childcare,housework,emotional support or home comfort. The official answer from internet is expressive role=woman=inside family(tension management and child socialisation)
b) Suggest two ways in which 'family life may have a harmful effect on women'
1.In terms of Ansley,men tend to take out stress from working place by exploiting women like domestic violence which can lead to mental and physical illness of women.
2.Tranditionally,women have to do stay at home,doing housework and childcare which can create dependence of women on men and restrict their freedom outside family.
Comment: answers by others: less power on decision-making and money management, unpaid domestic housework.( but they'd better explain why it's bad for women.eg. it takes woman's time to do housework and it's very tiring but they don't get paid.)
c) Suggests three reasons for the decrease in the death rate since the 1900
1.an improvement in medicine treatment.
2.welfare policy:government concentrate more on low-income family and lone-parent family that they provide supports and service for them to reduce poverty and solve health problems.
e.g Means Testing,New Deal Programme
3.a decrease in manual,heavy jobs
Comment: all answers are right but some of them are not so related as sociological answer like an increase in income,end of wars and an increase in education. they can explain them in sociological ways or expand answers.
d) Examine the ways in which childhood can be said to be socially constructed.
Something that is socially constructed means it is constructed by social meanings and definitions of the society.
In the pre-industrial society,children were not so different from adults that they shared work together as home production. It is just as Philip Aries describes in 1962,the concept of childhood didn't exist in medieval until the 16th century when the upper class family sent their children to schools to get education and children began to be separated with adults. Afterwards,the boundary between adults and children is more clear that in the 19th century,there were some laws that "employment of children is banned and education is compulsory" which shows the separation of children from the adult settings and the different legal status. Besides,the change from extended to nuclear family makes parents more time to concentrate on primary socialisation of children and care for their needs with the increasing housewives. Then,as the society's value and actions of children change,the childhood also changes. It is followed by 1989 that the Children Act firstly outlined children's rights and aimed to protect them. Besides,the 1993 Child Support Agency forces the absent parents to pay and finance for bringing up the children. Also,as children's poverty and infant mortality problems are serious in some deprived areas,govenrment establish some programmes like Sure Start to increase children's quality. What's more,there are lots of special rights of children like price reduction on transport and limited access to alcohol. When we have a look at society of other culture and ethnicity,we will see different kind of situations dueing to the different social construct. If In 1963 Firth found evidende of cross-culture childhood that some culture allowed children to go to the sea if they thought they already are fully prepared . Furthermore,dual-heritage and black children are more likely to end up cares by Statham&O'wens in 2007.
However,childhood is not socially constructed all the time. It is said by Nick Lee that the adulthood becomes unstable and therefore reduces the control on the children. Although it is argued by Neil Postman(1994) that the media is breaking down the boundaries between adults and children which may lead to the disappearance of childhood,correct education and displine by parents and teachers can guide the children and protect their world innocent. There are some initiatives done by government to restrict some over-violent programmes to children like watershed time that those special programmes can't be seen before 9 o'clock.
e) Use material from Item 2B and elsewhere, assess the view that the raise uclear family is no longer the norm.
2B item -A popular image of the family has been the 'cereal packet' nuclear family norm of a married couple and two children who are the couple's biological offspring. The husband is the main breadwinner and the wife is primarily concerned with housework and childcare.It could be argued that this nuclear family is no longer the norm. A number of changes have taken place, such as the rise in the number of same-sex couples and of lone parents. these have resulted in families becoming much more diverse.However Somerville (2000) argues that these changes are exaggerated. The apparent diversity of family life is based on a snapshot at any one time and, if a life cycle approach is taken, many people have a fairly conventional experience of the family.
Tranditionally,nuclear family,which is consist of a married couple and two children who are the couple's biological offspring, is considered as universal which fits every family well by Murdock and also supported by the New Right as the Bedrock of Society. However,from the item 2B,we can see there is a rise in the number of lesbian,gay family and lone parents which is against the nuclear family. Furthermore,Susan MacRae made an introduction in 1999 that Britain today is a more complex society than before, with great family diversity: one-person family,cohabitation,lone-parent family and same-sex couples.
In fact,we can see it as a result of changes in society of social construction,social value and social policy. Firstly,since the society converted to industrial society, the labour market is expanded and the types of jobs have changed with an increase number of service jobs which requires more women to work. Therefore,women were changing their attitudes and increasingly aimed for occupations which is found by Francis&Skelton. With the increasing independence and confidence suggested by Sharpe,they have the ability to divorce or bring up children by themselves which will lead to lone-parent family or singlehood. Besides,as Allan and Crow says,the improving technology in health care as 1967 contraception makes couples possible to cohabit without the fears of having babies which may encourages the number of cohabitation. Nextly,divorce becomes more socially acceptable indicated by Cockett&Tripp in 1994 and is likely to cause reconstituted family as a solution of lone-parent family . Some people argued that a decilne in nuclear family meaned a breakdown of tranditional values on marriage and love. But in fact this diversity is supported by Postmodernist Stacey that no dominant family can meet each people's demand very well. What's more,the changes of social policy also affect the family structure very much. For example,government provides lots of welfare benefits to single mothers which encourages women to divorce. Besides,the simplified procedure of divorce made it easier and quicker to separate from the partners such as the Divorce Reform Act. Lastly,both the Act of Parliament in 2002 which made it legal for same-sex couples to adopt children and the Civil Partnership Act in UK in 2005 which gave identical rights to same-sex couples to marry increase the number of same-sex family.
However,although there is an increasing trend in family diversity,the changes may have been exaggerated suggested by Somevill in the item B and some functionalists like Chester. He claims in1985 that even though the increase in family types is obvious,the nuclear family remains the dominant family structure which can be seen from social trend statistics:78%children living in nuclear family and that the nuclear family is becoming more symmetrical (Willmott&Young) which fits the society better than before. Besides,the ageing population may distort the facts that family types were numerous at their period. Also,one third of cohabitated couples will choose to marry after a period of cohabitation according to social trend statistics. Even though government claim to support all types of family,Conservative party still prefer married couples with children that David Willett said it was overwhelming that children are better brought up in married two-parent family in 2002. Nowadays,more policies are supporting nuclear family like ending couple penalty or providing home health visitng service to family with a new born baby by Conservative Reform Act.
In additional,society of different class,ethnicity and culture will have distinct situation. For example,polygyny is still common in Pakistan while Polyandry exists in Nepal. As Bonnerjea&Eversley found in 1982,middle class is more likely to be nuclear family while working class has high percentage of lone-parent family. A more recent study by Berthoud&Beishon in 1999 shows that Asian tend to marry early with less divorce which is opposite as Afro-Carribean families.
a) Explain what is meant by the expressive role?
It's defined by Parsons about the role of women inside family including emotional support, childcare and housework which are aimed to create comfort for family members.
Comment:All people can get the key word--woman,childcare,housework,emotional support or home comfort. The official answer from internet is expressive role=woman=inside family(tension management and child socialisation)
b) Suggest two ways in which 'family life may have a harmful effect on women'
1.In terms of Ansley,men tend to take out stress from working place by exploiting women like domestic violence which can lead to mental and physical illness of women.
2.Tranditionally,women have to do stay at home,doing housework and childcare which can create dependence of women on men and restrict their freedom outside family.
Comment: answers by others: less power on decision-making and money management, unpaid domestic housework.( but they'd better explain why it's bad for women.eg. it takes woman's time to do housework and it's very tiring but they don't get paid.)
c) Suggests three reasons for the decrease in the death rate since the 1900
1.an improvement in medicine treatment.
2.welfare policy:government concentrate more on low-income family and lone-parent family that they provide supports and service for them to reduce poverty and solve health problems.
e.g Means Testing,New Deal Programme
3.a decrease in manual,heavy jobs
Comment: all answers are right but some of them are not so related as sociological answer like an increase in income,end of wars and an increase in education. they can explain them in sociological ways or expand answers.
d) Examine the ways in which childhood can be said to be socially constructed.
Something that is socially constructed means it is constructed by social meanings and definitions of the society.
In the pre-industrial society,children were not so different from adults that they shared work together as home production. It is just as Philip Aries describes in 1962,the concept of childhood didn't exist in medieval until the 16th century when the upper class family sent their children to schools to get education and children began to be separated with adults. Afterwards,the boundary between adults and children is more clear that in the 19th century,there were some laws that "employment of children is banned and education is compulsory" which shows the separation of children from the adult settings and the different legal status. Besides,the change from extended to nuclear family makes parents more time to concentrate on primary socialisation of children and care for their needs with the increasing housewives. Then,as the society's value and actions of children change,the childhood also changes. It is followed by 1989 that the Children Act firstly outlined children's rights and aimed to protect them. Besides,the 1993 Child Support Agency forces the absent parents to pay and finance for bringing up the children. Also,as children's poverty and infant mortality problems are serious in some deprived areas,govenrment establish some programmes like Sure Start to increase children's quality. What's more,there are lots of special rights of children like price reduction on transport and limited access to alcohol. When we have a look at society of other culture and ethnicity,we will see different kind of situations dueing to the different social construct. If In 1963 Firth found evidende of cross-culture childhood that some culture allowed children to go to the sea if they thought they already are fully prepared . Furthermore,dual-heritage and black children are more likely to end up cares by Statham&O'wens in 2007.
However,childhood is not socially constructed all the time. It is said by Nick Lee that the adulthood becomes unstable and therefore reduces the control on the children. Although it is argued by Neil Postman(1994) that the media is breaking down the boundaries between adults and children which may lead to the disappearance of childhood,correct education and displine by parents and teachers can guide the children and protect their world innocent. There are some initiatives done by government to restrict some over-violent programmes to children like watershed time that those special programmes can't be seen before 9 o'clock.
e) Use material from Item 2B and elsewhere, assess the view that the raise uclear family is no longer the norm.
2B item -A popular image of the family has been the 'cereal packet' nuclear family norm of a married couple and two children who are the couple's biological offspring. The husband is the main breadwinner and the wife is primarily concerned with housework and childcare.It could be argued that this nuclear family is no longer the norm. A number of changes have taken place, such as the rise in the number of same-sex couples and of lone parents. these have resulted in families becoming much more diverse.However Somerville (2000) argues that these changes are exaggerated. The apparent diversity of family life is based on a snapshot at any one time and, if a life cycle approach is taken, many people have a fairly conventional experience of the family.
Tranditionally,nuclear family,which is consist of a married couple and two children who are the couple's biological offspring, is considered as universal which fits every family well by Murdock and also supported by the New Right as the Bedrock of Society. However,from the item 2B,we can see there is a rise in the number of lesbian,gay family and lone parents which is against the nuclear family. Furthermore,Susan MacRae made an introduction in 1999 that Britain today is a more complex society than before, with great family diversity: one-person family,cohabitation,lone-parent family and same-sex couples.
In fact,we can see it as a result of changes in society of social construction,social value and social policy. Firstly,since the society converted to industrial society, the labour market is expanded and the types of jobs have changed with an increase number of service jobs which requires more women to work. Therefore,women were changing their attitudes and increasingly aimed for occupations which is found by Francis&Skelton. With the increasing independence and confidence suggested by Sharpe,they have the ability to divorce or bring up children by themselves which will lead to lone-parent family or singlehood. Besides,as Allan and Crow says,the improving technology in health care as 1967 contraception makes couples possible to cohabit without the fears of having babies which may encourages the number of cohabitation. Nextly,divorce becomes more socially acceptable indicated by Cockett&Tripp in 1994 and is likely to cause reconstituted family as a solution of lone-parent family . Some people argued that a decilne in nuclear family meaned a breakdown of tranditional values on marriage and love. But in fact this diversity is supported by Postmodernist Stacey that no dominant family can meet each people's demand very well. What's more,the changes of social policy also affect the family structure very much. For example,government provides lots of welfare benefits to single mothers which encourages women to divorce. Besides,the simplified procedure of divorce made it easier and quicker to separate from the partners such as the Divorce Reform Act. Lastly,both the Act of Parliament in 2002 which made it legal for same-sex couples to adopt children and the Civil Partnership Act in UK in 2005 which gave identical rights to same-sex couples to marry increase the number of same-sex family.
However,although there is an increasing trend in family diversity,the changes may have been exaggerated suggested by Somevill in the item B and some functionalists like Chester. He claims in1985 that even though the increase in family types is obvious,the nuclear family remains the dominant family structure which can be seen from social trend statistics:78%children living in nuclear family and that the nuclear family is becoming more symmetrical (Willmott&Young) which fits the society better than before. Besides,the ageing population may distort the facts that family types were numerous at their period. Also,one third of cohabitated couples will choose to marry after a period of cohabitation according to social trend statistics. Even though government claim to support all types of family,Conservative party still prefer married couples with children that David Willett said it was overwhelming that children are better brought up in married two-parent family in 2002. Nowadays,more policies are supporting nuclear family like ending couple penalty or providing home health visitng service to family with a new born baby by Conservative Reform Act.
In additional,society of different class,ethnicity and culture will have distinct situation. For example,polygyny is still common in Pakistan while Polyandry exists in Nepal. As Bonnerjea&Eversley found in 1982,middle class is more likely to be nuclear family while working class has high percentage of lone-parent family. A more recent study by Berthoud&Beishon in 1999 shows that Asian tend to marry early with less divorce which is opposite as Afro-Carribean families.
Saturday, 2 May 2009
HHappy BBirthdaY!!~
My first post on May is for Chris and SiYi!!!!!
HaHa~~
Although you are getting older and older(60?!I can't believe it!!),you are really full of power and dynamic which always pushes us to do lots of things even though we are sometimes unwilling....(haha~!). But in my opinion,since you may need more more time to care your health in case of some illness of old people...you should have more rest at home without so much work. Un...despite some....blog and .....homework,i want to appreciate for your time and effort devoted to us and always giving us some valuable advice about schools and studies sincerely!!!!! I believe we will all work very hard until finishing exams and get satisfactory results!!!!!!! Happy Birthday,Mr Chris!!!!>_<
Next,to my dear SiYi!!! Although you always make fun of me and did some bad things to me the other day on the road home,you are still a really good friend who brings me lots of laughters and happiness!!!! As you are older(I know i'm older than you...),wish you get slimmer, mature like a lovely girl,hehe.
It's one month and four more days before i can go back to China. It's almost one month before my C2 exam,my Economic and Accounts exams. It's 17days before my Statistics exams. Then,my sociology unit 2 15 days later and....the most important one which is just 9 days until my first sociology unit1 exams....!!! I will work hard,hard,hard and read more notes about policy education and sociological researchs on the internat and blogs and do more practises.
I believe i'll not lose if i can keep on and concentrate with all my effort.
I will do my economic and sociology homework today and tomorrow!.
Summarise in the end,happy birthday for people who are older today!Mr Chris and SiYi!!!~
HaHa~~
Although you are getting older and older(60?!I can't believe it!!),you are really full of power and dynamic which always pushes us to do lots of things even though we are sometimes unwilling....(haha~!). But in my opinion,since you may need more more time to care your health in case of some illness of old people...you should have more rest at home without so much work. Un...despite some....blog and .....homework,i want to appreciate for your time and effort devoted to us and always giving us some valuable advice about schools and studies sincerely!!!!! I believe we will all work very hard until finishing exams and get satisfactory results!!!!!!! Happy Birthday,Mr Chris!!!!>_<
Next,to my dear SiYi!!! Although you always make fun of me and did some bad things to me the other day on the road home,you are still a really good friend who brings me lots of laughters and happiness!!!! As you are older(I know i'm older than you...),wish you get slimmer, mature like a lovely girl,hehe.
It's one month and four more days before i can go back to China. It's almost one month before my C2 exam,my Economic and Accounts exams. It's 17days before my Statistics exams. Then,my sociology unit 2 15 days later and....the most important one which is just 9 days until my first sociology unit1 exams....!!! I will work hard,hard,hard and read more notes about policy education and sociological researchs on the internat and blogs and do more practises.
I believe i'll not lose if i can keep on and concentrate with all my effort.
I will do my economic and sociology homework today and tomorrow!.
Summarise in the end,happy birthday for people who are older today!Mr Chris and SiYi!!!~
Tuesday, 21 April 2009
Is nuclear family universal now?(briefly)
Nuclear family,in which there are couples of a male and female with one or more children,is tranditionally considered as universal as the norm of family that fits any people by functionalists and New right. Murdock believed it was an universal institution with universal functions and in1993,Gittins also provided an ideology cereal packet image of nuclear family by labelling other types of family as undesirable. Besides,according to New Right like Saunder and Morgan ,nuclear family is the bedrock of society which leads to a lot of laws and social policies to support. For example,conservative government introduced Family Law Act which says there has to be a year before divorce during which couples can have time to think of it carefully. With those laws,nuclear family spreaded quickly as universal at that time. Moreover,with the industrialisation,nuclear family was becoming more popular which can be described by Parsons using the concept "isolated nuclear family". The characteristics of it including geographic mobility,achieved status and loss of functions are consistent with the changes of industrialisation. This can be proved by Willmott and Young's researches in 1973 which shows that nuclear family was the mainstream in industrial society.
However,there are a lot of arguements. As found by Anserson from study of Preston consenus,extended family was popular at first stage of industrialisation and Willmott also said extended family is important but always held in reserve for some cricis. Nowadays,family diversity is increasing in terms of the introduction of McRae in 1999 with more single-hood,cohabitation,lone-parent family and same-sex family. It may be seen as a result of improving technology like contraception(Allan&Crow),changes of laws(like Civil Partnership),increasing status of women,changes of social values(Crokett&Tripp) and more expectation put on marriage(Fletcher&Parsons). Furthermore,this change is advocated by Postmodernists like Stacey as it satisfies the need of different people's preference. But we can not consequently say nuclear family is not universal. Although there is an increasing family diversity,nuclear family remains the dominant one which is said by functionalist-Chester that we should also consider the decreasing death rate with more old people living in extended family.
However,there are a lot of arguements. As found by Anserson from study of Preston consenus,extended family was popular at first stage of industrialisation and Willmott also said extended family is important but always held in reserve for some cricis. Nowadays,family diversity is increasing in terms of the introduction of McRae in 1999 with more single-hood,cohabitation,lone-parent family and same-sex family. It may be seen as a result of improving technology like contraception(Allan&Crow),changes of laws(like Civil Partnership),increasing status of women,changes of social values(Crokett&Tripp) and more expectation put on marriage(Fletcher&Parsons). Furthermore,this change is advocated by Postmodernists like Stacey as it satisfies the need of different people's preference. But we can not consequently say nuclear family is not universal. Although there is an increasing family diversity,nuclear family remains the dominant one which is said by functionalist-Chester that we should also consider the decreasing death rate with more old people living in extended family.
Monday, 20 April 2009
Answer to essay 1-changes of position of children
What i didn't write and realise??
Childhood:
1.the current condition of children: age patriarchy(Diana Gittins)- parents enforce dependency to put legal control and protection on children.
2.impact of mass media(Neil Postman)-dissappearance of childhood.
3.a reduction in infant mortality
4.lastly,evaluation should consider class,ethnicity and gender
5.include debates between perspectives.eg.Postman,March of Progress by functionalists
Childhood:
1.the current condition of children: age patriarchy(Diana Gittins)- parents enforce dependency to put legal control and protection on children.
2.impact of mass media(Neil Postman)-dissappearance of childhood.
3.a reduction in infant mortality
4.lastly,evaluation should consider class,ethnicity and gender
5.include debates between perspectives.eg.Postman,March of Progress by functionalists
Sunday, 19 April 2009
Essay3-Examine the effects of urbanisation and industrialisation on the family and household structure
Examine the effects of urbanisation and industrialisation on the family and household structure.
-The main and clear effect will be a change of family structure from extended family to nuclear family. With the industrialisation,the extended kinship network is not good for the changeable jobs of the labour. Therefore,as indicated by Parsons,isolated nuclear family with a loss of functions replaced by society,achieved status which concetrates on the the individual ability and more geographic mobility appear and gradually becomes the mainstream. Moreover,it is said by Willmott and Young that industrialisation lead to a symmetrical relationship of family because of equal roles of husbands and wives that the former control the outside while the latter control family inside.
However,it is argued by Anderson that extended family is very common at early stage of urbanisation in which people come from other cities have to live with their extended members.
Furthermore,Oakley said that the industrialisation forced women to stay at home which lead to a separation of roles between couples and a more asymmetrical family relationship.
-The main and clear effect will be a change of family structure from extended family to nuclear family. With the industrialisation,the extended kinship network is not good for the changeable jobs of the labour. Therefore,as indicated by Parsons,isolated nuclear family with a loss of functions replaced by society,achieved status which concetrates on the the individual ability and more geographic mobility appear and gradually becomes the mainstream. Moreover,it is said by Willmott and Young that industrialisation lead to a symmetrical relationship of family because of equal roles of husbands and wives that the former control the outside while the latter control family inside.
However,it is argued by Anderson that extended family is very common at early stage of urbanisation in which people come from other cities have to live with their extended members.
Furthermore,Oakley said that the industrialisation forced women to stay at home which lead to a separation of roles between couples and a more asymmetrical family relationship.
Essay 2-Examine the factors affecting the domestic division of labour and power relations between couples.
Examine the factors affecting the domestic division of labour and power relations between couples.
-Social values should be the first and major reason for the domestic division of labour and power relationships between couples especially in the past. Considering nuclear family as the dominant type of family,functionalists believe that the division roles of couples from which females stay at home,taking care of children and doing domestic work while males go out for jobs as expressive and instrumental roles helps the smooth running of society. Similarly,marxists think females provide the emotional support to the males of proletariats that can helps the maintenance of capitalist system as the normal running of society. Therefore,these views produce a fixed ideology of the roles between females and males that women also consider it's their reponsibility to do domestic work and child-care which is found by Oakley. Affected by these view,some policies tend to protect the males at the cost of females like 1979 Conservative government that it encouraged mothers to stay at home to do the take care of children and old people in order to make up for the reduced benefits to family. Besides,during the industrialisation,women were forced to go to labour market in the 20th century and gradually produced the clear separation of roles between couples which tend to cause asymmetrical form of family. Consequently,men is likely to earn more money and have financial power to control the family and make decisions. It can be proved by Mansfield&Collard that men tend to change jobs with higher salary after marriage and that men are likely to have finance control of family suggested by Vogler and Paul. Lastly,the change in education which welcome females and more available subjects also improve the quality of women and confidence.
However,with the changes of labour market,social policy,education and social values,women tend to have more rights with increasing financial independence and confidence.
-Social values should be the first and major reason for the domestic division of labour and power relationships between couples especially in the past. Considering nuclear family as the dominant type of family,functionalists believe that the division roles of couples from which females stay at home,taking care of children and doing domestic work while males go out for jobs as expressive and instrumental roles helps the smooth running of society. Similarly,marxists think females provide the emotional support to the males of proletariats that can helps the maintenance of capitalist system as the normal running of society. Therefore,these views produce a fixed ideology of the roles between females and males that women also consider it's their reponsibility to do domestic work and child-care which is found by Oakley. Affected by these view,some policies tend to protect the males at the cost of females like 1979 Conservative government that it encouraged mothers to stay at home to do the take care of children and old people in order to make up for the reduced benefits to family. Besides,during the industrialisation,women were forced to go to labour market in the 20th century and gradually produced the clear separation of roles between couples which tend to cause asymmetrical form of family. Consequently,men is likely to earn more money and have financial power to control the family and make decisions. It can be proved by Mansfield&Collard that men tend to change jobs with higher salary after marriage and that men are likely to have finance control of family suggested by Vogler and Paul. Lastly,the change in education which welcome females and more available subjects also improve the quality of women and confidence.
However,with the changes of labour market,social policy,education and social values,women tend to have more rights with increasing financial independence and confidence.
Saturday, 18 April 2009
Essays!!! _ 1Examine the reasons for changes in the position of children in the family and society.
Examine the reasons for changes in the position of children in the family and society.
-As we can see,there is a clear trend that children are concerned by more and more people nowadays no matter by the family itself or the whole society. For example,there are a lots of laws which concentrate on the rights of children since 1989 with the Child Support Act.
In fact,we can value the change by the changes of society and the corresponding changes in family structure.
Indicated by the sociologist-Aries' study on the paintings,childhood didn't exist before the Medieval that children shared work and production with adults as a family unit until the 16th century,when upper class family began to send the children to the school. Furthermore,with the arrival of industrialisation,nuclear family gradually replaced extended family which suits more the requirement of the charactersitics like geographic mobility and therefore,parents have the chance to concentrate more on their children and realise the special needs of them. Besides,as the increasing standards of labour market,children didn't have the required skill and were left at home which asked parents to know the importance of education and training to children. Nextly,since the increasing average income of the world,people can afford to buy more things to their children and send them to receive education. What's more, the most important cause is the increasing competition of each country that the government should improve the productive capacity by increasing their human capital and more concerns on them . Consequently,Child Support Act firstly introduced the rights of children and other policies come into implement. For instance, parents have to continue to pay the fee to bring their children up after separation and divorce and the introduction of compulsory education with more types of schools to suit different students. Recent to these years,children problems such as domestic violence to the children also appeal to the concerns of the society to care more for the mental need of children.
get
-As we can see,there is a clear trend that children are concerned by more and more people nowadays no matter by the family itself or the whole society. For example,there are a lots of laws which concentrate on the rights of children since 1989 with the Child Support Act.
In fact,we can value the change by the changes of society and the corresponding changes in family structure.
Indicated by the sociologist-Aries' study on the paintings,childhood didn't exist before the Medieval that children shared work and production with adults as a family unit until the 16th century,when upper class family began to send the children to the school. Furthermore,with the arrival of industrialisation,nuclear family gradually replaced extended family which suits more the requirement of the charactersitics like geographic mobility and therefore,parents have the chance to concentrate more on their children and realise the special needs of them. Besides,as the increasing standards of labour market,children didn't have the required skill and were left at home which asked parents to know the importance of education and training to children. Nextly,since the increasing average income of the world,people can afford to buy more things to their children and send them to receive education. What's more, the most important cause is the increasing competition of each country that the government should improve the productive capacity by increasing their human capital and more concerns on them . Consequently,Child Support Act firstly introduced the rights of children and other policies come into implement. For instance, parents have to continue to pay the fee to bring their children up after separation and divorce and the introduction of compulsory education with more types of schools to suit different students. Recent to these years,children problems such as domestic violence to the children also appeal to the concerns of the society to care more for the mental need of children.
get
Thursday, 16 April 2009
SomethingSomething~(daily)
Economy of scale(I found it in the revision manual which i always forgot):
Economies of scale is a long run concept and refers to reductions in unit cost as the size of a facility, or scale, increases which is illustrated on the diagram above.Diseconomies of scale are the opposite. Economies of scale may be utilized by any size firm expanding its scale of operation. The common ones are purchasing, managerial (increasing the specialization of managers), financial (obtaining lower-interest charges when borrowing from banks and having access to a greater range of financial instruments), and marketing (spreading the cost of advertising over a greater range of output in media markets). Each of these factors reduces the long run average costs (LRAC) of production by shifting the short-run average total cost (SRATC) curve down and to the right.
It's always a purpose of firms investment with technical advances. Besides,when we consider the importance of investment,we should think about 3c-capacity,costs,competitiveness.
Wednesday, 15 April 2009
Continue!! (I love family!~)
A number of changes have taken place, such as the rise in the number of same-sex couples and of lone parents. these have resulted in families becoming much more diverse.However Somerville (2000) argues that these changes are exaggerated. The apparent diversity of family life is based on a snapshot at any one time and, if a life cycle approach is taken, many people have a fairly conventional experience of the family.
e) Use material from Item 2B and elsewhere, assess the view that the nuclear family is no longer the norm. Tranditionally,nuclear family,which is consist of a married couple and two children who are the couple's biological offspring, is considered as universal which fits every family well by Murdock and also supported by the New Right as the Bedrock of Society. However,from the item 2B,we can see there is a rise in the number of lesbian,gay family and lone parents which is against the nuclear family. Furthermore,Susan MacRae made an introduction in 1999 that Britain today is a more complex society than before, with great family diversity: one-person family,cohabitation,lone-parent family and same-sex couples. In fact,we can see it as a result of changes in society of social construction,social value and social policy. Firstly,since the society converted to industrial society, the labour market is expanded and the types of jobs have changed with an increase number of service jobs which requires more women to work. Therefore,women were changing their attitudes and increasingly aimed for occupations which is found by Francis&Skelton. With the increasing independence and confidence suggested by Sharpe,they have the ability to divorce or bring up children by themselves. Besides,as Allan and Crow says,the improving technology in health care as contraception makes couples possible to cohabit without the fears of having babies which may encourages the number of cohabitation. Nextly,divorce becomes more socially acceptable and the increasing divorce rates led the normalisation of divorce as a good means to deal with unhappy marriage indicated by Cockett&Tripp. Some people argued that a decilne in nuclear family meaned a breakdown of tranditional values on marriage and love. But in fact,because some couples expect too much on the marriage,they are less likely to bear the unhappiness and easy to divorce or choose cohabitation as the alternative from the view of Fletcher&Parsons. Another similar view which see overloading marriage lead to the breakdown of nuclear family because of the over-dependence and too much demand of emotion support is cited by Coontz.What's more,the changes of social policy also affect the family structure very much. For example,government provides lots of welfare benefits to single mothers which encourages women to divorce. Besides,the simplified procedure of divorce made it easier and quicker to separate from the partners such as the Divorce Reform Act. Lastly,both the Act of Parliament in 2002 which made it legal for same-sex couples to adopt children and the Civil Partnership Act in UK in 2005 which gave identical rights to same-sex couples to marry increase the number of same-sex family. However,although there is an increasing trend in family diversity and it's supported by Postmodernest like Stacey who viewed it as suitable to the changing society to meet the demands of different kinds of people,the changes may have been exaggerated suggested by Somevill in the item B and some functionalists like Chester. Even though the increase in family types is obvious,the nuclear family remains the dominant family structure. Furthermore,Chester pointed out that the nuclear family is becoming more symmetrical (Willmott&Young) which fits the society better than before.
e) Use material from Item 2B and elsewhere, assess the view that the nuclear family is no longer the norm. Tranditionally,nuclear family,which is consist of a married couple and two children who are the couple's biological offspring, is considered as universal which fits every family well by Murdock and also supported by the New Right as the Bedrock of Society. However,from the item 2B,we can see there is a rise in the number of lesbian,gay family and lone parents which is against the nuclear family. Furthermore,Susan MacRae made an introduction in 1999 that Britain today is a more complex society than before, with great family diversity: one-person family,cohabitation,lone-parent family and same-sex couples. In fact,we can see it as a result of changes in society of social construction,social value and social policy. Firstly,since the society converted to industrial society, the labour market is expanded and the types of jobs have changed with an increase number of service jobs which requires more women to work. Therefore,women were changing their attitudes and increasingly aimed for occupations which is found by Francis&Skelton. With the increasing independence and confidence suggested by Sharpe,they have the ability to divorce or bring up children by themselves. Besides,as Allan and Crow says,the improving technology in health care as contraception makes couples possible to cohabit without the fears of having babies which may encourages the number of cohabitation. Nextly,divorce becomes more socially acceptable and the increasing divorce rates led the normalisation of divorce as a good means to deal with unhappy marriage indicated by Cockett&Tripp. Some people argued that a decilne in nuclear family meaned a breakdown of tranditional values on marriage and love. But in fact,because some couples expect too much on the marriage,they are less likely to bear the unhappiness and easy to divorce or choose cohabitation as the alternative from the view of Fletcher&Parsons. Another similar view which see overloading marriage lead to the breakdown of nuclear family because of the over-dependence and too much demand of emotion support is cited by Coontz.What's more,the changes of social policy also affect the family structure very much. For example,government provides lots of welfare benefits to single mothers which encourages women to divorce. Besides,the simplified procedure of divorce made it easier and quicker to separate from the partners such as the Divorce Reform Act. Lastly,both the Act of Parliament in 2002 which made it legal for same-sex couples to adopt children and the Civil Partnership Act in UK in 2005 which gave identical rights to same-sex couples to marry increase the number of same-sex family. However,although there is an increasing trend in family diversity and it's supported by Postmodernest like Stacey who viewed it as suitable to the changing society to meet the demands of different kinds of people,the changes may have been exaggerated suggested by Somevill in the item B and some functionalists like Chester. Even though the increase in family types is obvious,the nuclear family remains the dominant family structure. Furthermore,Chester pointed out that the nuclear family is becoming more symmetrical (Willmott&Young) which fits the society better than before.
Sociology homework: Family and households
a) Explain what is meant by the expressive role?
As the name indicates,expressive role is acted by people who are always and more likely to convey the feelings of them which can be seen as emotional support. Therefore,expressive role always stands for the female who stay at home and contribute to the well-being of the relationship in the family. From http://socserv.mcmaster.ca/soc/courses/soc2r3/sf/parsons.htm,expressive role=woman=inside family(tension management and child socialisation).
b) Suggest two ways in which 'family life may have a harmful effect on women
'1)unpaid housework 2)domestic violence
c) Suggests three reasons for the decrease in the death rate since the 1900
1)An improvement in health service.2)A reduction in poverty.3)Increased income and living standards.
d) Examine the ways in which childhood can be said to be socially constructed.
Something that is socially constructed means it is constructed by social meanings and definitions of the society. As Philip Aries describes,the concept of childhood didn't exist in medieval until the 16th century when the upper class family sent their children to schools to get education that children began to be separated with adults. Afterwards,the boundary between adults and children is more clear that in the 19th century,there were some laws that "employment of children is banned and education is compulsory" which shows the separation of children from the adult settings and the different legal status. As the society's value and actions of children change,the childhood also changes. Then is followed by 1989 that the Children Act firstly outlined children's rights and aimed to protect them. For example,Bukatka and Daehler pointed out that the marriage of children under 12 is prohibited. Besides,the Child Support Agency force the absent parents to pay and finance. Then,we can see that children receive really big attention from the society nowadays. Furthermore,we can use the evidende of cross-culture childhood. Different culture and social values will affect the childhood lifeas they are socially constructed. For instance,Asian family always try hard to protect the children whereas children from the Pacific island of Tikopia are allowed to use tools themselves to do some dangerous tasks if they felt ready. However,childhood is not socially constructed all the time. It is said by Nick Lee that the adulthood becomes unstable and therefore reduces the control on the children. This led to the a change in the social construction of childhood and children's rights are increasing. Although it is argued by Neil Postman that the media is breaking down the boundaries between adults and children which may lead to the disappearance of childhood,correct education and displine by parents and teachers can guide the children and hold on their world.
e) Use material from Item 2B and elsewhere, assess the view that the nuclear family is no longer the norm.(not finished till tomorrow)
As the name indicates,expressive role is acted by people who are always and more likely to convey the feelings of them which can be seen as emotional support. Therefore,expressive role always stands for the female who stay at home and contribute to the well-being of the relationship in the family. From http://socserv.mcmaster.ca/soc/courses/soc2r3/sf/parsons.htm,expressive role=woman=inside family(tension management and child socialisation).
b) Suggest two ways in which 'family life may have a harmful effect on women
'1)unpaid housework 2)domestic violence
c) Suggests three reasons for the decrease in the death rate since the 1900
1)An improvement in health service.2)A reduction in poverty.3)Increased income and living standards.
d) Examine the ways in which childhood can be said to be socially constructed.
Something that is socially constructed means it is constructed by social meanings and definitions of the society. As Philip Aries describes,the concept of childhood didn't exist in medieval until the 16th century when the upper class family sent their children to schools to get education that children began to be separated with adults. Afterwards,the boundary between adults and children is more clear that in the 19th century,there were some laws that "employment of children is banned and education is compulsory" which shows the separation of children from the adult settings and the different legal status. As the society's value and actions of children change,the childhood also changes. Then is followed by 1989 that the Children Act firstly outlined children's rights and aimed to protect them. For example,Bukatka and Daehler pointed out that the marriage of children under 12 is prohibited. Besides,the Child Support Agency force the absent parents to pay and finance. Then,we can see that children receive really big attention from the society nowadays. Furthermore,we can use the evidende of cross-culture childhood. Different culture and social values will affect the childhood lifeas they are socially constructed. For instance,Asian family always try hard to protect the children whereas children from the Pacific island of Tikopia are allowed to use tools themselves to do some dangerous tasks if they felt ready. However,childhood is not socially constructed all the time. It is said by Nick Lee that the adulthood becomes unstable and therefore reduces the control on the children. This led to the a change in the social construction of childhood and children's rights are increasing. Although it is argued by Neil Postman that the media is breaking down the boundaries between adults and children which may lead to the disappearance of childhood,correct education and displine by parents and teachers can guide the children and hold on their world.
e) Use material from Item 2B and elsewhere, assess the view that the nuclear family is no longer the norm.(not finished till tomorrow)
Wednesday, 25 March 2009
Sociological expanations of the different educational achievements(important notes>_<)
Generally,we can divide the explanations into 3 parts: Social class,ethnicity and gender from factors inside and outside schools.
Social class:
-outside: 1.material deprivation:A lack of money will lead to inadequate studing resources like textbooks,computor access. Besides,the living and studing condition will not suitable for students which may make them uncomfortable or even cause illness and absenteeism from school. Therefor,a lot of researchers gave evidence and explanations:
1) Halsey(1980): found that the most important facor preventing working-class students continuing school was a lack of financial support.
2) Douglas(1964): stated that children living in unsatisfactory condition didn't do well in tests compared to kids from comfortable backgrounds.
3) Phillips(2001): showed that the "socially excluded" pupils are not simply poor but the consequence of family attitudes and values that are anti-education and a system that both encourages dependency and undermines individual responsibilities.
2.home fators and parental interest:1) Douglas saw parental interest and support as the most important factor affecting pupils' progress. 2) Reay argued that unlike working-class parents, many middle-school parents especially mothers,invest "emotional labour" in their children'education.
3.language differences: the speech patterns of different families will affect the children's achievements. Bernstein identified two codes-restricted and elaborated codes. He thought that middle-class students have advantages for that elaborated codes are the language of education. However, Labov argued that the restricted codes are just different not inadequate.
4.culture capital: According to Bourdieu,inequalities in power and wealth in society account for the inequalities in educational achievements. He argued that the children have been socialised into the dominat culture which will always exclude the working-class students and enable them to fail in the exams and self-elimination.
5.positional theory: Marxist sociologist Boudon argued that educational inequality is inevitable because of social stratification. Students start schools from very different positions,depending on their social class.
-inside school: Firstly, labelling and self-fulfilling prophency: 1) Becker: said that teachers tended to see middle-class students as closer to ideal. 2) Keddie: found that teachers social class and streaming are closely linked that working-class students are more likely from lower streams. 3) Ball: Teachers had high expectations of pupils from top bands which are usually middle-class and taught them in different ways. Secondly,attitudes of children themselves.
1) Sugarman: The pupils from manual backgrounds lived for immediate grafitication rather than deferred grafitication.
2) Hyman: the values of the working-class students are self-imposed barrier to improving their position that working-class tend to place a low value on education.
3) Feinstein found that social class continued to have a significant impact on educational achievement and therefore,redistributive policies like Sure Start should carry on throughout a student's entire education.
Gender: Colley found that there're still significant gender differences remaining in option choices despite the National Curriculum.
-outside: 1. changes in attitudes: Sue Sharpe found that girls are more confident and independent that they aim at carrers and qualifications. 2.Boys are physically active while girls are more likely to spend their time reading. 3.The feminist movement caused a change in female expectations. 4.The change in labour market like an increase in service-sector jobs has enhanced the opprtunity for women. Ulrich Beck argued that women are leading the move towards the individualised self that they are setting the pace for change. 5. Changes in the female-handed family in which children lack the role model of fathers and that will threaten tranditional masculine identities in terms of Jackson.
-inside: 1.Laddish behaviour: Francis found that Laddish Behaviour in the school and anti-school attitudes of boys has been seen as a means of off-setting generally poor levels of esteem
they get from teachers and girls. 2. The introduction of National Curriculum ensured the equal subjects for boys and girls. 3.Mitsos and Browne said teaching has been feminised that women are more likely to teach in the classroom which gives girls positive role models. 4. Textbooke and resources. 5.The quality of interaction with teachers is different from boys and girls that girls are more likely to talk about homework and study according to Swann&Graddol. 5. Jackson said that schools tended to label boys negatively and may leads to self-fulfilling prophency. 6.Willis found out the anti-school subculture by lads that they reject school,mess up the classroom and see education as uesless.
Ethnicity:
-outside: 1. Racism:Victimisation studies indicate that Asians are 50 times more likely to be the victims of a racist attack than white people. 2. Cultural deprivation: Afro-Caribbean home life is more stressful with high proportion of lone families that Pryce claimed that family among West Indians was turbulent while Asian families gives positive resources for their children.
3. language difference: Labelling theorists said that the dialects or having accent might influence the expectations of teachers. However,Driver and Ballard found Asian students whose English is not the first language are also good at English. 4.social class: The Swan Report found that social economic status was a factor in the low levels of achievement of Afro-Caribbean backgrounds.
-inside: 1.curriculum bias: The national curriculun doesn't include the history of black people and foreigh languages taught are always European. 2.Teacher expectation: According to Gillborn,teachers tend to lable the black negatively but have high expectations of Asian students. Besides,Coard said that the black students are made to feel inferior in British schools.
3. Pupil exclusions: Statistics indicate that all pupil exclusions have risen markedly since 1980s but Afro-Carebbean are over-represented.
Social class:
-outside: 1.material deprivation:A lack of money will lead to inadequate studing resources like textbooks,computor access. Besides,the living and studing condition will not suitable for students which may make them uncomfortable or even cause illness and absenteeism from school. Therefor,a lot of researchers gave evidence and explanations:
1) Halsey(1980): found that the most important facor preventing working-class students continuing school was a lack of financial support.
2) Douglas(1964): stated that children living in unsatisfactory condition didn't do well in tests compared to kids from comfortable backgrounds.
3) Phillips(2001): showed that the "socially excluded" pupils are not simply poor but the consequence of family attitudes and values that are anti-education and a system that both encourages dependency and undermines individual responsibilities.
2.home fators and parental interest:1) Douglas saw parental interest and support as the most important factor affecting pupils' progress. 2) Reay argued that unlike working-class parents, many middle-school parents especially mothers,invest "emotional labour" in their children'education.
3.language differences: the speech patterns of different families will affect the children's achievements. Bernstein identified two codes-restricted and elaborated codes. He thought that middle-class students have advantages for that elaborated codes are the language of education. However, Labov argued that the restricted codes are just different not inadequate.
4.culture capital: According to Bourdieu,inequalities in power and wealth in society account for the inequalities in educational achievements. He argued that the children have been socialised into the dominat culture which will always exclude the working-class students and enable them to fail in the exams and self-elimination.
5.positional theory: Marxist sociologist Boudon argued that educational inequality is inevitable because of social stratification. Students start schools from very different positions,depending on their social class.
-inside school: Firstly, labelling and self-fulfilling prophency: 1) Becker: said that teachers tended to see middle-class students as closer to ideal. 2) Keddie: found that teachers social class and streaming are closely linked that working-class students are more likely from lower streams. 3) Ball: Teachers had high expectations of pupils from top bands which are usually middle-class and taught them in different ways. Secondly,attitudes of children themselves.
1) Sugarman: The pupils from manual backgrounds lived for immediate grafitication rather than deferred grafitication.
2) Hyman: the values of the working-class students are self-imposed barrier to improving their position that working-class tend to place a low value on education.
3) Feinstein found that social class continued to have a significant impact on educational achievement and therefore,redistributive policies like Sure Start should carry on throughout a student's entire education.
Gender: Colley found that there're still significant gender differences remaining in option choices despite the National Curriculum.
-outside: 1. changes in attitudes: Sue Sharpe found that girls are more confident and independent that they aim at carrers and qualifications. 2.Boys are physically active while girls are more likely to spend their time reading. 3.The feminist movement caused a change in female expectations. 4.The change in labour market like an increase in service-sector jobs has enhanced the opprtunity for women. Ulrich Beck argued that women are leading the move towards the individualised self that they are setting the pace for change. 5. Changes in the female-handed family in which children lack the role model of fathers and that will threaten tranditional masculine identities in terms of Jackson.
-inside: 1.Laddish behaviour: Francis found that Laddish Behaviour in the school and anti-school attitudes of boys has been seen as a means of off-setting generally poor levels of esteem
they get from teachers and girls. 2. The introduction of National Curriculum ensured the equal subjects for boys and girls. 3.Mitsos and Browne said teaching has been feminised that women are more likely to teach in the classroom which gives girls positive role models. 4. Textbooke and resources. 5.The quality of interaction with teachers is different from boys and girls that girls are more likely to talk about homework and study according to Swann&Graddol. 5. Jackson said that schools tended to label boys negatively and may leads to self-fulfilling prophency. 6.Willis found out the anti-school subculture by lads that they reject school,mess up the classroom and see education as uesless.
Ethnicity:
-outside: 1. Racism:Victimisation studies indicate that Asians are 50 times more likely to be the victims of a racist attack than white people. 2. Cultural deprivation: Afro-Caribbean home life is more stressful with high proportion of lone families that Pryce claimed that family among West Indians was turbulent while Asian families gives positive resources for their children.
3. language difference: Labelling theorists said that the dialects or having accent might influence the expectations of teachers. However,Driver and Ballard found Asian students whose English is not the first language are also good at English. 4.social class: The Swan Report found that social economic status was a factor in the low levels of achievement of Afro-Caribbean backgrounds.
-inside: 1.curriculum bias: The national curriculun doesn't include the history of black people and foreigh languages taught are always European. 2.Teacher expectation: According to Gillborn,teachers tend to lable the black negatively but have high expectations of Asian students. Besides,Coard said that the black students are made to feel inferior in British schools.
3. Pupil exclusions: Statistics indicate that all pupil exclusions have risen markedly since 1980s but Afro-Carebbean are over-represented.
Tuesday, 24 March 2009
Note 13-- National income
National income is the income earned by people in an economy that measures the money value of the flow of output of goods and services produced within an economy over a period of time(always remember the time) and is generated through the production.
When we measure the national income,we will always talk about 3 accounts--output,spending and income. They are equal when calculating the gross domestic production whcih means the total output produced in an economy over a period of time. Therefore, National Output = National Expenditure (Aggregate Demand) = National Income.
1. Generally,the national income can be counted by C + I + G + (X-M) the same as the aggregate demand. I think it is because the output and income,expengditure are linked to the demand.
2.Income from people employment and in self-employment +Profits of private sector companies +Rent income from land= Gross Domestic product
p.s: Some items can't be included like:
1)Transfer payments are not included because transfer payments are money from one group to the other that will not be produced by production. e.g. the state pension paid to retired people,income support paid to families on low incomes and the Jobseekers’ Allowance .
2)Informal economy: In this economy,most of the economic activities are not legal or avoid the tax registerred to the authority that will attract more consumers and more income.
3.When we are looking at the output in th economy,the value added tax is very influential for that GDP adds together the value of output produced by each of the productive sectors and may cause a decline in output. Value added is the increase in the value of a product at each successive stage of the production process in order to avoid the problems of double-counting the value of intermediate inputs.
Therefore,there are some problems when measure the national income:
1)Statistics will be very complicated that it's difficult to organise and interpret.
2)Informal economy: Some output may be hidden to avoid tax.
3)Home production: Some products are made and consumed by people themselves rather than selling them to earn income,such as vegetables.
Lastly,we can refer to the gross domestic production and gross national production as GNP = GDP + Net property income from abroad ( interest, profits and dividends coming into the UK from our assets owned )
When we measure the national income,we will always talk about 3 accounts--output,spending and income. They are equal when calculating the gross domestic production whcih means the total output produced in an economy over a period of time. Therefore, National Output = National Expenditure (Aggregate Demand) = National Income.
1. Generally,the national income can be counted by C + I + G + (X-M) the same as the aggregate demand. I think it is because the output and income,expengditure are linked to the demand.
2.Income from people employment and in self-employment +Profits of private sector companies +Rent income from land= Gross Domestic product
p.s: Some items can't be included like:
1)Transfer payments are not included because transfer payments are money from one group to the other that will not be produced by production. e.g. the state pension paid to retired people,income support paid to families on low incomes and the Jobseekers’ Allowance .
2)Informal economy: In this economy,most of the economic activities are not legal or avoid the tax registerred to the authority that will attract more consumers and more income.
3.When we are looking at the output in th economy,the value added tax is very influential for that GDP adds together the value of output produced by each of the productive sectors and may cause a decline in output. Value added is the increase in the value of a product at each successive stage of the production process in order to avoid the problems of double-counting the value of intermediate inputs.
Therefore,there are some problems when measure the national income:
1)Statistics will be very complicated that it's difficult to organise and interpret.
2)Informal economy: Some output may be hidden to avoid tax.
3)Home production: Some products are made and consumed by people themselves rather than selling them to earn income,such as vegetables.
Lastly,we can refer to the gross domestic production and gross national production as GNP = GDP + Net property income from abroad ( interest, profits and dividends coming into the UK from our assets owned )
Sunday, 22 March 2009
Note 12-- trade deficit
Trade deficit occurs when the value of imports exceeds the value of export.
It is always seen as a negative situation because it will cause:
1)People may choose to comsume more import goods because of an inflation which may be harmful for the economic growth as import is a leakage while export is an injection.
2)It may caused by an high exchange rate which may reduces the trade between this country and others.
3)Decreasing demand for domestic goods may reduce the investment and increase the unemployment.
However,it can be positive that:
1)More imports may mean that domestic income is increasing that people' s demand for all goods is rising whereas income overseas may be relative low.
2)It may caused by high exchange rate which can mean that more foreigh people trust the country and save more as high interest rate.
If we want to reduce the deficit,we can use devaluation,deflation and import control.
We can use the J-curve to show the influence of devaluation. When the currency is decreased initially,the net export will reduce from A-B as well. But after a long time,net export will increase because export is cheap and foreign country will consume more.
From the BBC News,the trade deficit fell to the lowest level narrowed by 9.7% to $36 bn as export hasn't fallen sharply as import.
Saturday, 21 March 2009
Note 11-- Budget deficit
As the name indicates,budget deficit is about the balance between the taxation and government spending which resulting from the greater government spending exceeding the tax revenue.So let's think about the causes:1)Unemployment: With high unemployment,few people will go to jobs and pay their income tax,then tax revenue will go down. Conversely,government has to pay more for the welfare benefits,such as the Job Seeker Allowance.2)Interest rate: When interest rate is high,people will save more and consume less with less tax revenue. Besides,people who borrow money will be reduced which will cause the sructural unemployment and government also has to spend more on the transfers.3)Inflation? I firstly thought that if inflation is high,people will reduce their consumption because of the less value of their money and the taxation revenue will be decreased.But if the inflation is high which means an increasing demand,people will invest more and employ more with greater tax revenue. So is inflation caused by an increasing demand but causing an decreasing demand afterwards?? So is there something wrong with Philibs Curve??
If the budgt deficit is continuing,government will not have enough money to finance its' current activities,transfer benefits and capital investment. Therefore,they have to increase the tax rate
which may put pressure on the consumption by householders and reduce investment. Besides,government has to pay high debts instead of other opportunity costs like spending on the health. But on the other hand,it can mean more government spending on capital investment which can increase employment and stimulate the demand.
p.s. Remeber some information about UK like it is experiencing budget deficit about 3% in 2006.
If the budgt deficit is continuing,government will not have enough money to finance its' current activities,transfer benefits and capital investment. Therefore,they have to increase the tax rate
which may put pressure on the consumption by householders and reduce investment. Besides,government has to pay high debts instead of other opportunity costs like spending on the health. But on the other hand,it can mean more government spending on capital investment which can increase employment and stimulate the demand.
p.s. Remeber some information about UK like it is experiencing budget deficit about 3% in 2006.
Thursday, 19 March 2009
Note 10--International trade
International trade is a very important factor to a country's economy but is very easy to be left out when we interpret and analyse the economic perfermance.
International trade is mainly about imports and exports between countries as an exchange of capital,goods and services across the international boundaries.
So what's the difference between the international trade and domestic trade except the trading places?
The main and important difference is the content of the goods and services. Because it will take time for the trade to transfer from one country to the other or maybe sometimes transfer more times,the goods must be kept for a relative longer time.Therefore,some products like milk can't be included in the international trade. Besides,the factors of production such as capital and labour are also a kind of things can be transferred. Because some developing countries' labour will just ask for lower wages than the developed countries',some advanced countries like England will employ labour overseas to reduce their costs but there's a problem inside about the immobility of the labour. Therefore,some of the countries have to choose the import goods from them with lower prices instead of transferring labour. For example,instead of importing Chinese labor, the United States is importing labour-intensive goods from China that were produced with Chinese labor.
Secondly,the cost of international trade may costs more than the domestic trade.The reason is that a border typically imposes additional costs such as tariffs, time costs due to border delays and costs associated with country differences such as language, the legal system or a different culture. In addition,if the country is experiencing a recession,the government will build up some import controls like tariffs and quota as protectionism to those domestic firms or industries that it makes the international trade difficult to operate.
Traditionally the trade was regulated through bilateral treaties between two nations. The regulation of international trade now is done through the World Trade Organization at the global level. But the countries still have their own rights to decide what can be imported into their countries but they have to be passed through the World Trade Organisation.
We can also refer to the balance of payments in the economy which includes the imports and exports. And they will also affect the economic performance,such as more imports will reduce the demand for domestic goods.
International trade is mainly about imports and exports between countries as an exchange of capital,goods and services across the international boundaries.
So what's the difference between the international trade and domestic trade except the trading places?
The main and important difference is the content of the goods and services. Because it will take time for the trade to transfer from one country to the other or maybe sometimes transfer more times,the goods must be kept for a relative longer time.Therefore,some products like milk can't be included in the international trade. Besides,the factors of production such as capital and labour are also a kind of things can be transferred. Because some developing countries' labour will just ask for lower wages than the developed countries',some advanced countries like England will employ labour overseas to reduce their costs but there's a problem inside about the immobility of the labour. Therefore,some of the countries have to choose the import goods from them with lower prices instead of transferring labour. For example,instead of importing Chinese labor, the United States is importing labour-intensive goods from China that were produced with Chinese labor.
Secondly,the cost of international trade may costs more than the domestic trade.The reason is that a border typically imposes additional costs such as tariffs, time costs due to border delays and costs associated with country differences such as language, the legal system or a different culture. In addition,if the country is experiencing a recession,the government will build up some import controls like tariffs and quota as protectionism to those domestic firms or industries that it makes the international trade difficult to operate.
Traditionally the trade was regulated through bilateral treaties between two nations. The regulation of international trade now is done through the World Trade Organization at the global level. But the countries still have their own rights to decide what can be imported into their countries but they have to be passed through the World Trade Organisation.
We can also refer to the balance of payments in the economy which includes the imports and exports. And they will also affect the economic performance,such as more imports will reduce the demand for domestic goods.
Wednesday, 18 March 2009
Note 9--Balance of payments
Balance of payment is the record of money coming in and going out from the circular flow of income in an economy. It is vital for a country to have adjust and balance this record that it may affect the status of this country in the world and the relationship with other countries.
Balance of payment includes current account,capital account&financial account and net errors:
Current account: It records all the transactions spent on the regular activities:
1) Trade in goods: It is also called visible account which includes import goods and export goods. e.g. oil, manufatured goods. From the information from http://www.tutor2u.com/,we can see that UK has been experiencing the trade deficit in goods until 1991.
2) Trade in services: It is often be considered as invisible account that it consists of import goods and export goods like mainly banking,insurance,tourism. Conversely with the situation of deficit in the goods,trade in most services has a high surplus compared with other countries ex cept the international travel and transportation. But it can be seen as an increasing income in the Uk that people have higher living standards and can afford to consume more internatioal tourism .
3) Net investment income from overseas: It arises from interest payments profits and dividends from from external assets located outside the UK. .
4) Net transfers: Transfers between countries or government transfers. e.g. UK government payments to help fund the various spending programmes of the European Union. In this account,the record is always negative in UK because it is totally a contributor to the EU budget.
Capital&Financial account: Direct investment. e.g portfolio investment like the purchasing shares between countrt and abroad.
Net errors: It records the mistakes made by the economy to ensure the balance of payment does balance.
Balance of payment deficit is always a problem and we just look for the causes:
1) Exchange rates is so high that it makes the import cheaper to the country.
2) An increasing aggregate demand with scarce resources will lead to a shortage and consumers have to choose some import goods.
3) High income elasticity of demand for import: It is said that as income goes up,they will spend more on the import goods which may cause the deficit by consumtion-led growth.
4) A decline in the capital investment.
5) As the supply-side problem,it is always more essential. Because high demand and insufficient supply,cost-push inflation will be caused which may reduce the competitiveness of products that fewer foregners will purchase them.
Then,it will lead to some effects like:
1) The inflation might be reduced because of the more demand for import goods and less demand for domestic goods.
2) Living standards may be increased as people have more choices and increasing ability to consume as cheaper prices of imports.
3) However,this will lead to a reduction in employment because of a lack of demand for domestic goods and investment.
To improve the balance of payments,we can use fiscal policy,monetary policy and supplu-side policy. But here,we can also use the devaluation,deflation and import control to reduce the exchange rate in order to reduce the trade deficit.
We can refer to the Marshall Learner Theorem which states that devaluation will improve balance of payments when the sum of the elasticity of demand for impoerts and exports is greater than 1.
Questions!!!I still don't know what are included in the capital&financial account?? There are a lot of different answers on the internet~
Balance of payment includes current account,capital account&financial account and net errors:
Current account: It records all the transactions spent on the regular activities:
1) Trade in goods: It is also called visible account which includes import goods and export goods. e.g. oil, manufatured goods. From the information from http://www.tutor2u.com/,we can see that UK has been experiencing the trade deficit in goods until 1991.
2) Trade in services: It is often be considered as invisible account that it consists of import goods and export goods like mainly banking,insurance,tourism. Conversely with the situation of deficit in the goods,trade in most services has a high surplus compared with other countries ex cept the international travel and transportation. But it can be seen as an increasing income in the Uk that people have higher living standards and can afford to consume more internatioal tourism .
3) Net investment income from overseas: It arises from interest payments profits and dividends from from external assets located outside the UK. .
4) Net transfers: Transfers between countries or government transfers. e.g. UK government payments to help fund the various spending programmes of the European Union. In this account,the record is always negative in UK because it is totally a contributor to the EU budget.
Capital&Financial account: Direct investment. e.g portfolio investment like the purchasing shares between countrt and abroad.
Net errors: It records the mistakes made by the economy to ensure the balance of payment does balance.
Balance of payment deficit is always a problem and we just look for the causes:
1) Exchange rates is so high that it makes the import cheaper to the country.
2) An increasing aggregate demand with scarce resources will lead to a shortage and consumers have to choose some import goods.
3) High income elasticity of demand for import: It is said that as income goes up,they will spend more on the import goods which may cause the deficit by consumtion-led growth.
4) A decline in the capital investment.
5) As the supply-side problem,it is always more essential. Because high demand and insufficient supply,cost-push inflation will be caused which may reduce the competitiveness of products that fewer foregners will purchase them.
Then,it will lead to some effects like:
1) The inflation might be reduced because of the more demand for import goods and less demand for domestic goods.
2) Living standards may be increased as people have more choices and increasing ability to consume as cheaper prices of imports.
3) However,this will lead to a reduction in employment because of a lack of demand for domestic goods and investment.
To improve the balance of payments,we can use fiscal policy,monetary policy and supplu-side policy. But here,we can also use the devaluation,deflation and import control to reduce the exchange rate in order to reduce the trade deficit.
We can refer to the Marshall Learner Theorem which states that devaluation will improve balance of payments when the sum of the elasticity of demand for impoerts and exports is greater than 1.
Questions!!!I still don't know what are included in the capital&financial account?? There are a lot of different answers on the internet~
Sociology-about researching!
Comment (in your blog) the problems in researching schools and teachers - and the opportunities that the internet offers for sociologists carrying out such research.
The problems:
1)In fact,i wanted to find our school-EF Brittin Academy in the site firstly but i failed to find it. Then,i wanted to search Oxford School but a lot of schools appeared with a lot of strange names which made me confused that which Oxford School is the real Oxford that i wanted to know. Therefore,we can see that the information provided by the internet is not sufficient indeed and can't cover all the things. However,sometimes the information will be too much for us to organise and classify.
2) Because the internet is not a real world that everybody can upload things to the website and we don't know they are realistic or not.
3) As a good way to advertise themselves,some teachers and schools may praise themselves by saying a lot of good things in the website. Even some comments on the website can be fake that they just ask people to do that.
4) Some information on the website will not update regularly which can't reflect the situation now but just the past,such as the secondary data that based on the past research.
However,benefits are existing.
1) Unlimited information like official statistics that can help the researchers to get a better understanding.
2) Researchers can share the information in the same time or look at different types of information meanwhile.
3) It takes shorter time and less costs of the researchers to get the information.
Getting from information on the website is a kind of researching method but there is bound to be conflicts when using the data. It is just like a discussion between the secondary&primary sources and quantitative &qualitative data.
The problems:
1)In fact,i wanted to find our school-EF Brittin Academy in the site firstly but i failed to find it. Then,i wanted to search Oxford School but a lot of schools appeared with a lot of strange names which made me confused that which Oxford School is the real Oxford that i wanted to know. Therefore,we can see that the information provided by the internet is not sufficient indeed and can't cover all the things. However,sometimes the information will be too much for us to organise and classify.
2) Because the internet is not a real world that everybody can upload things to the website and we don't know they are realistic or not.
3) As a good way to advertise themselves,some teachers and schools may praise themselves by saying a lot of good things in the website. Even some comments on the website can be fake that they just ask people to do that.
4) Some information on the website will not update regularly which can't reflect the situation now but just the past,such as the secondary data that based on the past research.
However,benefits are existing.
1) Unlimited information like official statistics that can help the researchers to get a better understanding.
2) Researchers can share the information in the same time or look at different types of information meanwhile.
3) It takes shorter time and less costs of the researchers to get the information.
Getting from information on the website is a kind of researching method but there is bound to be conflicts when using the data. It is just like a discussion between the secondary&primary sources and quantitative &qualitative data.
Note 9--Taxation
TaxationThere are two types of tax:1) Direct taxation: Tax levied on the income,wealth and benefit of people like corporation tax,income tax,capital gains tax. Here,we can refer the progressive tax that it rises as income rises. Therefore,direct tax is always progressive tax.2) Indirect tax: Tax on the spending of goods and services,such as exercise duties and value add tax. They are generally regarded as regressive tax that it falls as income goes up or takes bigger percentage from income of the poor.
Taxation is the money collected by the government to finance their spending and by adjusting the tax,someeconomic objectives can be achieved.1)The decreasing tax can encourage people to consume more as their disposable income increases.Therefore,the investmentwill be increased that economic growth will be raised as well. 2)The decreasing tax can encourage unemployed people to seek jobs as their disposable income increases.3)But sometimes,increasing tax can reduce the consumption and demand to reduce inflation.
However,using tax to affect the economy is not easy because it will be very difficult to measure.
Tax is imposed on people that no one can avoid it in order to ensure the normal operation by government. However,a lot of people who want to escape from the indirect tax will go to black market which is called informal economy.In this economy,consumers don't need to pay the tax which attract many people. But it can't be included in the calculation of nationl income.
Taxation is the money collected by the government to finance their spending and by adjusting the tax,someeconomic objectives can be achieved.1)The decreasing tax can encourage people to consume more as their disposable income increases.Therefore,the investmentwill be increased that economic growth will be raised as well. 2)The decreasing tax can encourage unemployed people to seek jobs as their disposable income increases.3)But sometimes,increasing tax can reduce the consumption and demand to reduce inflation.
However,using tax to affect the economy is not easy because it will be very difficult to measure.
Tax is imposed on people that no one can avoid it in order to ensure the normal operation by government. However,a lot of people who want to escape from the indirect tax will go to black market which is called informal economy.In this economy,consumers don't need to pay the tax which attract many people. But it can't be included in the calculation of nationl income.
NOTE 8--Exchange rate
Exchange rate is the price of one currency in terms of the other currency. It is a component of monetary policy that it can affect the economic growth,unemployment,inflation and balance of payments focusing on the export and import.
To decide whether to increase exchange rate or not is very difficult.If there is a depreciation of currency:1) The less power of the domestic currency will lower the price of export and then, increase the export which may reduces the trade deficit.2) The price of import increases that the import goods will be reduced which put pressure on the domestic goods.
Exchange rate is the price of one currency in terms of the other currency. It is a component of monetary policy that it can affect the economic growth,unemployment,inflation and balance of payments focusing on the export and import.
To decide whether to increase exchange rate or not is very difficult.If there is a depreciation of currency:1) The less power of the domestic currency will lower the price of export and then, increase the export which may reduces the trade deficit.2) The increasing export will be regarded as an injection to increase the economy.3) More confidence will be built up as more demand for domestic goods which leads to more investment.
Drawbacks:1) The price of import increases that the import goods will be reduced which put pressure on the domestic goods. Therefore,an increasing demand will lead to an inflation.2) Imports are more expensive with the depreciation which make the industries feel hard to buy the raw material that the cost of supply will increase.
We can use J-curve to illustrate the current account surplus or deficit affected by the exchange rate. Lastly,it's important to analyse the elasticity of import.
To decide whether to increase exchange rate or not is very difficult.If there is a depreciation of currency:1) The less power of the domestic currency will lower the price of export and then, increase the export which may reduces the trade deficit.2) The price of import increases that the import goods will be reduced which put pressure on the domestic goods.
Exchange rate is the price of one currency in terms of the other currency. It is a component of monetary policy that it can affect the economic growth,unemployment,inflation and balance of payments focusing on the export and import.
To decide whether to increase exchange rate or not is very difficult.If there is a depreciation of currency:1) The less power of the domestic currency will lower the price of export and then, increase the export which may reduces the trade deficit.2) The increasing export will be regarded as an injection to increase the economy.3) More confidence will be built up as more demand for domestic goods which leads to more investment.
Drawbacks:1) The price of import increases that the import goods will be reduced which put pressure on the domestic goods. Therefore,an increasing demand will lead to an inflation.2) Imports are more expensive with the depreciation which make the industries feel hard to buy the raw material that the cost of supply will increase.
We can use J-curve to illustrate the current account surplus or deficit affected by the exchange rate. Lastly,it's important to analyse the elasticity of import.
Tuesday, 17 March 2009
Note 7- Interest rate
Interest rate is the charge by the bank when borrowing money and the money paid to you when saving money as a reward. It is made by the central bank of a country according to different stages of economy and the economic performance.
Therefore,we can know that interest rate is a tool in monetary policy to affect the economic objectives through influencing the investment and consumption.
But why does the interest rate play a considerably important role in the market?
1)It will affect exchange rate in the same direction like that as interest rate goes down,the confidence from overseas to the country will be redcued which resulting to the decreasing power of the currency. Then the exchange rate can affect the balance of payments.
2) It will increase the money supply in the bank to operate the bank better or borrow debts.
3) Inflation can be reduced by increasing interest rate resulting to less consumption and demand.
4) Unemployment can be reduced as a result of an increasing demand resulting from the increasing interest rate.
5) More investment and export as injections in the economy will lead to economic growth by a decline in interest rate.
However,interest rate is determined by the central bank and it's limited for the bank to change the figure. Besides,even if the interest rate is low,people have to take a time to consider to increase consumption or not. What's more, if it is in a recession,the low interest rate can't encourage consumers to consume more.
Therefore,we can know that interest rate is a tool in monetary policy to affect the economic objectives through influencing the investment and consumption.
But why does the interest rate play a considerably important role in the market?
1)It will affect exchange rate in the same direction like that as interest rate goes down,the confidence from overseas to the country will be redcued which resulting to the decreasing power of the currency. Then the exchange rate can affect the balance of payments.
2) It will increase the money supply in the bank to operate the bank better or borrow debts.
3) Inflation can be reduced by increasing interest rate resulting to less consumption and demand.
4) Unemployment can be reduced as a result of an increasing demand resulting from the increasing interest rate.
5) More investment and export as injections in the economy will lead to economic growth by a decline in interest rate.
However,interest rate is determined by the central bank and it's limited for the bank to change the figure. Besides,even if the interest rate is low,people have to take a time to consider to increase consumption or not. What's more, if it is in a recession,the low interest rate can't encourage consumers to consume more.
Note 6- Economic growth
Economic growth is defined as an sustained increase in the productive potential produced in the economy in the long run which is considered as an objective of an economy.
Let's see the causes of the economic growth:
1)In the short run,it can be increased by a rising aggregate demand,e.g export-led growth and consumption -led growth.
2)In the long run,we have to go to supply-side that economic growth can be achieved by the increasing productive capacity,namely the quantity and quality of resources. e.g. an improving technology to increase the productivity of the supply.
But why does the economic growth so important for an economy?
Benefits:
1) The economic growth that be created by an increase in aggregate demand will encourage the unemployed people to seek jobs. Consequently,the unemployment can be reduced.
2) Living standards will be raised because of a rise on the national income of consumers and people can buy what they want to meet their their demand.
3) As the employment rate increasing,tax revenue will be increasd to finance the goverment spending like on the capital goods.
4) The increasing investment caused by an encouraging signal of more consumption will offer more occupations to those unemployed people.
5) It will also increase the status of the country.
6) Business and consumer confidence.
However,the disadvanges:
1) The economic growth may produce demand-pull inflation.
2) The economic growth is always happening accompanied by increasing evironmental problems,such as the water pollution by too much fishing.
To solve this problems,sustainable economic growth is preferred which means economic growth that can continue over-time and does not endanger the next generation's ability to expand their productive capacity.
And the trend growth is also very important for an economy. The trend growth is the expected increase in potential output that the economy can produce.
1)Positive output gap: If the economy grows much faster than the trend, then aggregate demand will eventually exceed long-run aggregate supply and lead to a positive output gap which can lead to demand-pull and cost-push inflation.
2) Negative output gap: If the actual putput is lower than the potential output,it will lead to downward pressure on prices and rising unemployment because of a lack of aggregate demand.
Let's see the causes of the economic growth:
1)In the short run,it can be increased by a rising aggregate demand,e.g export-led growth and consumption -led growth.
2)In the long run,we have to go to supply-side that economic growth can be achieved by the increasing productive capacity,namely the quantity and quality of resources. e.g. an improving technology to increase the productivity of the supply.
But why does the economic growth so important for an economy?
Benefits:
1) The economic growth that be created by an increase in aggregate demand will encourage the unemployed people to seek jobs. Consequently,the unemployment can be reduced.
2) Living standards will be raised because of a rise on the national income of consumers and people can buy what they want to meet their their demand.
3) As the employment rate increasing,tax revenue will be increasd to finance the goverment spending like on the capital goods.
4) The increasing investment caused by an encouraging signal of more consumption will offer more occupations to those unemployed people.
5) It will also increase the status of the country.
6) Business and consumer confidence.
However,the disadvanges:
1) The economic growth may produce demand-pull inflation.
2) The economic growth is always happening accompanied by increasing evironmental problems,such as the water pollution by too much fishing.
To solve this problems,sustainable economic growth is preferred which means economic growth that can continue over-time and does not endanger the next generation's ability to expand their productive capacity.
And the trend growth is also very important for an economy. The trend growth is the expected increase in potential output that the economy can produce.
1)Positive output gap: If the economy grows much faster than the trend, then aggregate demand will eventually exceed long-run aggregate supply and lead to a positive output gap which can lead to demand-pull and cost-push inflation.
2) Negative output gap: If the actual putput is lower than the potential output,it will lead to downward pressure on prices and rising unemployment because of a lack of aggregate demand.
Monday, 16 March 2009
Note 5- Inflation
Inflation is the sustained rise in the price levels of products or services produced in an economy that is an objective of an economy.
There are two types of inflation: Demand-pull inflation and cost-push inflation. They may lead to
1)a fall in the value of money
2)menu cost
3)shoeleather cost
4)administrative cost
5)inflationary noise.
6)loss of international competitiveness
7)random redistribution of income
8)uncertainty
1.Demand-pull inflation is caused by an increasing demand but insufficient supply.Therefore,the causes can be:
1)A cut in exchange rates: Then,the price of import goods will increase which lead to less import. Consequently,people have to buy more domestic goods to satisfy themselves.
2)A cut in taxation: People have more disposable income which can be spent and the demand will rise.
3) A cut in interest rate: This will encourage people to consume more rather than saving.
if we want to reduce the inflation,we can also use the fiscal and monetary policy:
1) Increasing interest rate to reduce the consumption and demand.
2) Increasing taxation on the products and people will consume and demand less.
2. Supply-cost inflation is caused by an increasing costs of supply:
Short run:
1) Wage of labour increases.
2) Increase in the raw materials.
3) Higher indirect tax imposed on some goods like exercise duty.
Long run:
e1)The economy is almost at full capacity and it's dificult to find suitable people.
We can use supply-side policy to promote the supply:
1)Education and training to incease the productivity.
2) Reducing the power of Trade Union.
3)Increasing exchange rates to reduce the burden on domestic goods and increase the competitiveness.
The inflation rate is targeted to be 2%.
There are two types of inflation: Demand-pull inflation and cost-push inflation. They may lead to
1)a fall in the value of money
2)menu cost
3)shoeleather cost
4)administrative cost
5)inflationary noise.
6)loss of international competitiveness
7)random redistribution of income
8)uncertainty
1.Demand-pull inflation is caused by an increasing demand but insufficient supply.Therefore,the causes can be:
1)A cut in exchange rates: Then,the price of import goods will increase which lead to less import. Consequently,people have to buy more domestic goods to satisfy themselves.
2)A cut in taxation: People have more disposable income which can be spent and the demand will rise.
3) A cut in interest rate: This will encourage people to consume more rather than saving.
if we want to reduce the inflation,we can also use the fiscal and monetary policy:
1) Increasing interest rate to reduce the consumption and demand.
2) Increasing taxation on the products and people will consume and demand less.
2. Supply-cost inflation is caused by an increasing costs of supply:
Short run:
1) Wage of labour increases.
2) Increase in the raw materials.
3) Higher indirect tax imposed on some goods like exercise duty.
Long run:
e1)The economy is almost at full capacity and it's dificult to find suitable people.
We can use supply-side policy to promote the supply:
1)Education and training to incease the productivity.
2) Reducing the power of Trade Union.
3)Increasing exchange rates to reduce the burden on domestic goods and increase the competitiveness.
The inflation rate is targeted to be 2%.
Note 4- unemployment
Unemployment,which stands for those who are able,available to work and seeking jobs at the working ages but without jobs,is one of the main objectives in an economy.
There are 3 kinds of unemployments mainly:
1)Cyclical unemployment: It is arising from a lack of demands in an economy like decreasing consumption that due to the recession. The reducing demnd may discourage the industries to reduce their investment,instead,rationalise their operations by cutting jobs in order to decrease the costs.
2)Structural unemployment: It is arising from a decline in industries and occupations of jobs. As the globalisation increasing,the pattern of trades will be changed maybe leads to a large market for the unemployment or maybe no. For example,in the Uk,a lot of manufacturing industries have lost jobs maybe because of their specialisation that few people can satisfy the requirement.
3) Frictional unemployment: It's a short run unemployment that people are in-between jobs. It's a very common situation.
Of course,we can also refer to these unemployments:
1) Seasonal unemployment: This may happen on the people whose jobs are depending on the weather,such as the surfing board industries.
2) Technological unemployment
3) International unemployment
In fact,why the unemployment is so important to the economy? What will it take to the economy:
Costs:
1) Lost income for the unemployed people: This may affect their families and reducing their living standards.
2) Lost output: As less people can go to work,the labour market doesn't have enough labour to produce products and maybe it will cause supply-cost inflation.
3) Lost tax revenue and more government spending: The fewer people who have jobs,the less tax revenue the government can get and then,they have to spend more on the welfare benefits to support some people.
4) Pressure on other forms of government spending
Benefits:
1) Some people may find better jobs after the unemployment.
2) Reduce demand-pull inflation.
Then,what policies can we use to reduce it??
On demand-side,we can use fiscal policy or monetary policy:
1)Reducing tax and increasing government spending.
2)Reducing interest rate to encourage consumption and investment.
On supply side:
1) Education and training.
2) Decreasing income tax to attract more job-seekers.
3) Subsidies to some small firms to expand their sizes.
Lastly,there are two measures about the unemployment:
1) Claimant Count: The measure includes people receiving the job-seeker allowance and national insurance.
2) The Labour Force Survey: It uses the international definition of unemployment and have more datas to the precise measure.
There are 3 kinds of unemployments mainly:
1)Cyclical unemployment: It is arising from a lack of demands in an economy like decreasing consumption that due to the recession. The reducing demnd may discourage the industries to reduce their investment,instead,rationalise their operations by cutting jobs in order to decrease the costs.
2)Structural unemployment: It is arising from a decline in industries and occupations of jobs. As the globalisation increasing,the pattern of trades will be changed maybe leads to a large market for the unemployment or maybe no. For example,in the Uk,a lot of manufacturing industries have lost jobs maybe because of their specialisation that few people can satisfy the requirement.
3) Frictional unemployment: It's a short run unemployment that people are in-between jobs. It's a very common situation.
Of course,we can also refer to these unemployments:
1) Seasonal unemployment: This may happen on the people whose jobs are depending on the weather,such as the surfing board industries.
2) Technological unemployment
3) International unemployment
In fact,why the unemployment is so important to the economy? What will it take to the economy:
Costs:
1) Lost income for the unemployed people: This may affect their families and reducing their living standards.
2) Lost output: As less people can go to work,the labour market doesn't have enough labour to produce products and maybe it will cause supply-cost inflation.
3) Lost tax revenue and more government spending: The fewer people who have jobs,the less tax revenue the government can get and then,they have to spend more on the welfare benefits to support some people.
4) Pressure on other forms of government spending
Benefits:
1) Some people may find better jobs after the unemployment.
2) Reduce demand-pull inflation.
Then,what policies can we use to reduce it??
On demand-side,we can use fiscal policy or monetary policy:
1)Reducing tax and increasing government spending.
2)Reducing interest rate to encourage consumption and investment.
On supply side:
1) Education and training.
2) Decreasing income tax to attract more job-seekers.
3) Subsidies to some small firms to expand their sizes.
Lastly,there are two measures about the unemployment:
1) Claimant Count: The measure includes people receiving the job-seeker allowance and national insurance.
2) The Labour Force Survey: It uses the international definition of unemployment and have more datas to the precise measure.
Sunday, 15 March 2009
Note 2--supply-side policy
Supply-side policy is the policy to increase the potential output of goods or services and make
the markets work more efficiently.
Apart from the other two policies,supply side policy concentrates mainly on the aggregate supply which is regarded as the
sustained
factor to produce the long-term economic growth without inflation.
When we consider the supply of the market,there are two types of market--Labour market and product market.
Product market is about the goods and services produced in an economy and the aim of the supply-side policy is to increase the productivity that it can produce more with the scarce resources. There are several supply-side policies to affect the product market:
1) Privatisation: Transferred assets from the public to the private sectors (i.e sole-trader,partnership and limited company). For example,the British airway and British gas. It is done to encourage competition of the products or goods and break down the monopolies,then to increase the supply finally.
2) Investment: Government is likely to invest more on the capital goods in order to provide more choices for consumers to meet the demand.
3) Cut tax: Cutting tax like corporation tax can encourage business or industries to invest more which may leads to economic growth.
4) Encouragement to small firms: Sometimes it is a way of protectionism and can increase the competitiveness. E.g. Loan guarantee, advice for firms.
Supply-side policy for labour market is mainly to increase the quality and quantity of the supply labour available for the economy in order to raise the supply efficiently.
1) Trade Union: Reducing the power of the trade union can prevent increasing the wages of the labour and the cost of supply.
2) Education and training: Rising government spending on education and training will produce more incentives for the people and get better skills and knowledge required by the workforce. Consequently,labour can produce the products more efficiently.
3) Income tax reform: A decline in income tax will encourage people to seek jobs and produce the supply-labour.
Supply-side policy is an useful and necessary policy to provide long-term economic growth but it's not enough without the increasing demand. Therefore,we should consider demand-side and supply-side together.
However,sometimes the supply-side policy can not work very well.
1) If there is a lack of aggregate demand, supply-side policy will lose its; functions.
2) Some policies like increasing spending on education have to take a long time see the efficiency.
3) The private sector may not be good.
the markets work more efficiently.
Apart from the other two policies,supply side policy concentrates mainly on the aggregate supply which is regarded as the
sustained
factor to produce the long-term economic growth without inflation.
When we consider the supply of the market,there are two types of market--Labour market and product market.
Product market is about the goods and services produced in an economy and the aim of the supply-side policy is to increase the productivity that it can produce more with the scarce resources. There are several supply-side policies to affect the product market:
1) Privatisation: Transferred assets from the public to the private sectors (i.e sole-trader,partnership and limited company). For example,the British airway and British gas. It is done to encourage competition of the products or goods and break down the monopolies,then to increase the supply finally.
2) Investment: Government is likely to invest more on the capital goods in order to provide more choices for consumers to meet the demand.
3) Cut tax: Cutting tax like corporation tax can encourage business or industries to invest more which may leads to economic growth.
4) Encouragement to small firms: Sometimes it is a way of protectionism and can increase the competitiveness. E.g. Loan guarantee, advice for firms.
Supply-side policy for labour market is mainly to increase the quality and quantity of the supply labour available for the economy in order to raise the supply efficiently.
1) Trade Union: Reducing the power of the trade union can prevent increasing the wages of the labour and the cost of supply.
2) Education and training: Rising government spending on education and training will produce more incentives for the people and get better skills and knowledge required by the workforce. Consequently,labour can produce the products more efficiently.
3) Income tax reform: A decline in income tax will encourage people to seek jobs and produce the supply-labour.
Supply-side policy is an useful and necessary policy to provide long-term economic growth but it's not enough without the increasing demand. Therefore,we should consider demand-side and supply-side together.
However,sometimes the supply-side policy can not work very well.
1) If there is a lack of aggregate demand, supply-side policy will lose its; functions.
2) Some policies like increasing spending on education have to take a long time see the efficiency.
3) The private sector may not be good.
Saturday, 14 March 2009
Note 2--monetary policy
Monetary policy is the process operated by the central bank to use money supply,exchange rate and interest rate to control the amount of people's savings and borrowings.For example,if the interest rate is increased,people will save more in the bank instead of consuming.
In this policy,interest rate is the most effective means for that the change of it will affect the money supply and exchange rate as well. It is just like when the interest rate rises,the exchange rate will change in the same direction because foreign people feel confident of the country that they will choose to save their money in the country's bank and the pound will have more power. Besides,the increasing interests paid by the borrowers and the money savings can increase the money supply.
Therefore,interest rate is always used to achieve the economic objectives. In order to increase economic growth and solve the problems of unemployment or balance of payments deficit,the bank will reduce interest rate to encourage the consumption and investment. However,if they want to reduce inflation or enhance their money supply to operate,they have to increase the interest rate but then it will create the problem of unemployment and deficit again. So,we can always see a conflict between them and the bank have to trade-off according to different situations. The diagram below can show the relationship.
There is a very important point that interest rate is always related to housing market like the mortgage which is essential for the consumers. If the interest rate is high,the cost of mortgage will rise and the demand for the houses will be reduced. Consequently,the housing market will experience the low growth.
What's more?
When we consider whether to increase or decrease the interest rate,we should think about the signals from the housing market like the price of houses and inflation overseas or domestic and exchange rate as well.
In a conclusion,the aim of the monetary policy is to provide the price stability and support the economic policy by affecting:
1)Capital investment
2)Consumption and for credit card
3)Business and consumer confidence
4)Exchange rate
However,we should also know the drawbacks of the monetary policy.
1)Because the bank in England always forecast the future economic situation and then make decisions,sometimes the information is not so accurate. Therefore,there is a risk existing.
2)A central bank's ability to change the interest rate is limited.
3)It will take a long time for the economy to react because the consumers should observe the change for a period of time and build up their confidence.
4)If the interest rate is considerably low,to continue reducing interest rate to stimulate consumption will not make any difference to the economy.
In this policy,interest rate is the most effective means for that the change of it will affect the money supply and exchange rate as well. It is just like when the interest rate rises,the exchange rate will change in the same direction because foreign people feel confident of the country that they will choose to save their money in the country's bank and the pound will have more power. Besides,the increasing interests paid by the borrowers and the money savings can increase the money supply.
Therefore,interest rate is always used to achieve the economic objectives. In order to increase economic growth and solve the problems of unemployment or balance of payments deficit,the bank will reduce interest rate to encourage the consumption and investment. However,if they want to reduce inflation or enhance their money supply to operate,they have to increase the interest rate but then it will create the problem of unemployment and deficit again. So,we can always see a conflict between them and the bank have to trade-off according to different situations. The diagram below can show the relationship.
There is a very important point that interest rate is always related to housing market like the mortgage which is essential for the consumers. If the interest rate is high,the cost of mortgage will rise and the demand for the houses will be reduced. Consequently,the housing market will experience the low growth.
What's more?
When we consider whether to increase or decrease the interest rate,we should think about the signals from the housing market like the price of houses and inflation overseas or domestic and exchange rate as well.
In a conclusion,the aim of the monetary policy is to provide the price stability and support the economic policy by affecting:
1)Capital investment
2)Consumption and for credit card
3)Business and consumer confidence
4)Exchange rate
However,we should also know the drawbacks of the monetary policy.
1)Because the bank in England always forecast the future economic situation and then make decisions,sometimes the information is not so accurate. Therefore,there is a risk existing.
2)A central bank's ability to change the interest rate is limited.
3)It will take a long time for the economy to react because the consumers should observe the change for a period of time and build up their confidence.
4)If the interest rate is considerably low,to continue reducing interest rate to stimulate consumption will not make any difference to the economy.
Note 1--fiscal policy
Fiscal policy is one of the three policies that affect the demand and supply of an economy by adjusting taxation and government spending or borrowing in order to achieve the economic objectives.
Usually,there are two types of fiscal policies which serve the need of economy conversely--expansionary fiscal policy and deflationary fiscal policy.
The former one can also be called reflationary and loose fiscal policy that is used to increase the aggregate demand and then to achieve economic objectives. For example,to solve the unemployment problem and lead to an economic growth,we should decrease the taxation to encourage the consumption and more people to seek jobs and increase government spending to raise the investments.
But if there are too many demands for domestic goods,demand-pull inflation will be created,and so,the deflationary fiscal policy should be implemented by reducing the demand. For instance,increasing the taxation to discourage consumption,some of which maybe on the import goods,can reduce the imports and then reduce the balance of payments deficit.
Now let's concentrate on the components of fiscal policy.
1.Government spending:
1) Transfer payments: Money transferred from one group to the other through the social security system like Job Seekers' Allowance and Child Benefits. This government spending is not included in the national income account for that this spending will not get output as rewards and just welfare benefits to those can't make a living very well with low income ability.
2) Current payments: This spending is about regular payments flowing out of the circular income on goods and services,such as the salaries paid to the NHS or debt interests to other countries.
3) Capital investment: Spending on the capital including infrastructural spending like roads and schools. This part is very essential for the operation of the economy.
P.s. The main areas of government spending are social protection,education,health,defence and debt interest.
2.Taxation:
1) Direct taxation: Tax levied on the income,wealth and benefit of people like corporation tax,income tax,capital gains tax. Here,we can refer the progressive tax that it rises as income rises. Therefore,direct tax is always progressive tax.
2) Indirect tax: Tax on the spending of goods and services,such as exercise duties and value add tax. They are generally regarded as regressive tax that it falls as income goes up or takes bigger percentage from income of the poor.
3.Budget: The changes in government spending and taxation will influence the budget,resulting in deficit or surplus. The former one means government spending more than tax revenue which is always considered to be reduced.
Therefore,sometimes the government will make deliberate changes in tax or government spending to influence a particular situation. On the other hand,automatic stabiliser is common because it is the natural changes in tax and government spending in terms of different stage of the economy.
Generally,policy to affect demand is more common but in fact,the aggregate supply can also be influenced by the supply capacity of the economy.
1)Labour incentive: If the income tax is reduced,people who are unemployed will be encouraged to find jobs which can help increasing the supply of goods and services.
2)Capital investment: Increasing government spending will raise the investment that providing means of the solution structural unemployment.
3)The productivity of supply: Government spending on the education and training can improve the skills and knowledge of the labour and increase the productivity in case of the supply-side inflation.
However,there are some disadvantages of fiscal policy.
1) It takes time to draw up the new tax codes and government spending plans.
2) Government spending is inflexible. For example,when government start the building of the roads,it's difficult to stop it if you want to reduce the spending.
3) It's not easy to measure the changes in tax which should base on the accurate information.
4) The policy may be affected by other countries' policy and activity,like the debt interest paid.
P.s. I'm just trying to think about this myself without notes. So,if there is something i should know but i didn't think about,please point them out. Hoho!Thanks.
Usually,there are two types of fiscal policies which serve the need of economy conversely--expansionary fiscal policy and deflationary fiscal policy.
The former one can also be called reflationary and loose fiscal policy that is used to increase the aggregate demand and then to achieve economic objectives. For example,to solve the unemployment problem and lead to an economic growth,we should decrease the taxation to encourage the consumption and more people to seek jobs and increase government spending to raise the investments.
But if there are too many demands for domestic goods,demand-pull inflation will be created,and so,the deflationary fiscal policy should be implemented by reducing the demand. For instance,increasing the taxation to discourage consumption,some of which maybe on the import goods,can reduce the imports and then reduce the balance of payments deficit.
Now let's concentrate on the components of fiscal policy.
1.Government spending:
1) Transfer payments: Money transferred from one group to the other through the social security system like Job Seekers' Allowance and Child Benefits. This government spending is not included in the national income account for that this spending will not get output as rewards and just welfare benefits to those can't make a living very well with low income ability.
2) Current payments: This spending is about regular payments flowing out of the circular income on goods and services,such as the salaries paid to the NHS or debt interests to other countries.
3) Capital investment: Spending on the capital including infrastructural spending like roads and schools. This part is very essential for the operation of the economy.
P.s. The main areas of government spending are social protection,education,health,defence and debt interest.
2.Taxation:
1) Direct taxation: Tax levied on the income,wealth and benefit of people like corporation tax,income tax,capital gains tax. Here,we can refer the progressive tax that it rises as income rises. Therefore,direct tax is always progressive tax.
2) Indirect tax: Tax on the spending of goods and services,such as exercise duties and value add tax. They are generally regarded as regressive tax that it falls as income goes up or takes bigger percentage from income of the poor.
3.Budget: The changes in government spending and taxation will influence the budget,resulting in deficit or surplus. The former one means government spending more than tax revenue which is always considered to be reduced.
Therefore,sometimes the government will make deliberate changes in tax or government spending to influence a particular situation. On the other hand,automatic stabiliser is common because it is the natural changes in tax and government spending in terms of different stage of the economy.
Generally,policy to affect demand is more common but in fact,the aggregate supply can also be influenced by the supply capacity of the economy.
1)Labour incentive: If the income tax is reduced,people who are unemployed will be encouraged to find jobs which can help increasing the supply of goods and services.
2)Capital investment: Increasing government spending will raise the investment that providing means of the solution structural unemployment.
3)The productivity of supply: Government spending on the education and training can improve the skills and knowledge of the labour and increase the productivity in case of the supply-side inflation.
However,there are some disadvantages of fiscal policy.
1) It takes time to draw up the new tax codes and government spending plans.
2) Government spending is inflexible. For example,when government start the building of the roads,it's difficult to stop it if you want to reduce the spending.
3) It's not easy to measure the changes in tax which should base on the accurate information.
4) The policy may be affected by other countries' policy and activity,like the debt interest paid.
P.s. I'm just trying to think about this myself without notes. So,if there is something i should know but i didn't think about,please point them out. Hoho!Thanks.
Thursday, 12 March 2009
Fiscal Policy
Fiscal policy covers the use of government spending, taxation and borrowing to influence both the pattern of economic activity and also the level and growth of aggregate demand, output and employment. It is important to realise that changes in fiscal policy affect both aggregate demand (AD) and aggregate supply (AS).
1.With aggregate demand:
Traditionally fiscal policy has been seen as an instrument of demand management. This means that changes in government spending, direct and indirect taxation and the budget balance can be used to help smooth out some of the volatility of real national output particularly when the economy has experienced an external shock.
There are two types of fiscal policies to affect aggregate demand:
1)Reflationary/expansionary/loose fiscal policy:
Rises in government spending and cus in taxation to increase aggregate demand.
e.g.a cut in direct tax——a rise in disposable income---more consumption
a cut in indirect tax---lower prices--increase real income---more consumption
a cut in corporation tax--higher"post tax"profits for business--more capital spending
a cut in tax on interest from saving--inrease disposable income with net saving--more consumption
2)Deflationary/contractionary/tight fiscal policy:（always helps to prevent inflation）
Policy that in order to reduce aggregate demand
Automatic stabilisers and discretionary changes in fiscal policy:
Discretionary fiscal changes are deliberate changes in direct and indirect taxation and goverment spending – for example a decision by the government to increase total capital spending on the road building budget or increase the allocation of resources going direct into the NHS.
Automatic stabilisers include those changes in tax revenues and government spending that come about automatically as the economy moves through different stages of the business cycle:
1.)Tax revenues: When the economy is expanding rapidly the amount of tax revenue increases which takes money out of the circular flow of income and spending
2)Welfare spending: A growing economy means that the government does not have to spend as much on means-tested welfare benefits such as income support and unemployment benefits
3)Budget balance and the circular flow: A fast-growing economy tends to lead to a net outflow of money from the circular flow. Conversely during a slowdown or a recession, the government normally ends up running a larger budget deficit.
Government spending：
Government (or public) spending each year takes up over 40% of gross domestic product. Spending by the public sector can be broken down into three main areas:
1）Transfer Payments: Transfer payments are government welfare payments made available through the social security system including the Jobseekers’ Allowance, Child Benefit, the basic State Pension, Housing Benefit, Income Support and the Working Families Tax Credit. These transfer payments are not included in the national income accounts because they are not a payment for output produced directly by a factor of production. Neither are they included in general government spending on goods and services. The main aim of transfer payments is to provide a basic floor of income or minimum standard of living for low income households in our society. And they also provide a means by which the government can change the overall distribution of income in a country.
2）Current Government Spending: i.e. spending on state-provided goods & services that are provided on a recurrent basis every week, month and year, for example salaries paid to people working in the NHS and resources used in providing state education and defence. Current spending is recurring because these services have to be provided day to day throughout the country. The NHS claims a sizeable proportion of total current spending – hardly surprising as it is the country’s biggest employer with over one million people working within the system!
3）Capital Spending: Capital spending would include infrastructural spending such as spending on new motorways and roads, hospitals, schools and prisons. This investment spending by the government adds to the economy’s capital stock and clearly can have important demand and supply side effects in the medium to long term.
4）Debt interest payment：Payments made to the holders of government debt.
p.s. The five most important areas of government spending in the UK: Social protection,health,education,defence and debt interest.
Taxation:
There are so many different kinds of taxation and the tax system itself often appears to be horrendously complex! But one important distinction to make is between direct and indirect taxes.
Direct taxation: is levied on income, wealth and profit. Direct taxes include income tax, national insurance contributions, capital gains tax(tax on the increase in the value,namely:the difference between purchase and selling prices), and corporation tax.
Indirect taxes:are taxes on spending – such as excise duties on fuel, cigarettes and alcohol and value added tax (VAT) on many different goods and services.
Progressive, proportional and regressive taxes:
1)With a progressive tax, the marginal rate of tax rises as income rises. i.e. as people earn more income, the rate of tax on each extra pound earned goes up. This causes a rise in the average rate of tax (the percentage of income paid in tax). The UK income tax system is progressive. Everyone is entitled to a tax-free income. Thereafter, as income grows, people pay the starting rate of tax (10%) before moving onto the basic tax rate (22%). Higher income earners pay the top rate of tax (40%) on each additional pound of income over the top rate tax limit. This is the highest rate of income tax applied. --average tax and marginal tax
2)With a proportional tax, the marginal rate of tax is constant. For example, we might have an income tax system that applied a standard rate of tax of 25% across all income levels. If the marginal rate of tax is constant, the average rate of tax will also be constant. National insurance contributions are the closest example in the UK of a proportional tax, although low-income earners do not pay NICs below an income threshold, and NICs also do not rise for income earned above a top threshold.
3)With a regressive tax, the rate of tax falls as incomes rise – I.e. the average rate of tax is lower for people of higher incomes. In the UK, most examples of regressive taxes come from excise duties of items of spending such as cigarettes and alcohol. There is well-documented evidence that the heavy excise duty applied on tobacco has quite a regressive impact on the distribution of income in the UK.
Budget:
This shows the relationship between government spending and tax revenue. A budget deficit or surplus may be a result of cyclical or structural factors. If there is a recession,tax revenue is likely to rise,due to the automatically stabilisers.
p.s To distinguish the budget and current account deficit.
2.With aggregate supply
Changes to fiscal policy can affect the supply-side capacity of the economy and therefore contribute to long term economic growth. The effects tend to be longer term in nature.
1)Labour market incentives: Cuts in income tax might be used to improve incentives for people to actively seek work and also as a strategy to boost labour productivity. Some economists argue that welfare benefit reforms are more important than tax cuts in improving incentives – in particular to create a “wedge” or gap between the incomes of those people in work and those who are in voluntary unemployment.
2)Capital spending: Government capital spending on the national infrastructure (e.g. improvements to our motorway network or an increase in the building programme for new schools and hospitals) contributes to an increase in investment across the whole economy. Lower rates of corporation tax and other business taxes might also be used as a policy to stimulate a higher level of business investment and attract inward investment from overseas
3)Entrepreneurship and new business creation: Government spending might be used to fund an expansion in the rate of new small business start-ups
4)Research and development and innovation: Government spending, tax credits and other tax allowances could be used to encourage an increase in private business sector research and development – designed to improve the international competitiveness of domestic businesses and contribute to a faster pace of innovation and invention
5)Human capital of the workforce: Higher government spending on education and training (designed to boost the human capital of the workforce) and increased investment in health and transport can also have important supply-side economic effects in the long run. An enhanced transport infrastructure is seen by many business organisations as absolutely essential if the UK is to remain competitive within the European and global economy.
--Free market economists are normally sceptical of the effects of government spending in improving the supply-side of the economy. They argue that lower taxation and tight control of government spending and borrowing is required to allow the private sector of the economy to flourish.
--The Keynesian school argues that fiscal policy can have powerful effects on aggregate demand, output and employment when the economy is operating well below full capacity national output, and where there is a need to provide a demand-stimulus to the economy. Keynesians believe that there is a clear and justified role for the government to make active use of fiscal policy measures to manage the level of aggregate demand.
--Monetarist economists on the other hand believe that government spending and tax changes can only have a temporary effect on aggregate demand, output and jobs and that monetary policy is a more effective instrument for controlling demand and inflationary pressure. They are much more sceptical about the wisdom of relying on fiscal policy as a means of demand management.
However targeted government spending and tax decisions can have a positive impact even though fiscal policy reforms take a long time to feed through. The key is to help provide the right incentives for individuals and businesses – for example the incentives to find work and incentives for businesses to increase employment and investment.
1.With aggregate demand:
Traditionally fiscal policy has been seen as an instrument of demand management. This means that changes in government spending, direct and indirect taxation and the budget balance can be used to help smooth out some of the volatility of real national output particularly when the economy has experienced an external shock.
There are two types of fiscal policies to affect aggregate demand:
1)Reflationary/expansionary/loose fiscal policy:
Rises in government spending and cus in taxation to increase aggregate demand.
e.g.a cut in direct tax——a rise in disposable income---more consumption
a cut in indirect tax---lower prices--increase real income---more consumption
a cut in corporation tax--higher"post tax"profits for business--more capital spending
a cut in tax on interest from saving--inrease disposable income with net saving--more consumption
2)Deflationary/contractionary/tight fiscal policy:（always helps to prevent inflation）
Policy that in order to reduce aggregate demand
Automatic stabilisers and discretionary changes in fiscal policy:
Discretionary fiscal changes are deliberate changes in direct and indirect taxation and goverment spending – for example a decision by the government to increase total capital spending on the road building budget or increase the allocation of resources going direct into the NHS.
Automatic stabilisers include those changes in tax revenues and government spending that come about automatically as the economy moves through different stages of the business cycle:
1.)Tax revenues: When the economy is expanding rapidly the amount of tax revenue increases which takes money out of the circular flow of income and spending
2)Welfare spending: A growing economy means that the government does not have to spend as much on means-tested welfare benefits such as income support and unemployment benefits
3)Budget balance and the circular flow: A fast-growing economy tends to lead to a net outflow of money from the circular flow. Conversely during a slowdown or a recession, the government normally ends up running a larger budget deficit.
Government spending：
Government (or public) spending each year takes up over 40% of gross domestic product. Spending by the public sector can be broken down into three main areas:
1）Transfer Payments: Transfer payments are government welfare payments made available through the social security system including the Jobseekers’ Allowance, Child Benefit, the basic State Pension, Housing Benefit, Income Support and the Working Families Tax Credit. These transfer payments are not included in the national income accounts because they are not a payment for output produced directly by a factor of production. Neither are they included in general government spending on goods and services. The main aim of transfer payments is to provide a basic floor of income or minimum standard of living for low income households in our society. And they also provide a means by which the government can change the overall distribution of income in a country.
2）Current Government Spending: i.e. spending on state-provided goods & services that are provided on a recurrent basis every week, month and year, for example salaries paid to people working in the NHS and resources used in providing state education and defence. Current spending is recurring because these services have to be provided day to day throughout the country. The NHS claims a sizeable proportion of total current spending – hardly surprising as it is the country’s biggest employer with over one million people working within the system!
3）Capital Spending: Capital spending would include infrastructural spending such as spending on new motorways and roads, hospitals, schools and prisons. This investment spending by the government adds to the economy’s capital stock and clearly can have important demand and supply side effects in the medium to long term.
4）Debt interest payment：Payments made to the holders of government debt.
p.s. The five most important areas of government spending in the UK: Social protection,health,education,defence and debt interest.
Taxation:
There are so many different kinds of taxation and the tax system itself often appears to be horrendously complex! But one important distinction to make is between direct and indirect taxes.
Direct taxation: is levied on income, wealth and profit. Direct taxes include income tax, national insurance contributions, capital gains tax(tax on the increase in the value,namely:the difference between purchase and selling prices), and corporation tax.
Indirect taxes:are taxes on spending – such as excise duties on fuel, cigarettes and alcohol and value added tax (VAT) on many different goods and services.
Progressive, proportional and regressive taxes:
1)With a progressive tax, the marginal rate of tax rises as income rises. i.e. as people earn more income, the rate of tax on each extra pound earned goes up. This causes a rise in the average rate of tax (the percentage of income paid in tax). The UK income tax system is progressive. Everyone is entitled to a tax-free income. Thereafter, as income grows, people pay the starting rate of tax (10%) before moving onto the basic tax rate (22%). Higher income earners pay the top rate of tax (40%) on each additional pound of income over the top rate tax limit. This is the highest rate of income tax applied. --average tax and marginal tax
2)With a proportional tax, the marginal rate of tax is constant. For example, we might have an income tax system that applied a standard rate of tax of 25% across all income levels. If the marginal rate of tax is constant, the average rate of tax will also be constant. National insurance contributions are the closest example in the UK of a proportional tax, although low-income earners do not pay NICs below an income threshold, and NICs also do not rise for income earned above a top threshold.
3)With a regressive tax, the rate of tax falls as incomes rise – I.e. the average rate of tax is lower for people of higher incomes. In the UK, most examples of regressive taxes come from excise duties of items of spending such as cigarettes and alcohol. There is well-documented evidence that the heavy excise duty applied on tobacco has quite a regressive impact on the distribution of income in the UK.
Budget:
This shows the relationship between government spending and tax revenue. A budget deficit or surplus may be a result of cyclical or structural factors. If there is a recession,tax revenue is likely to rise,due to the automatically stabilisers.
p.s To distinguish the budget and current account deficit.
2.With aggregate supply
Changes to fiscal policy can affect the supply-side capacity of the economy and therefore contribute to long term economic growth. The effects tend to be longer term in nature.
1)Labour market incentives: Cuts in income tax might be used to improve incentives for people to actively seek work and also as a strategy to boost labour productivity. Some economists argue that welfare benefit reforms are more important than tax cuts in improving incentives – in particular to create a “wedge” or gap between the incomes of those people in work and those who are in voluntary unemployment.
2)Capital spending: Government capital spending on the national infrastructure (e.g. improvements to our motorway network or an increase in the building programme for new schools and hospitals) contributes to an increase in investment across the whole economy. Lower rates of corporation tax and other business taxes might also be used as a policy to stimulate a higher level of business investment and attract inward investment from overseas
3)Entrepreneurship and new business creation: Government spending might be used to fund an expansion in the rate of new small business start-ups
4)Research and development and innovation: Government spending, tax credits and other tax allowances could be used to encourage an increase in private business sector research and development – designed to improve the international competitiveness of domestic businesses and contribute to a faster pace of innovation and invention
5)Human capital of the workforce: Higher government spending on education and training (designed to boost the human capital of the workforce) and increased investment in health and transport can also have important supply-side economic effects in the long run. An enhanced transport infrastructure is seen by many business organisations as absolutely essential if the UK is to remain competitive within the European and global economy.
--Free market economists are normally sceptical of the effects of government spending in improving the supply-side of the economy. They argue that lower taxation and tight control of government spending and borrowing is required to allow the private sector of the economy to flourish.
--The Keynesian school argues that fiscal policy can have powerful effects on aggregate demand, output and employment when the economy is operating well below full capacity national output, and where there is a need to provide a demand-stimulus to the economy. Keynesians believe that there is a clear and justified role for the government to make active use of fiscal policy measures to manage the level of aggregate demand.
--Monetarist economists on the other hand believe that government spending and tax changes can only have a temporary effect on aggregate demand, output and jobs and that monetary policy is a more effective instrument for controlling demand and inflationary pressure. They are much more sceptical about the wisdom of relying on fiscal policy as a means of demand management.
However targeted government spending and tax decisions can have a positive impact even though fiscal policy reforms take a long time to feed through. The key is to help provide the right incentives for individuals and businesses – for example the incentives to find work and incentives for businesses to increase employment and investment.
Wednesday, 11 March 2009
I feel confused!!!!!!!!!
I feel really confused these days~~
I don't know how to improve my economics and how to study it.
I get used to reading books and reviewing them once and once again but it seems not enough now according to what Mr. Chris said.
Because when i do the blogs, i will spend a lot of time on it and gradually lose myself in the wedsites.
Now i have a plan that i want to follow the syllabus and begin to review each topic from books and tutor2u. After reviewing,i will do more exercise and try to think about more problems and read others' blogs to comment.
Because as for me,i always review first,then do the exercise and then review again to enhance my memory.
But it seems to have a conflict with the homework that Mr.Chris gave me on Monday.
I know Mr.Chris may not agree with me. Therefore,i'm trying to finish all the homework before tomorrow.
Hopefully,i can start my reviewing plan tomorrow!!
Maybe you can give some advices and help???
Thanks!!!!!!! O(∩_∩)O
Because I really want to improve!!!!!I want to get A~
I don't know how to improve my economics and how to study it.
I get used to reading books and reviewing them once and once again but it seems not enough now according to what Mr. Chris said.
Because when i do the blogs, i will spend a lot of time on it and gradually lose myself in the wedsites.
Now i have a plan that i want to follow the syllabus and begin to review each topic from books and tutor2u. After reviewing,i will do more exercise and try to think about more problems and read others' blogs to comment.
Because as for me,i always review first,then do the exercise and then review again to enhance my memory.
But it seems to have a conflict with the homework that Mr.Chris gave me on Monday.
I know Mr.Chris may not agree with me. Therefore,i'm trying to finish all the homework before tomorrow.
Hopefully,i can start my reviewing plan tomorrow!!
Maybe you can give some advices and help???
Thanks!!!!!!! O(∩_∩)O
Because I really want to improve!!!!!I want to get A~
Sunday, 8 March 2009
Researchers! !! ! !!(Remember!)
1.Douglas:
1)He found that children in unsatisfactory living conditions(poor housing) didn't do very well in ability tests compared to kids from comfortable backgrounds.
2)He thought the level of parental interest was the most important factor in affecting achievement.Middle-class students received more attention and encouragement from their parents in their early years.
2.Bernstern: He identified restricted and elaborated codes. Besides,he found that working-class students in the East End of London were not comfortable with the style of language required by school. Although working-class speech patterns were not inadequate,upper-class doed replace it since elaborated language is the language of education.
3.Bereiter and Englemann: He argued that the speech patterns of low-income children are inadequate to meet the demand of educational system.
4.Keddie:
1) Negative labelling of students can lead to a self-fulfilling prophecy of failure. In 1971, he said that teachers tended to evaluate pupils in terms of an ideal student by looking at appearance,personality speech and social class.
2)found that teachers allowed pupils in top streams access to higher levels of knowledge.
5.Halsey:
1)critisised functionalist views that education system provided equality of opportunity. Schools are not providing equality for all young people.
2)Modern economies require an increasingly specialised skills and high trained force. The educational system reflects the requirement.
3)found that the most important factor preventing working-class students staying at school is a lack of financial support.
4)criticised the tripartite system that it caused social class division. Researchs indicated that two-thirds of boys from middle-class backgrounds went to grammer schools compared only a quarter from working-class backgrouns.
6.Ball:found that the pupils in the top bands were from higher social classes. Teachers had higher expectation of them and they were taught in different ways.
7.Hyman:said that the values of working-class pupils are self-imposed barriers to improving their positions. The working-class tend to place a low value on education.
8.Sugarman: described working-class subcultures:
fatalistic, presnt-time orientated, concerned with immediate gratification
9.Bourdieu:used the concept of cultural capital to explain how the middle-class students get into top positions--the right language,skills,knowledge and attitudes.(1971.1974)
P.s I can't find Blackstone and Smith+Noble...i'll try.
1)He found that children in unsatisfactory living conditions(poor housing) didn't do very well in ability tests compared to kids from comfortable backgrounds.
2)He thought the level of parental interest was the most important factor in affecting achievement.Middle-class students received more attention and encouragement from their parents in their early years.
2.Bernstern: He identified restricted and elaborated codes. Besides,he found that working-class students in the East End of London were not comfortable with the style of language required by school. Although working-class speech patterns were not inadequate,upper-class doed replace it since elaborated language is the language of education.
3.Bereiter and Englemann: He argued that the speech patterns of low-income children are inadequate to meet the demand of educational system.
4.Keddie:
1) Negative labelling of students can lead to a self-fulfilling prophecy of failure. In 1971, he said that teachers tended to evaluate pupils in terms of an ideal student by looking at appearance,personality speech and social class.
2)found that teachers allowed pupils in top streams access to higher levels of knowledge.
5.Halsey:
1)critisised functionalist views that education system provided equality of opportunity. Schools are not providing equality for all young people.
2)Modern economies require an increasingly specialised skills and high trained force. The educational system reflects the requirement.
3)found that the most important factor preventing working-class students staying at school is a lack of financial support.
4)criticised the tripartite system that it caused social class division. Researchs indicated that two-thirds of boys from middle-class backgrounds went to grammer schools compared only a quarter from working-class backgrouns.
6.Ball:found that the pupils in the top bands were from higher social classes. Teachers had higher expectation of them and they were taught in different ways.
7.Hyman:said that the values of working-class pupils are self-imposed barriers to improving their positions. The working-class tend to place a low value on education.
8.Sugarman: described working-class subcultures:
fatalistic, presnt-time orientated, concerned with immediate gratification
9.Bourdieu:used the concept of cultural capital to explain how the middle-class students get into top positions--the right language,skills,knowledge and attitudes.(1971.1974)
P.s I can't find Blackstone and Smith+Noble...i'll try.
About some questions on Saturday~
1.Why do European countries over-produce food and destroy it instead of giving to poor countries?
There are several reasons:
1)Costs of transfering the food
2)Some types of food are non-transferable that can not be kept for a long time.
3)The over-produced food is limited that it can just help preventing starving for a short period.
4)Local farmers may be affected by the free food from European countries for that their incentives to produce food may be reduced. Consequently,in the long run,it can make situation n the poor countries even worth.
5)It is very difficult to decide which starving country can be given the food. Sometimes,this will influence the relationship between two countries.
2.Why AD curve slopes down from left to the right?
There are several explanation for an inverse relationship between price level and aggregate demand.
1)Generally,the easiest reason we can think is about the conumption.
Real income falling: If the price level goes up,the real value of people’s incomes fall and consumers are then less able to afford UK produced goods and services.
2)Net export: International trade effect: As the price level rises, assuming no change in foreigh prices and the exchange rates, the competitiveness of domestic goods will be reduced and foreign-produced goods and services become more attractive (cheaper) in price terms, causing a fall in exports and a rise in imports. This will lead to a reduction in trade (X-M) and a contraction in aggregate demand.
3)Investment: If in the UK the price level rises, this causes an increase in the demand for money because of the inflation and a consequential rise in interest rates with a deflationary effect on the entire economy. This assumes that the central bank (in our case the Bank of England) is setting interest rates in order to meet a specified inflation target. Therefore,with the high interest rates,investment and consumption will be reduced.
I'm still thinking about other questions.......so strange!!!
There are several reasons:
1)Costs of transfering the food
2)Some types of food are non-transferable that can not be kept for a long time.
3)The over-produced food is limited that it can just help preventing starving for a short period.
4)Local farmers may be affected by the free food from European countries for that their incentives to produce food may be reduced. Consequently,in the long run,it can make situation n the poor countries even worth.
5)It is very difficult to decide which starving country can be given the food. Sometimes,this will influence the relationship between two countries.
2.Why AD curve slopes down from left to the right?
There are several explanation for an inverse relationship between price level and aggregate demand.
1)Generally,the easiest reason we can think is about the conumption.
Real income falling: If the price level goes up,the real value of people’s incomes fall and consumers are then less able to afford UK produced goods and services.
2)Net export: International trade effect: As the price level rises, assuming no change in foreigh prices and the exchange rates, the competitiveness of domestic goods will be reduced and foreign-produced goods and services become more attractive (cheaper) in price terms, causing a fall in exports and a rise in imports. This will lead to a reduction in trade (X-M) and a contraction in aggregate demand.
3)Investment: If in the UK the price level rises, this causes an increase in the demand for money because of the inflation and a consequential rise in interest rates with a deflationary effect on the entire economy. This assumes that the central bank (in our case the Bank of England) is setting interest rates in order to meet a specified inflation target. Therefore,with the high interest rates,investment and consumption will be reduced.
I'm still thinking about other questions.......so strange!!!
Sunday, 1 March 2009
About IB
Is the IB Diploma Programme a realistic alternative to A levels?
Firstly,let me introduce what is the IB Diploma Programme.
IB Diploma Programme is an educational program that teaches challenging two-year curriculum, primarily aimed at students aged 16 to 19 ,the qualification of which is widely recognized by the world’s leading universities.
Therefore,what are the comparative advantages of the Diploma Programme? And why it is so popular in the world?
In the first place, the curriculum of IB required is more than A-level's. It consists of 6 subjects from 6 subjects groups,namely:language A1,second language,individuals and society,math and computer science,experimental science and arts. Language A1 is the study of literature in a student’s first language, including the study of selections of world literature. This can help students to get a correct and whole point of their countries,practice their writting and literary criticism. In group "Individuals and societies", subjects like economics and business are included,majority of which we can choose as our future subjects and career. As for the experimental science, it makes us concentrate on our practical ability and realise more about our world. From this,we can see that the coverage of Diploma Programme is fairly wide and we will a lot of opportunities to choose subjects that we are interested in. It not only asks the students to learn the academic knowledge and specialized skills,which are cited as the role of education by Durkheim, but also requires them to understand the culture either domestic or other countries and strengthen their personalities by art. In addition, an extended essay, a theory of knowledge course and creativity, action, service are needed in the curriculum as well.
This might be the biggest difference with other programmes. This programme takes developing our creativity into account and gives us more freedom to improve ourselves. However, although the arrangements of subjects are good and widely-referred,the direction of the subjects makes some subjects missed,such as accounts and law.
Compared with Diploma Programme in curriculum, A-level also has a lot of subjects and relatively more than those Diploma Programme has. But it doesn't care about independent ability so much as Diploma Programme does and so-balanced.
Secondly,it is about the recognition.
A-level is a traditional programme originated from UK which offers the standard qualification for admission to UK universities. It now has been accepted more widely by universities of the European Union, on a par with the French Baccalaureat, the German Abitur, etc. as an entry qualification.
As regards IB,it is a comparatively new programme but has been developed rapidly throughout the world. It is more likely to be admitted by Australia,Canada and American but its academic standards are almost respected world wide.
Lastly,the current condition of these two programmes are essential for us to consider. It is reported that,in the UK, the average grades achieved by A-level candidates have been steadily rising for 25 years in a row which means the improved teaching methods. However,a lot of educationalists doubted and argued about the rise of results. For example,some people thought it was due to grade inflation and the examinations getting easier whereas some were against cancelling one subject at the second year that the difficulty will be reduced that can not test the real ability of people. What' more,some schools don't favor the form of subjects. For instance, Cambridge University has warned that it is extremely unlikely that it will be accepting applicants who are taking two or more supposedly 'softer' A Level subjects out of 3 which includes Accounting, Design and Technology, Film Studies, Information and Communication Technology, Media Studies, Photography, and Sports studies. As a result, Diploma Programme attracts an increasing number of schools because of the balanced subjects and the considerable difficulty.
Overall,there are a lot of similarities between A-level and Diploma Programme. The IB Diploma is seen as a comprehensive and rigorous education programme designed to provide students with a broad and balanced education in order to develop creative and compassionate life-time learners, and to promote international understanding. Consequently,in my opinion,it is a good choice to improve your independent skills and develop yourself. When deciding which curriculum to take,we should consider our ages,which country to go in the future and what subjects you are going to have. To summarize,IB Diploma Programme is a realistic alternative to A-level.
Firstly,let me introduce what is the IB Diploma Programme.
IB Diploma Programme is an educational program that teaches challenging two-year curriculum, primarily aimed at students aged 16 to 19 ,the qualification of which is widely recognized by the world’s leading universities.
Therefore,what are the comparative advantages of the Diploma Programme? And why it is so popular in the world?
In the first place, the curriculum of IB required is more than A-level's. It consists of 6 subjects from 6 subjects groups,namely:language A1,second language,individuals and society,math and computer science,experimental science and arts. Language A1 is the study of literature in a student’s first language, including the study of selections of world literature. This can help students to get a correct and whole point of their countries,practice their writting and literary criticism. In group "Individuals and societies", subjects like economics and business are included,majority of which we can choose as our future subjects and career. As for the experimental science, it makes us concentrate on our practical ability and realise more about our world. From this,we can see that the coverage of Diploma Programme is fairly wide and we will a lot of opportunities to choose subjects that we are interested in. It not only asks the students to learn the academic knowledge and specialized skills,which are cited as the role of education by Durkheim, but also requires them to understand the culture either domestic or other countries and strengthen their personalities by art. In addition, an extended essay, a theory of knowledge course and creativity, action, service are needed in the curriculum as well.
This might be the biggest difference with other programmes. This programme takes developing our creativity into account and gives us more freedom to improve ourselves. However, although the arrangements of subjects are good and widely-referred,the direction of the subjects makes some subjects missed,such as accounts and law.
Compared with Diploma Programme in curriculum, A-level also has a lot of subjects and relatively more than those Diploma Programme has. But it doesn't care about independent ability so much as Diploma Programme does and so-balanced.
Secondly,it is about the recognition.
A-level is a traditional programme originated from UK which offers the standard qualification for admission to UK universities. It now has been accepted more widely by universities of the European Union, on a par with the French Baccalaureat, the German Abitur, etc. as an entry qualification.
As regards IB,it is a comparatively new programme but has been developed rapidly throughout the world. It is more likely to be admitted by Australia,Canada and American but its academic standards are almost respected world wide.
Lastly,the current condition of these two programmes are essential for us to consider. It is reported that,in the UK, the average grades achieved by A-level candidates have been steadily rising for 25 years in a row which means the improved teaching methods. However,a lot of educationalists doubted and argued about the rise of results. For example,some people thought it was due to grade inflation and the examinations getting easier whereas some were against cancelling one subject at the second year that the difficulty will be reduced that can not test the real ability of people. What' more,some schools don't favor the form of subjects. For instance, Cambridge University has warned that it is extremely unlikely that it will be accepting applicants who are taking two or more supposedly 'softer' A Level subjects out of 3 which includes Accounting, Design and Technology, Film Studies, Information and Communication Technology, Media Studies, Photography, and Sports studies. As a result, Diploma Programme attracts an increasing number of schools because of the balanced subjects and the considerable difficulty.
Overall,there are a lot of similarities between A-level and Diploma Programme. The IB Diploma is seen as a comprehensive and rigorous education programme designed to provide students with a broad and balanced education in order to develop creative and compassionate life-time learners, and to promote international understanding. Consequently,in my opinion,it is a good choice to improve your independent skills and develop yourself. When deciding which curriculum to take,we should consider our ages,which country to go in the future and what subjects you are going to have. To summarize,IB Diploma Programme is a realistic alternative to A-level.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
