Universiẗat, Diss., 2006--Kassel.

Universiẗat, Diss., 2003--Kiel.

This dissertation assesses the causes and consequences of gender wage discrimination in Ethiopia. In the first chapter, we estimate the distribution of Gender Wage Discrimination in the Ethiopian urban labor market using quantile counterfactual decompositions. The literature generally finds a u-shaped distribution suggesting the presence of both a sticky floor effect and a glass ceiling effect. Using repeated cross-section data for the years 2006, 2010 and 2014, we find a strong evidence of a sticky floor effect but not a glass ceiling effect in the Ethiopian urban labor market. Our paper also provides evidence that there is substantial difference in the extent of discrimination between working in private and public jobs. Public jobs are less discriminatory for women relative to the private jobs. In the second chapter, we investigate the determinants of the gender wage gap in the Ethiopian manufacturing sector between the years 1996 and 2010 with a particular focus on the impact of the export orientation. This is done both at the intensive and extensive margin. Accordingly, we find that more export orientation helps reduce the firm level gender wage gap regardless of whether it is at the intensive or extensive margin. Our results also provide evidence on the presence of sectoral variation on the association between export orientation and gender wage gap. Export orientation doesn’t have a significant impact on the gender wage gap in the construction and housing goods sector. Segmenting the data in to two we also find that the impact of export orientation in reducing gender wage gap is much stronger for the period 2003-2010 relative to the 1996-2002 period. Finally, we estimate the impact of gender earnings differentials on the technical efficiency of the firm in the Ethiopian manufacturing sector for the period 1996 through 2010. We adopt a two-step time-variant panel stochastic frontier model using a translog production function. Our results provide fresh evidence on the existence of a significant negative association between gender wage gap and predicted technical efficiencies of firms. Further subdividing the manufacturing sector into four different industries, we find that the negative association is consistent in most industries. Our results are also robust to the inclusion of other firm level explanatory variables at the sectoral level.

Blumetto Velazco, OR. (2012). Caracterización de sistemas de producción de porcino y vacuno de engorde en Uruguay [Tesis doctoral no publicada]. Universitat Politècnica de València. https://doi.org/10.4995/Thesis/10251/16002 / Palancia

This degree project aims to investigate which methods five school teachers, in compulsory education, integrate into their practice when teaching ESL learners vocabulary through reading. Moreover, it aims to find out if the reported teacher practices reflect what is currently viewed as effective vocabulary instructions. The research question that guided this study was, what methods or underlying theories do ESL teachers, in South Sweden, find useful when teaching vocabulary through reading? The research used classroom observations, individual interviews, together with a thorough analysis of relevant research on the subject of SLA. Moreover, despite the vast research in this area regarding effective practices of vocabulary acquisition, teachers tend to use old fashioned, and simple methods when teaching and assessing vocabulary acquisition. Underlying reasoning is said to be lack of time, or knowledge of how to incorporate efficient practices in their teaching. To conclude, we believe that teachers would benefit from receiving further education on how to incorporate potent practices, so that they are able to more efficiently integrate them into their current language learning activities.

This paper studied the extensive margin (EM) and intensive margin (IM)of liquefied natural gas(LNG) imports in Europe over the period 1996-2015. Two econometric models were used, a prob it estimation for the EM and an OLS for the IM. A time-varying approach was conducted to analyse the stability of the models in the studied time frame. The models were constructed through the application of known determinants of LNG trade as well as new factors that previously was unused in the investigation of LNG trade. The results indicated an overall stable EM, but a highly varying IM over the period. The findings inform that the EM is driven by income, diversification and lower bounds technological development and we found that itis inhibited by pipeline imports, domestic production and higher bounds technological development. The IM is determined by favourable pricing opportunities, lower bounds technological development and the diversification aspect of LNG. IM is negatively affected by domestic natural gas production and the higher bounds of technological development.

Word recognition skill is fundamental for readers to successfully process any given text. Proficiency in the component skills of word recognition, orthographic, phonological, and semantic knowledge, is what readers need to accurately and automatically decode words to apply meaning to what they have read. For second language readers, the challenge of reading is often hindered by a lack of word recognition skills and therefore, they often suffer from low reading rates and consequently poor reading comprehension. This study was a quasi-experimental longitudinal inquiry into the effects of extensive reading, word recognition training, and timed reading on second language reading comprehension. Through word recognition tasks focused on orthographic, phonological, and semantic knowledge development, the aim of this study was to (a) better understand the effects of orthographic, phonological, and semantic skill training on word recognition skills, (b) better understand the effects of word recognition training on reading rate and reading comprehension, (c) understand the effects of long-term word recognition training on reading comprehension, (d) investigate if changes in word recognition components correlate with changes in reading comprehension, and (e) better understand reasons for expected and unexpected outcomes of participants in the study. A total of 248 participants took part in the study. The participants were a combination of first- and second-year economics majors from a private university in western Japan. They were from ten intact classes that were randomly assigned to one of four groups. The first group acted as a comparison group and focused on intensive reading training. The second group did extensive reading and included sustained silent reading. The third group did extensive reading and received word recognition training. The fourth group did extensive reading, word recognition training and timed reading training. All participants took a reading course as part of the required English program that lasted for two 15-week academic terms. The first 30 minutes of each class were used for each group’s respective training, and the remaining 60 minutes were used to teach general reading strategies. Quantitative data were gathered using a variety of instruments that included a lexical decision test, an antonym pairs test, a pronunciation test, a reading comprehension test, and a reading rate test. Additional qualitative data were gathered via selected participant interviews and a post-study survey. The results showed that the participants who received word recognition training in conjunction with extensive reading, produced positive changes in reading comprehension. However, only two of the components of word recognition ability improved with training, semantic knowledge and phonological knowledge. This indicated that more focus on specific components of word recognition might provide better scaffolding to foster reading development. The results also indicated that the three treatment groups all performed significantly better than the comparison group in reading rate gain and those improvements were reflected in reading comprehension gains. With respect to word recognition and its impact on reading comprehension, there was evidence showing that word recognition training did positively impact reading comprehension, but that more time might be required than used in this study to see its full impact. Finally, there were data to indicate that there was a correlation between semantic knowledge and reading comprehension. This study shows that although extensive reading is an effective approach to teaching L2 English reading, the addition of word recognition training and timed reading can benefit readers by improving reading comprehension. The addition of word recognition training can assist lower-proficiency readers to automatize low-level cognitive processes such as orthographic, semantic, and phonological processes, and by doing so, reallocate cognitive resources to higher-level cognitive processes such as inferencing and schemata activation required for reading comprehension. Finally, the addition of timed reading seems to have contributed to overall reading rate and reading fluency development. / Applied Linguistics

The purpose of this study is to investigate the overall effectiveness of extensive reading, and whether learners' ages impact learning from extensive reading differently. The second purpose is to investigate whether the length of time that second language learners engaged in extensive reading influenced outcome measures, and if an effect is found, identify effective periods of time for learners to engage in extensive reading. Meta-analysis was used to investigate the trends shown by past empirical research, chart future research directions, and provide a means to create alternative hypotheses for future research. Two types of empirical studies were conducted: group contrasts of studies that included control groups and pre-post contrasts of studies that only include experimental groups. This meta-analysis included 34 studies that provided 43 unique effect sizes (22 effect sizes for group contrasts and 21 effect sizes for pre-post contrasts) and a total sample size of 3,942 participants. Students who received extensive reading instruction outperformed those who did not. The effect size was small for group contrasts (d = .46) and medium for pre-post contrasts (d = .71). Moderator variables for each contrast were examined to assess the impact of learners' ages and the length of instruction; however, all groups substantially overlapped with each other in terms of their confidence intervals, indicating no statistically significant difference among the groups. There was a small effect size for university students for the group contrast (d = .48), a medium effect for high school students (d = .61), a large effect for university students (d = 1.12), and a large effect for adults (d = 1.48) for pre-post contrasts. In terms of the length of instruction, both one semester of instruction (d = .36) and one year of instruction (d = .52) produced a small effect for group contrasts, while one year of instruction produced a medium effect (d = .74) for pre-post contrasts. In sum, the available extensive reading research to date suggests that extensive reading improves students' reading proficiency and should therefore be a part of foreign language reading curricula.   / CITE/Language Arts

Darbe atlikta teorinė ugdymo turinio individualizavimo samprata, nurodyti individualios programos rengimo principai ir etapai. Iškelta hipotezė, kad ugdydami vidutinius ir didelius specialiuosius ugdymosi poreikius patiriančius mokinius, mokytojai moko tų pačių temų, tik nustato skirtingą jų įsisavinimo laiką ir skirtingus mokymo būdus, o rengdami individualias kulinarijos pradmenų ugdymo programas vidutinius ir didelius specialiuosius ugdymosi poreikius patiriantiems mokiniams mokytojai derina bendrąsias ir specialiąsias programas. Anketinės apklausos metodu bei mokyklos dokumentų analize buvo atliktas tyrimas, kurio tikslas- ištirti ko ir kaip pedagogai moko aukštesniųjų lavinamųjų klasių mokinius ugdydami jų kulianrijos pradmenų gebėjimus. Parengtos rekomendacinės kulinarijos pradmenų ugdymo temos vidutinius ir didelius specialiuosius ugdymosi poreikius patiriantiems mokiniams, pravestas eksperimentinis mokymas, įvertinti ir palyginti mokinių gebėjimai gaminti valgį iki eksperimentinio mokymo ir po jo. Siekiama nustatyti, kokiais kriterijais remdamiesi mokytojai nustato, kokiu lygiu mokiniai įsisavino programą. Tyrime dalyvavo 30 specialiosios mokyklos aukštesniųjų lavinamųjų klasių mokinių technologijų mokytojų ir 60 5 - 10 lavinamųjų klasių mokinių. Empirinėje dalyje nagrinėjamas mokytojų suvokimas apie lavinamųjų klasių mokinių gebėjimą gaminti valgį, nustatomi trys mokinių gebėjimų lygiai: gebančių savarankiškai gaminti, gebančių gaminti su pagalba ir negebančių... [toliau žr. visą tekstą] / Development of cookery basics should help those children to accomplish the objective to be grown-ups, independent and able to take care of themselves. Schoolchildren, having acquired food preparation skills will have a greater freedom of choice and more possibilities to live a more independent life. Hypothesis: it is likely that poor cooking skills impede children independent functioning in social environment, therefore suggested topics for development of cookery program will satisfy the needs of children with extensive and extremely extensive educational needs and will benefit solution of this problem. 30 crafts teachers of upper grades of specialized school and 60 schoolchildren of extensive and extremely extensive special educational needs of upper grades (5-10) from specialized schools participated in the research. The most significant conclusions of empirical research: ● Data from teachers’ questionnaires reveal that all of them follow the program of “Cookery basics” and examine all of the recommended topics, least of their attention dedicating to the topics, such as “Essence of diet” and “Menu”. According to respondents, these topics do not meet children needs with extensive and extremely extensive special educational needs as well as possibilities to acquire them. ● Only fifth of participants are able to cook independently, about two fifths cook with the supervision of a teacher and two fifths do not prepare food at all. This confirms our hypothesis that poor... [to full text]

En dépit du renforcement de leur ouverture commerciale, le commerce extérieur des pays du Mashrek a presque toujours affiché des chiffres plutôt négatifs. Selon la littérature, l'ouverture commerciale est une des conditions permettant une croissance vigoureuse d'un pays. Néanmoins, la tendance constatée à la lumière des données du commerce de ces pays, traduirait une réalité alarmante. L'ouverture ne s'est pas traduite par une accélération des niveaux des investissements, ni par une création d'emplois. Est-ce que les politiques commerciales et de change menées par les pays du Mashrek sont responsables de cette persistance des déficits commerciaux ? Motivée par l’aggravation remarquable du solde de la balance commerciale libanaise survenue dans le profil global des échanges extérieurs du Liban, la présente recherche examine le comportement dynamique des exportations et importations libanaises en comparaison avec ses pays voisins (la Syrie, l’Egypte et la Jordanie) dans un contexte économique régional et international en mutation, en proposant une analyse empirique des déterminants des flux commerciaux ayant pour objet d’établir dans quelle mesure la politique commerciale et de change seraient responsables des faits stylisés observés. / Despite the strengthening of their commercial openness, the Mashreq countries trade has rather always displayed negative results. According to the literature, opening up trade is one of the conditions leading to any country’s vigorous growth. Nevertheless, the trend found in the light of these countries’ trade data, indicates an alarming reality. The openness was neither translated into accelerated levels of investments nor created new job opportunities. Are the trade and exchange rate policies pursued by the Mashreq countries responsible for this persistence in trade deficits ? Motivated by outstanding worsening deflection of the trade balance in the overall Lebanese external trade profile, the current research examines the dynamic behavior of the Lebanese exports and imports compared to its neighboring countries (Syria, Egypt, and Jordan) in a regional and international changing economic context. An empirical analysis of the trade flows determinants was adopted in order to establish to what extent the trade and Exchange policies would be responsible for the observed stylized facts.