Archive | October, 2006

Stern Review: the Economics of Climate Change

30 Oct

Sir Nicholas Stern has produced his final report into the Economics of Climate Change and presented its findings to the Prime Minister and the Chancellor of the Exchequer, at the Royal Society in London.

Billed as the most comprehensive review of the economic effects of climate change, Sir Nicholas is optimistic:

There is still time to avoid the worst impacts of climate change, if we act now and act internationally. Governments, businesses and individuals all need to work together to respond to the challenge. Strong, deliberate policy choices by governments are essential to motivate change.

BBC News has produced an at-a-glance summary of the key findings, as well as a detailed look at the issues in their Climate Change in-depth section. Friends of the Earth have called for Stern Action to follow on from publication of the report, while the Tyndall Centre has welcomed the prospect of “a better informed and more transparent debate” as a consequence of the publication of the report.

Intute: Social Sciences links to more resources on the issue of Environmental Economics

US Midterms

26 Oct

With the US midterm elections less than 2 weeks away, Intute: Politics brings you a round up of some of the websites you can use to keep track of the state of play between the Democrats and the Republicans.

Electoral-vote.com is updated daily with the latest polls for the Congressional races, with an easy to view map showing how the new look Senate might look. This site was a major hit in the Presidential election in 2004 and their dedicated webmaster is working hard again to make it an essential visit for the psephologicaly minded.

BBC News has set a special blog called The Reporters: US mid-terms where a team of correspondents are providing updates on the election and daily digests of key stories from US the papers.

The Hotline is the National Journal’s daily briefing on politics. As well as their blog, they are providing daily video updates which are posted to the video sharing service You Tube, with 3 or 4 minutes clips, plus a longer show on Fridays.

Intute links to many more resources on the issue of US Elections

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Nuffield Review questions education policy

20 Oct

Oxford University reports that the 3rd annual report from the Nuffield Review of 14-19 Education and Training questions the amount of educational change going on in the secondary education system and urges a full assessment of the impact, cost and problems associated with such a large amoiunt of change taking place in a short period of time.

Researchers looking to find out more about thuis topic may wish to try the Journal of Education Policy from Taylor and Francis, PolicyLibrary’s Education Policy section or the NFER’s research on Educational Policy.

Intute: Education links to more resources on the issues of Educational Policy and Secondary Education

Intute: Social Sciences Podcast 002

18 Oct

Listen to the programme (8 mins, 4 MB)

Welcome to the second Intute: Social Sciences podcast. Each programme features Social Science related information news, an interview with a Social Science information provider and a selection of the new resources added to Intute: Social Sciences.

News update:

Sites featured in this edition’s news update include:

Interview

In this edition we talk to Cormac Conolly of ESRC Society Today

Latest additions to Intute: Social Sciences

Featured resources in this podcast are:

To keep abreast of the latest additions to Intute: Social Sciences, visit our New Resources section, subscribe to the RSS feed or sign up for email updates on MyIntute

If you have any news or comments about the Intute: Social Sciences Podcast, then please do get in touch by emailing paul.ayres@bristol.ac.uk and we hope you’ll tune in again in two weeks time.

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Education news round-up

16 Oct

Here’s a round-up of the latest research news to have reached the inbox of the Intute: Education editors.

The Institute of Education Sciences in the United States, has launched a new email updating service called Newsflash, for those who wish to find out the latest in American based educational research. Users can specify which research centre or programme they want to receive updates from and some offer the chance to specify these updates down to the individual research project.

The most recent Research of the Month from the General Teaching Council for England focusses on Effective Talk in the Primary Classroom. It looks into patterns of talk during whole class teaching and shows how hard the demands of classroom teaching make it for teachers to move away from dominating classroom talk.

The Find Out More website recently highlighted the importance of basic skills for adults, showing that this can improve their confidence and their ability to deal with everyday tasks. Findings on financial benefits are more mixed, but good basic skills can be related to higher employability and wages.

Intute: Education links to the best web resources for the study of education. If you have any suggestions for items that might be added to our collection, please do get in touch.

Nobel Peace Prize 2006

13 Oct

The Nobel Peace Prize for 2006 has been awarded to Muhammad Yunus and the Grameen Bank for their efforts to create economic and social development from below. The Grameen Bank was founded by Mr. Yunus and lends money to the least well off in Bangladesh, so that they can start up businesses and work their way out of poverty.

Researchers looking to find out more about these issues should try the Nobel Peace Prize website, which contains detailed information about previous winners,

Intute: Social Sciences includes a dedicated section on the topic of Microfinance , a large section on the topic of Development Economics and further items about the country of Bangladesh.

Innovation, productivity and the EU Lisbon Agenda

11 Oct

Intute: Economics brings you the latest policy analysis from the Centre for Economic Performance at the LSE, comparing innovation and productivity in the US and the EU.

The United States still has significantly higher productivity than the European Union (EU) average – GDP per hour over 15% higher, and GDP per capita over 30% higher. How can the EU improve its position relative to the United States? A new CEP Policy Analysis looks at the main driver of productivity growth: innovation. The findings include:

* Since the mid 1990′s US productivity growth has been faster than in Europe
* EU members have failed to liberalise their product and labour markets
* The Barcelona target of 3% of GDP on R&D by 2010 is flawed
* European firms should be able to patent their innovations at lower costs
* The brain drain from Europe to the US is still a significant factor

Researchers look to find out more about the Lisbon Agenda, could try the EU Economics section of Intute: Economics

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Intute: Social Sciences Podcast 001

5 Oct

Listen to the programme (9 mins, 4.5 MB)

Welcome to the first Intute: Social Sciences podcast. Each programme features Social Science related information news, an interview with a Social Science information provider and a selection of the new resources added to Intute: Social Sciences.

News update:

Sites featured in this edition’s news update include:

Interview

In this edition we talk to Bhagesh Sachania of the Economics Network

Latest additions to Intute: Social Sciences

Featured resources in this podcast are:

To keep abreast of the latest additions to Intute: Social Sciences, visit our New Resources section, subscribe to the RSS feed or sign up for email updates on MyIntute

If you have any news or comments about the Intute: Social Sciences Podcast, then please do get in touch by emailing paul.ayres@bristol.ac.uk and we hope you’ll tune in again in two weeks time.

Tags:

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