Eco Friendly Product And Environmental Consciousness

Eco Friendly Product And Environmental Consciousness This chapter present the theoretical framework that the method and analysis is built on. This structure has been chosen in order to give the reader a chance to evaluate eco-friendly product and environmental consciousness from a broad set of principles, starting broad to get narrower. 2.1 Concept and Theory Eco-friendly products still have an impact on the environment, but the impact is greatly reduced when compared to traditionally produced products. However, there is some eco-friendly products may even have a positive benefit, depending on how the company does its business. Many such products are also designed at lifestyle changes which benefit the environment; so, even if the product itself is not totally neutral, consumers undertake the actions after buying the product are beneficial. For example, eco-friendly light bulbs require more energy and resources to make, but they save energy once they are installed in a home. This chapter will follow by a comprehensive analysis of the relevant literature; several choice variables that may affect consumers to purchase environmentally friendly products have been recognized. These factors can be classified into six categories: demographics, knowledge, values, attitudes, behavior, and psychological. Figure 1 is representing a theoretical framework for these factors. A review of the literature supporting the relationships posited in Figure 1 follows. Figure 1 2.1.1 Demographics Populations change over time, and companies must be aware of those changes. Demographics can be described as the numerical characteristics of human populations, such as age or income that used to distinguish markets. There are two reasons that had been used to describe demographic by a group of people; where demographics help define a market and studying demographics helps identify new opportunities. (Marshall, 2010) Although much research has been done on the demographic profiles of green consumers, findings are still relatively mixed with some demographic characteristics showing more consistent results than others. According to previous demographic profiling, ecologically friendly consumers generally fall into the category of education, age and income. Demographic profiles linked ecological consumers attitudes and behaviors to education (Micheal, Jasmin, and Guido, 2001). Based on Arbuthnot (1977), Schwartz and Miller (1991), Newell and Greens (1997) study, there have positive relationship between education and the behaviors of ecological consumers. The researchers can anticipate the prospect finding constantly, because most studies have found positive correlations between green consumers education and attitude and/or behavior. Ordinarily, the socially responsible consumers demographic profile is young and/or pre-middle age has been studies by several past researches (Anderson and Cunningham 1972; Weigel 1977; Roberts and Bacon 1997). However, the result is not really trusted by readers. There is no significant relationship between age and green attitudes and behavior (McEvoy, 1972). In others hand, Van Liere and Dunlaps (1981) study argued that the relationship between age and green sensitivity and behavior is important and negatively correlated. Roberts (1996b) argued that the relationship to be important and positively correlated. The previous studies on relationship between income and environmental concerns have been conflicting. There are correlated relationships between income and environmental attitudes and behavior (While Zimmer, 1994), In contrast, there is no significant relationship between income and environmental concerns have been study by Robert (1996b). According to Straughan and Roberts (1999), the researchers have found that using demographics alone to profile and segment green consumers is not helpful. Ability to predict socially responsible consumer behavior is lacking, and the researcher suggested that marketers have to recognize and integrate relevant attitudes and behaviors, individual characteristics, and buying intentions into their exploration (Robert, 1996a). Based on Suchard and Polonski (1991) study, ecologically conscious consumers attempt to protect the environment in different ways, thus, there are different categories of ecologically concerned consumers. Several researchers had studied ecological attitudes within a marketing perspective. According to Kinnear and Taylors (1973) study, the researchers related their Ecological Concern Index to consumer brand impression and found that ecological concern was predicted better by individually rather than by demographic variables (Kinnear , 1974). Similarly, discounted demographic characteristics as possible segmentation variables had been studies by Kassarjians (1971). Nevertheless, socio-psychological and demographic variables were very important and related to social responsibility (Anderson and Cunningham (1972). Van Liere and Dunlap (1980) study had been found as a comprehensive review of social and demographic correlates of environmental concern. According to Gatignon and Robertsons (1985) study, the researchers recommended that younger, better educated, and higher income consumers tend to accept market innovations more quickly. There are particular social-psychographic characteristics, like innovative predisposition, risk-taking attitude, and opinion leadership have also been shown to be related to new product adoption (Midgley and Dowling, 1978; Gatignon and Robertson, 1991; and Rogers, 1995). According to Ostlunds (1974) research, the researcher argued that the effect of demographics was relatively weak. Native consumer innovativeness and new product adoption were positively related in the software product category (Foxall, 1995); and Steenkamp and colleagues (1999) had failed to find a relationship between a value dimension and consumer innovativeness. A contingency model has been called by researchers to better explanation for new product adoption (Midgley and Dowling, 1978, 1993; and Mudd, 1990). Midgley and Dowling (1978) had argued that the basic idea of a contingency model is that to affect individual variables on new product adoption may depend upon other personal variables or situational variables. According to Midgley and Dowlings (1993) longitudinal study, the womens evening wear category supply good support for their contingency model, where the effect of predispositions on new product adoption varies due to the social interaction process. Demographic variables did not judicious the relationship between consumer predisposition and new product adoption behavior as the contingency approach hypothesized (Im, 2003). Demographic variables, most particularly (income, education, and age) are often tested in experimental research on new product adoption. Venkatraman and Price (1990), Midgley and Dowling (1993), and Im (2003) had argued that innovators tend to be younger and have higher levels of income and education. According to Gatignon and Robertsons (1985) study, there is true for high-involvement products such as consumer durables. Higher levels of education are evocative of open-mindedness and ability to process new information and higher income indicates greater financial ability to meet the expense of new products. Age can be analytical of risk-avoidance and conservativeness, and therefore can be negatively associated with innovativeness. The effect of consumption attitudes on new product adoption may be dependently on consumers demographic characteristics and come out with a contingency approach. Briefly, if consumers are young, well educated, and have a high income level, even consumers wi th more conventional consumption attitudes may adopt a variety of new products. 2.1.2 Consumers Knowledge There are some findings have been clashed by the way to judge how knowledge affects consumers ecological behaviors. Alba and Hutchinson (1987) had make a statement that knowledge is extensively relates to how consumers collect, group, and evaluate products, as well as being a principal predictor of environmentally friendly behavior (Vining and Ebreo 1990; Chan 1999). Knowledge can be said that it affects all stages of the decision making process, so that if have any wrong information can cause the consumers make a bad decision. As an example, most consumers are aware of the importance of reusable bag such as Im not a plastic bag , give consumers a way to heal the environment by not using the plastic bag which is harm to the environement (Crane 2000). Some people may perceive themselves as knowledgeable but when by actual measurement they are not. There is a pervasive human tendency to evaluate oneself as better than others or above average that have been study by Taylor and Brown (1988). Those people may actually be defectively educated and their purchase judgment or other actions may actually put into the problem rather than diminishing it. Measurement to weight broad levels of knowledge (not specific to making choices) and enclosed several ecological issues had been explored by previous research (Maloney and Ward, 1973; Maloney, Ward, and Braucht, 1975; Synodinos, 1990). But, Synodinos (1990) was argued that there is no important relationship between objective knowledge and the attitudinal behavioral dimensions that have been studied by Maloney, Ward, and Braucht (1975). Buenstorf and Codes (2008) had stated that complex processes of individual and social learning had shaped out consumers behaviour by this recent theorizing in evolutionary economics. This learning theory of consumption remains within the utilitarian custom of economics proposed that consumers capacity has been motivated by the acts of consumption to fulfil human wants. In this point of view, explicit knowledge on the characteristics of goods has been request by consumers, as well as on the connection between goods and the satisfaction of wants. Ecological want always become a question in case of sustainable consumption. It is a necessary that human need and an explicit knowledge on the causal link between the good and the satisfaction of the need for a thing to become a consumed good (Menger, 1950). According to Oltras study, it suggest that consumers should have a need or a want for ecological products, information on the environmental quality of goods and knowledge on the connectio n between these characteristics and the satisfaction of wants (Oltra, 2009). As a result, consumers knowledge and perceptions, useable information will play a vital characteristic in the creation of environmental preferences. 2.1.3 Values Behavior is influence by values (McCarty and Shrum 1994). Consumers can have the target of purchase ecologically product after they value protecting the environment. Consumers will make some classification of material difference when they buy an eco-product (Peattie, 2001). Wiener and Sukhdials (1990) study argued that the main cause of why consumers are not involved in ecologically favorable behavior is consumers perceived a very low level of self-involvement toward protection of the environment. To solve the problem, consumers environmental behavior should be motivated by highlight the importance of environmental issues. Therefore, marketers have an important role that they should communicate to the potential consumer that buying green products could have a large impact on the environment benefits (Laroche, Bergeron, and Barbaro-Forleo 2001). Individuals had been written themselves as the cognitive patterns by understand values in their environment by come out with a general denominator in social science. The most theoretical type of social cognitions helps to realize the interpersonal world by highlighting the importance of values for behavior. Values are used to select and justify actions and to criticize people, including the self, and events. Values are both self-centre and social-centre in the sense that they are at the crossroads between the individual and the society. Schwartz and Bilskys (1987) study have argued that values are concepts or beliefs about desirable end states or behaviors that excel in specific situations, where it is to guide the selection or evaluation of behavior and events, and ordered by relative meaning. There are three types of universal human requirement clarified as cognitive representations by the meaningful content of values. Kluckhohn (1951), Maslow (1959), and Rokeachs (1973) study the biologically based needs of the organism, social interactional claims for interpersonal coordination, and social institutional demands for group welfare and survival. Hofstede and Bond (1984), and Triandiss (1990) study the combination of both socially and personally interests on values. The theory of values has obtained attentions in cross-cultural social science research, and also in the area of consumer behavior and marketing. Values are adopted to be shared, as a minimum by people within a culture, thats why it used to describe the psychological comparability within and the differences across cultures. Analyze cross-cultural differences in existing behaviors are helped by investigate cross-cultural similarities and differences in values. Cultural differences in specific behaviors is more easily be interpret by point out the more abstract level of consumers cognitive hierarchy. According to Schwartzs (1992) study, values have clarifying power for a specific aspect of consumer attitudes, where namely environmental concern. An indirect approach has been choose to judge the potential values where it is to forecast behavior by testing the strength of relationship between environmental attitudes and self-reported frequency of buying organic foods. According to Kahles (1983) study, the researcher defined that consumer values can applied in a selection of life situations (Kahle, 1983; Kamakura and Mazzon, 1991; Sheth et al., 1991). The studys result is: there is a higher level of concept than consumption behaviors such as new product adoption (NPA) while consumption-level attitudes are at a level of abstraction much nearer to consumption behaviors. Brunsos (2004) study had argued that NPA may be influence situation-specific consumer attitudes than consumers attitudes by applied means-end chain theory. 2.1.4 Consumers Attitudes According to Schlegelmilch, Greg, and Diamantopouloss (1996) study, the researchers came out with the finding that attitudes are the most reliable predictor of pro-environmental purchasing behaviors. In general, there have been found that a positive correlations between environmental concern such as attitude and environmental friendly behavior (Van Liere and Dunlap 1981; Roberts and Bacon 1997). Based on the case of recycling, an important relationship between environmental concern and ecologically responsible behavior has been study by Simmons and Widmar (1990). According to Wickers (1969) study, the researcher had found a powerless relationship between attitudes and behavior. Findings are still questionable in study the impacts of attitudes on behavior when object a category of ecological concerned consumers is much harder than marketers expected. Researchers have been proposed that using a single and multiple behavioral measurements on attitudes. Researchers should include other probable dominant variables (different attitude representations towards different objects), and corresponding the specificity of attitude and behavior measurement by the purposed to strengthen the relationship between attitude and behavior (Ajzen and Fishbein, 1977). Besides, there are a study shows that attitude and behavior may get advantage from the examination of multiple factors, merged with situational characteristics to validate if these factors influenced behavior (Weigel, 1983). Conjoint analysis had been suggested to test attitudes and behavior because conjoint analysis can provide information on where consumers perceived ecologically friendly of specific behaviors (Roozen and De Pelsmacker, 1998). According to Balderjahn (1985), in the late 60s and early 70s, a person that can be defined as those who knows the manufacturing, allocation, utilize, and discarding of products lead to external costs, and who evaluates such external costs negatively, trying to minimize them by behavior. According to Urban (1986), Van Liere and Dunlaps (1981) study, the researchers always interpreted environmentally relevant values, attitudes, and behavioural intentions in the research. A major determinant of buying ecologically products is environmentally concern (Brombacher and Hamm, 1990; Van Dam, 1991; and Grunert, 1993). A consumption-related entity with some degree of favor or disfavor had been evaluated based on Eagly and Chaikens (1993) study. According to Brunsos (2004) study, they are more analytical consumption behavior than other common factors, because consumption attitudes are exact to the consumption domain. Conversely, consumption attitudes are control by the overarching value systems, where it is to cover central dispositions applicable to a broad assortment of situations, contexts, and behaviors (Brunso , 2004 and Steenkamp, 1999). Clearly, consumption attitudes are tied personal values to actual consumption behaviors. Security value is concerned with peoples needs for safety, predictability, and stability (Schwartz, 1992). According to Daghfouss (1999) study, the level of security value hamper the acceptance of new products is high among international consumers. In consumption view, Johnson (1999) had argued that consumers concern for future security can be in part answered by sensible financial planning, which, consecutively reflected in their attitude toward savings (Liu and Cui, 2000). Consumers with a more positive attitude toward savings have a propensity to save more money for prospect used. Consumer purchasing power maybe negatively affected when consumers deposit their income into savings accounts. Attitude implies a combination of factual knowledge and motivating emotional concern which result in a tendency to act. Further, it is understood that clusters of attitudes about similar environmental conditions will motivate individuals to express their attitude. Therefore, to achieved maximum impact on environmental education, it must provide factual information which will lead to understanding of the total biophysical environment, develop a concern for environmental quality which will motive citizens to work toward solutions to biophysical environmental problems, and inform citizens as to how they can play an effective role in achieving the goals derived from their attitudes. 2.1.5 Consumers Behavior According to Zhong, Liljenquist, and Cains (2009) study, the researchers highlight the significance of global sense of morality by study the individuals moral reasoning and reactions to cut off events. This study argued that moral behaviors are figured into an understood calculation of self-perception where righteous behaviors boost moral self-image. It is hard to maintain a positive moral self and always costly. This is because social and ethical dilemmas usually engage in conflicts of interest. Therefore, people have a propensity to be powerfully motivated involved in pro-social and ethical behaviors if peoples moral self is threatened by a recent misbehavior. People are likely to analyze moral implications and regulate their behaviors right after their moral self experienced. This inferred that righteous acts can authorize successive asocial and immoral behaviors. Based on Sachdeva, Iliev, and Medins (2009) research, the researchers feel that purchasing green products declared ind ividuals values of social responsibility and ethical consciousness by reminding people of their humanitarian traits may reduced charitable donations. During the energy crisis of the late 1970s, there is a relationship to the attitudes-behavior had studies by past research (Berger and Corbin, 1992). According to Websters (1975) study, the researcher shows that the consumers were concerns about saving energy, but behavior on such concerns was deficient. However, many investigators believe that low level of attitude and behavioral correspondence is a answer of improper attitudinal specificity (Ajzen and Fishbein, 1980). According to Suchard and Polonskis (1991) study, the researchers had argued that ecologically awareness consumers are trying to concern for the environment in different ways. The marketers must work out carefulness when attempting to extend environmental initiatives from one ecologically conscious behavior to another (Pickett, 1993). 2.1.6 Psychological An assorted model joins both demographics and psychographics should be preferred to the traditional demographic profiling methods in examining environmental concern; as a correlate of environmental behavior because psychographic variables present stable profiles of green consumption (Straughan and Roberts, 1999). The psychological influences relating to ecological consumption can be supported by previous research. According to Kinnear (1974), Tucker (1980), and Robertss (1996) study, the researchers had argued the effectiveness on consumers perceived. This study investigated the level to any consumer can have an impact on the environment. As a finding result shows that there is a high level of perceived consumers effectiveness in greater levels of green consumerism. Based on Schwepker and Cornwell (1991), and Sparks and Shepherds (1992) research, they argued the self efficacy is related to ones ability to join in green consumption. Some previous studies the meaning of social responsibility and it is an extent to which an individual feels morally responsible to take part (Tucker, 1980; Schwepker and Cornwell, 1991; and Mainerei, 1997). The causal model depicted in Figure 1 includes five dimensions of ecologically responsible consumption patterns. Two of them concern energy conservation patterns. The use of home insulation goods is measured by three indicators (use of double glazing windows, use of wall cavity insulation, and insulation of windows), and the dimension of energy curtailment is measured by two indicators (reduce heating and take a shower instead of having a bath). Ecologically responsible buying and using of products is a further dependent dimension of our causal model, which is operationalized by three indicators (buy less packaged products, use returnables, and use fewer detergents). If a brands ecological impact is questionable, the ecologically concerned consumer has the alternative either to change to a nonpolluting brand or to express dissatisfaction to the manufacturer of that product (Hirschman, 1970). A more general, but not productspecific, act of ecologically concerned consumers is to supp ort or to join environmental protection organizations as a means of expressing dissatisfaction with environmentally harmful goods. To take into account this general ecologically behavioral pattern, our causal model includes a dimension of environmental concern that is measured by two indicators (signing ecologically relevant petitions and support or join an antipollution organization). The ecologically responsible use of automobiles completes the list of dependent behavioral dimensions specified in the causal model. Four measures are used as indicators (only driving if necessary , economical driving, driving bicycles instead of cars, and reduce driving). Henion (1976) postulates that ecologically concerned consumers possess certain psychological characteristics to a significantly higher degree than other consumers. Webster (1975) developed his so-called social involvement model, which suggests that socially conscious consumers are more active and socially involved than the average consumer. This study includes consumers personality traits that reflect the degree of alienation and emotional expressiveness. We hypothesize that ecologically concerned consumers, although they are more alienated from the core culture, are active and not willing to suppress dissatisfaction with the perceived environmental pollution. Each trait is operationalized by two measures (give way to ones feelings and suppress emotions for emotional expressiveness, and unsureness in dealing with others and like to be in the center of attention for alienation) using the multiple indicator measurement model (for further details, see Balderjahn, 1988). Kinnear et al. (1974) were the first who identified the so-called characteristic of perceived consumer effectiveness. This is a measure of the extent to which a person believes that an individual consumer can be effective in pollution abatement. Henion and Wilson (1976) relate that variable to the concept of locus of control. Empirical results suggest that the ecologically concerned consumer is an internally controlled individual. It should be mentioned that this control concept operates as a strong predictor in the domain of the individuals perception of economic problems (Strtimpel, 1976). Furthermore, because the control belief mediates the impact of success or failure on the expectancy of reinforcements, the close relationship between that concept of locus of control and the theory of causal attribution is evident. Here, a binary measure of personal control (internal or external) and a measure of ideology control (perceived power of changing adverse social conditions) are analyzed. We hypothesize that the ecologically concerned consumer is an internally controlled person who believes in peoples power of changing perceived adverse social conditions. The very early research on ecologically concerned consumers focuses on attitudes as descriptor and predictor variables. According to Kinnear et al. (1974), a buyers attitude must express his/her concern for ecology. Attitudes have served as predictors of energy conservation behavior, ecologically conscious purchase and use of products and recycling. In our study, three measures of environmental attitudes are included to explain behavior. These are the pro-con attitude toward nuclear energy, the attitude toward pollution (measured along a 4-point rating scale), and the attitude toward ecologically conscious living. The latter attitude combines two measures in a multiple indicator model (deviate from societal consensus and go to native). We hypothesize that the attitude toward pollution and the attitude toward ecologically conscious living predict behavior-especially the latter, because of its higher specificity. Additionally, it is assumed that the attitude toward nuclear energycan se rve as a proxi-variable to identify ecologically concerned consumers. Socioeconomic and demographic variables are easy to assess, and they therefore play an important role in market segmentation. Unfortunately, the predictive power of demographic and socioeconomic variables is generally low. Here, we hypothesized that ecologically concerned consumers are better educated, younger, and have a higher income than the average consumer. Sex and occupational status are included in a rather exploratory sense. Education, income, and occupational status are summarized to an index of the consumers socioeconomic status. We assume that ecologically concerned consumers occupy a higher status than others. Furthermore, we are interested in the impact of cultural factors on nonpolluting consumption patterns. The number of friends, the friends social position, and the place of residence may be important cultural factors in explaining ecological consciousness, because they reflect different socialization conditions in which the consumer acts.

A Critical Review of a Senco

A critical review on the role of the SENCO and dyslexia: how this role has been affected and impacted upon by recent legislation Introduction The BDA Dyslexia Friendly Schools Pack for Teachers (2009) provides an overall guide of what dyslexia is and how a dyslexia friendly school should be delivering education to the dyslexic learner. The writers begin with a definition of dyslexia stating that â€Å"dyslexia is a learning difference, a combination of strengths and weaknesses†.This is an informative definition as opposed to the recommendation of Norwich et al (2005) that exemplary schools should promote an inclusive school system whereby dyslexia is considered but not in isolation. The BDA (2009) state that importance ought to be placed on acknowledging dyslexia as â€Å" a specific learning difficulty† as a specific learning difference† so that teaching is inclusive and focuses on all learners rather than just the dyslexic learner who may already feel something is wrong with them.However, I stress that this general definition is simplistic and I agree with Reid that there should be a working/operational definition. Reid’s definition of dyslexia is more informative: There may be visual and phonological difficulties and there is usually some discrepancy in performances in different areas of learning. It is important that the individual differences and learning styles are acknowledged since these will affect outcomes of assessment and learning. (p. 4-5, Reid, 2003).The BDA (2009) conclude to achieve BDA Quality Mark status, LEAs and their associated schools must encourage and identify outstanding practice in following and improving access to education for all learners. I feel that planning a dyslexia friendly school has the effect of improving the learning of not just the dyslexic learner but other pupils as well. According to Snowling et al (2011), dyslexia is seen to be a â€Å"deficit in phonological skills which, in turn, compromi ses the ability to learn the grapheme–phoneme mappings that underpin competence in an alphabetic system†.Snowling et al’s (2011) research underpins the classic definition of dyslexia that it is a specific reading difficulty whereby literacy under achievement is apparent and falls below the accepted level given the intelligence of the learner. This study is important: it goes beyond recounting dyslexia at the behavioural level (i. e. incorrect spelling and reading) to taking into consideration weaknesses at the cognitive level that explicate the practical problems (Morton & Frith, 1995).Dyslexic learners have deficits in three linked but dissimilar areas of phonological processing: â€Å"phonological awareness (the ability to attend to and manipulate sounds in words); phonological memory (memory for speech-based information – also referred to as verbal memory); and naming (providing the spoken label for a visual referent)†. (Vellutino et al. , 2004). Consequently, recent definitions of dyslexia have discarded the need for literacy to be appreciably below general aptitude, and have taken a widely accepted view of dyslexia with â€Å"phonological processing as a core deficit† (Lyon, Shaywitz & Shaywitz, 2003). ContextThe context in which I am employed is a small mainstream one-form entry Church of England voluntary aided primary school. The school is situated in a deprived inner city area in the London borough of Lewisham where 25% of the 225 children on roll from Nursery through to Year 6 are eligible for Free School Meals. This is significantly higher than 2006 national figures of 16% of all primary school children receiving Free School Meals (FSM). The number of children currently identified as having a Special Educational Need is 47, or 20. 8% of the total school population which is slightly higher than 2005 national figures of 18%.The figure of 1. 7% is the number of SEND (Special Educational Needs and Disabilities) c hildren who have a Statement of Special Educational Need – lower than national figures of 3% – and the remainder of the SEND population comprises overwhelmingly of children on School Action Plus (78% – 67. 5% represented by boys and 32. 5% represented by girls) and approximately 8% of SEND children on School Action. The largest identified area of special need in the school falls under SLCN ( Speech, Language and Communication Need ) as set out in the SEN Code of Practice 2001 where 61% of SEND children have a medical diagnosis of receptive and/or xpressive language difficulty, followed by 21% of SEND children with a medical diagnosis of and Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD). Other types of need are Down’s Syndrome ( 2%), Apert’s Syndrome (2%), Social, Emotional and Behavioural Difficulties SEBD (6%), Dyslexia (2%) and more generally literacy difficulties which are under investigation for potential specific causes (6%). These needs are justifiable as t hey have been recognised and identified as such by relevantly qualified and external agencies or are in the process of being more specifically identified .A critical review of the role of the SENCO The role of the SENCo has developed through government policy and undergone significant changes in the past decade with the introduction of the statutory SEN Code of Practice 2001 which states that the role of the SENCo includes identifying and placing pupils in need of special educational provision on a graduated system, liaising with parents and other professionals in regards to children with SEND and advising and supporting other practitioners in the field amongst other responsibilities.This was largely interpreted as a co-ordinating role whereby Teaching Assistants ( in at least 36% of schools ) were employed in this capacity and contributed to disparities in provision nationally as well as a divergence of roles. In 2009 new government regulations and amendments to the SEN Code of Pra ctice 2001 required SENCos to be qualified teachers and for those teachers new to the role to undergo compulsory training in the form of the National Award of SEN Coordination.The 2006 House of Commons Education and Skills Select Committee Report on SEN clearly defines the role of the SENCo as a strategic leader, and recommended that SENCos â€Å"should in all cases be qualified teachers and in a senior management position in the school as recommended in the SEN Code of Practice†. (Recommendation 84) Statutory and regulatory frameworks and relevant developments at national and local level The SEN Code of Practice 2001 remains the statutory legislation governing SEN practice and provision.The 2001 Code of Practice replaces the 1994 Code of Practice, although it retains much of the original guidance, but takes into account developments in education since 1994 and includes new obligations introduced by the SEN and Disability Act 2001. The 2001 Code of Practice promotes a more co nsistent approach to meeting the needs of children with SEN and focuses on preventative work and early identification as well as developing strong partnerships between parents, schools, local authorities, health and social services and voluntary organisations.The school Special Educational Needs and Disability policy is largely based on the SEN Code of Practice 2001 and incorporates elements of the statutory Disability Discrimination Act 2005, as well as local authority guidance of national policy, such as the Lewisham school action & school action plus guidance 2010. The school policy clearly states: â€Å"A child is deemed to have special educational needs when they are seen to have significantly greater difficulty in learning than the majority of their age group, or have a disability which significantly hinders their use of educational facilities.When such difficulties or disabilities persistently demand the planning of educational provision different from that of the rest of th e class, the child is placed on the Special Needs and Disabilities Profile. This is a confidential list of children for whom extra support may be necessary and whose progress will be monitored by the class teacher and Inclusion Manager. † ( Rose & Lyle, 2011, p1) Some elements of the SEN Code of Practice 2001 framework are guidance, whilst others must be observed.This includes ensuring liaison with parents and other professional in respect to children with SEN, ensuring that Individual Education Plans (IEPs) are in place and that relevant information about individual children with SEN is collated, recorded and updated. The Code ensures that schools and local authorities must examine their practice and provision for children with SEN and that they are accountable by law – e. g. offering full access to a broad, balanced and relevant education.The Code of Practice emphasises the right of a child with SEN to access mainstream education through the development of provision i n such settings to meet â€Å"a wide spectrum of SEN† (COP 2001, 7:52-7:63) that may overlap in the categories of communication and interaction, cognition and learning, behaviour, emotional and social development and sensory and/or physical needs. The provision provided may involve well-differentiated Quality First teaching (Edwards 2010), intervention programmes including withdrawal from lass, specialist teaching or therapy or attendance ( full or part time ) at a specialist setting. Children are to be identified as early as possible and their needs met through a graduated approach within the school’s own resources ( School Action), additional support from external agencies ( School Action Plus ), or if progress is inadequate and further support from the Local authority is required, a Statement of Special Educational Needs may be issued.As I prepared this essay, I have identified a number of key tensions in my particular school: Whilst class teachers in my school acce pt, in accordance with the National Curriculum Inclusion Statement 1999, that they must respond to children’s diverse learning needs and overcome potential barriers to learning and assessment for individuals and groups of pupils, including those with SEND, there has been a lack of clarity over the meaning of the term â€Å"inclusion† and with whom the overall responsibility of children on the SEND register lies.This is hardly surprising as there is little consensus on the precise meaning of ‘inclusion’ at national levels – OFSTED tend to view inclusion as minimising inequalities for groups of children – eg. including those with SEND, on FSM, gender, race or attainment – whilst teachers primarily regard inclusion chiefly in terms of individuals with SEND ( NASUWT Report 2008, p. 17 ) and their â€Å"right† to be included in a mainstream classroom and how to best achieve this.Increasingly, I favour a model which allows individual children – whether SEND, English as an Additional Language (EAL) or non-SEND – to access an education which best meets their needs based as much as possible within the mainstream classroom but through withdrawing children for specialist 1:1 or small group teaching depending on their needs and the gaps in their knowledge relative to their peers and age-related expectations.The non-statutory Removing Barriers for Achievement (2004) highlights that all teachers – not just the SENCO or Inclusion Manager – are responsible for teaching children with SEND. This also includes communicating the message to class teachers that they are often best placed to initially notice difficulties a child may be having and by making certain referral forms available to them, thereby actively engaging them in jointly taking responsibility for SEND or potential SEND children in their classes.The Every Child Matters (2004) agenda is currently not statutory and is now being re-draft ed as Every Child Achieves in a new White Paper, although the five original outcomes remain. The 5 outcomes are: to stay safe, to be healthy, to enjoy and achieve, to make a positive contribution and achieve economic well-being. The focus for schools not only has to be upon ensuring that all staff are aware of the 5 outcomes, but also on the impact and progress made towards the 5 outcomes by all pupils and individuals within vulnerable groups, such as children with Special Educational Needs.Such agendas which sit alongside other requirements on class teachers to also focus on group outcomes such as groups of children attaining age –related expectations hence creates pulls in opposing directions as to the levels of attainment a child is achieving and the best outcome for that child – or â€Å"competing rather than complementary agendas. There is a lack of clarity as to whether educational policy is concerned with ‘normalisation’ and conformity, or genuinel y values diversity and difference (NASUWT Report 2008, p. 18 ). This tension is a theme which continues in the form of ‘narrowing the gaps’ between groups and ‘accelerated progress’.In the case of children with Speech and Language difficulties or dyslexic tendencies, these terms appear contradictory and oxymoronic – as typically such children need reinforcement and over learning compared to their peers operating at age-related expectations. It is hard to see how such children can make the requisite amount of progress as measured by national age-related attainment standards ( and making a minimum of 2 sub levels progress a year ) as opposed to progress as measured against their individual areas of weakness and specific difficulties.Measured this latter way, their progress may well be excellent although a system of levels and sub-levels may fail to be sensitive enough to chart this progress. I am therefore examining ways such as building in pre- and po st intervention screening for relevant children and considering using Assessing Pupils’ Progress (APP) Speaking and Listening levels in addition to National Curriculum levels in Reading, Writing and Maths to more sensitively measure progress.The contribution of extended services, such as Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services (CAMHS), Educational Psychology, Family Services, and Early Intervention Services to improve outcomes for children as set out in ECM(2004) is welcomed, although it is hard to measure the impact and the progress that this may have for a number of reasons: in changing times, it is at times difficult to keep abreast of developments and changes to services offered and their accessibility; various services may have a varying level of impact on different children and their families; not all parents are receptive – and some positively resistant – to accepting referrals to certain services; there can be a diffusion of responsibility once vario us agencies are involved. As a SENCo, one would encounter all of these barriers and find that developing good working, collaborative and supportive relationships with all representatives of extended services that a SENCo works closely with as well as parents is the best way forward and ensuring that communication channels are maintained.This has to be carefully weighed against issues of data protection and confidentiality by ensuring for example that Common Assessment Frameworks (CAFs) are raised before information is shared between agencies and that all sensitive information is stored in a safe location to which only a SENCo and the Headteacher have access. However, to enable class teachers to better understand the needs of children that a SENCo teaches on a daily basis, the SENCo would ensure that all class teachers are provided with relevant reports from external agencies and that these are used appropriately to inform planning and provision for a child within both a classroom an d wider school setting.High incidence of SEN and dyslexia – how they can affect pupils’ participation and learning and strategies to remove barriers to learning Baroness Warnock is quoted: â€Å"SEN has come to be the name of a single category, and the government uses it as if it is the same problem to include a child in a wheelchair and a child with Asperger’s, and that is conspicuously untrue† (The Guardian, Tuesday January 31, 2006). Indeed, the 2006 House of Commons Select Committee Report on Special Educational Needs acknowledges that â€Å"children exist on a broad continuum of needs and learning styles but do not fit into neat categories of different sorts of children – those with and without SEN.The category of â€Å"SEN† is an arbitrary distinction that leads to false classifications and, it can be argued that, this is what is causing the high levels of conflict and frustration with all those involved. † (p. 36) This has ofte n been my experience when discussing the progress of various pupils on the SEND register with senior leadership who frequently use the terminology â€Å"SEND† and â€Å"non-SEND†. I am of the opinion that this is a blanket term which does little to understand the true nature of individual children’s difficulties and how best to address these. OFSTED comparison of groups engenders such an approach and is not sensitive enough to the variation between individuals.In the case of my school, it appears that the group most at risk of underachieving is higher ability girls – with no SEN! With an emphasis on the social context of special educational needs, Removing Barriers to Achievement (2004, p. 8,) states: â€Å"Difficulties in learning often arise from an unsuitable environment – inappropriate grouping of pupils, inflexible teaching styles, or inaccessible curriculum – as much from individual children’s physical, sensory or cognitive imp airments. Children’ emotional and mental health needs may also have a significant impact on their ability to make the most of the opportunities in school, as may family circumstances. †These considerations, combined with evidence that there is a link between social deprivation and SEN nationally – as well as underachievement nationally and social deprivation, can make identification of SEN problematic in my school, especially at School Action Level – for example, is a child making poor progress in reading and writing because of difficulties such as potential dyslexia, or through poor parenting and a lack of exposure to books at home? Or both? Should the child be on the SEND register and is he/she underachieving? In such cases, assessment and targeted intervention at the specific area of weakness can help differentiate between a range of possible factors, but it may not always be so clear cut. What is clear is that these difficulties need to be addressed to minimise the longer term effects on such a child’s development and to help them succeed in the future.This can involve working very closely, and in partnership with parents in order to create a sustainable and longer term solution. The OFSTED Special Educational Needs and Disability Review 2010 found that the term ‘Special Educational Needs’ was too widely used with up 50% of schools visited using low attainment and slow progress as the key indicators of a special educational need, with in some cases, very little further assessment. According to the report, 50% of all pupils identified for School Action would not be identified as such if, â€Å"schools focussed on improving teaching and learning for all, with individual goals for improvement† (p. 3). This suggested a culture of underachievement due to low pupil expectations and poor mainstream teaching provision.It also found that pupils identified as having special educational needs were disproportionate ly from disadvantaged backgrounds and achieved less well than their peers in terms of attainment and progress over time. Parents were keen to have their children formally recognised as having special educational needs in order to ensure additional support for their child. The quality of the additional support from within or outside the school was not found to be good by inspectors. Provision was often not appropriate or of good enough quality and did not lead to better outcomes for the child. The review found that no one model or setting of special needs provision worked better than another.The key findings included improving the quality of assessment, improving teaching at an early stage to avoid additional provision at a later stage, ensuring that schools do not over-identify children as having special educational needs when better Quality First Teaching was required, ensuring that additional support was effective and developing specialist provision and services. A result of such findings and the implications for my school have been: 1. A reduction in the number of children placed on School Action – either by not being placed on the SEND register, or by being removed from it. In many cases, identified labels were â€Å"behavioural†.There is evidence that good class teacher behaviour management, combined with weekly visits from a pupil referral unit outreach worker, as well as a Learning Mentor, has helped to remove some emotional barriers to some children’s learning. However, definitions of ‘behavioural difficulty’ can still remain unclear as this can be a fluid and relative term dependent on the setting of a class and the nature and frequency of behavioural challenge – and hence vary nationally as well as within a school. Children remaining on school action are largely children with ongoing literacy difficulties, whose difficulties are being examined more specifically as suspected dyslexia. 2.Improved training for Te aching Assistants who are often the staff working closely with children identified with SEND. This has included in-house training and attendance on specific courses as well as reaching a minimum standard in Maths and English. Time factors and competing demands on Teaching Assistants’ time however are considerable constraints and hinder the impact that this training may have. The school now employs a NumbersCounts maths specialist. The impact of this specialist teaching needs greater time to develop to measure its effectiveness – although I do not feel that curriculum sub-levels may necessarily be the best way to measure this impact for certain children. 3.A focus on Quality First teaching so that all staff educate, share and promote practical and achievable ways for every class teacher to adopt strategies as a matter of daily routine that are inclusive to children with Speech and Language difficulties and dyslexic tendencies – to embed this in a culture of good general practice and reduce the potential for children to be classified as ‘SEN’ when underachievement is the issue and provide a good learning environment for all children – including those with SEN. The Code of Practice (2001) outlines four main areas of need – cognition and learning, behaviour, emotional and social development needs, communication and interaction and sensory and/or physical needs. Compared to national 2006 figures ( DfES Special Educational Needs in England, January 2006. SFR23/2006), our school has a far higher incidence of Speech and Language difficulties including dyslexia ( 61% of the SEND egister ) ASD ( 21%) than the national figures ( 14. 3% and 2. 4% respectively ) but a much lower incidence of BESD ( 6% to 26. 5% nationally ). Part of the reason may be recent school investment in enhanced Speech and Language Service from the NHS, where the school together with 4 other local schools, funds weekly Speech and Language therapist ti me. This has lead to a high rate of referrals, which has led to a higher rate of detection. This picture is not evenly spread however – the investment in Speech and Language, although justifiable as such difficulties impede access to many parts of the curriculum, comes at a cost to other categories of SEND as identified by the Code of Practice.Other children’s need are not always met quickly ( sometimes more than 2 terms ) despite early identification due to lengthy waiting times for assessments with ‘low level, high incidence’ learning difficulties such as dyslexia having low priority in the hierarchy of urgency . There are only 2 Specialist Teachers qualified to formally diagnose dyslexia provided by the Lewisham Inclusion Service to support the needs of children in mainstream settings whose time is shared between 92 schools in the borough. This means that specialist provision increasingly needs to be provided within the school setting and is dependent o f current staff levels of expertise.This can create variability in the quality of provision for children with SEN across schools in the same locality. In accordance with the Equalities Act 2010 and Special Educational Needs and Disability Act (2001), schools must make reasonable adjustments for children with SEN and disabilities to access testing that does not discriminate against them on the basis of their disability or special need. A learner with a Statement of Special Educational Needs automatically qualifies for up to 25% additional time in order to complete testing in Reading, Writing and Mathematics at the end of KS2 – however changes in the criteria for awarding Statements of SEN in Lewisham have amounted to fewer statements being issued and financial savings for the authority.A diagnosis of dyslexia would not however result in additional time if the learner does not have a Statement unless considerable additional documentation is provided. The use of a scribe, transc ript, technology such as a laptop or reader however for a dyslexic learner is discretionary upon a school’s assessment of the learner’s need in order to access the tests and can be easily arranged. It is at least reasonable for Qualifications and Curriculum Development Agency (QCDA) guidelines to permit such measures as scribes or laptops to remove potential barriers to performance for children with certain types of need under formal examination conditions to access the knowledge held by children who may not best be able to demonstrate in written form.In conclusion, whilst various governmental policies have aimed to improve the outcomes for children with SEND, there are difficulties – some unforeseen – between the principles set out and the translation of these into practice, with gaps and variations on local and national levels. We await the forthcoming new legislation around SEND and the implications that this will have on the ever-developing role of th e SENCo forging a strategic path to best meet the needs – Special Educational and otherwise – of families and children within a tighter resource framework. References Special Educational Needs Code of Practice. DfEE 581/2001 November 2001 QCA Curriculum guidelines for learners with learning difficulty and special arrangements during Key Stage 2 tests – 2012Special Educational Needs and Disabilty Act 2001 What Equality law means for you as an education provider: schools. Equality and Human Rights Commission, 2010 Removing Barriers to Achievement: The Government’s Strategy for SEN. DfES/0118/2004. 2004 National Inclusion Statement, 1999 Every Child Matters: Change for children (2004) Special Educational Needs and Inclusion: Reflection and Renewal, NASUWT Report, 2008 House of Commons Select Committee Report on Special Educational Needs, HMSO, 2006 Inclusion Development Programme:Teaching and supporting pupils with dyslexia. www. nasentraining. org. uk/resou rces/dyslexia-idp-materials/ The Special Educational Needs and Disability Review.Ofsted, 2010 The SENCO survival guide: the nuts and bolts of everything you need to know Edwards, Sylvia; National Association for Special Educational Needs (Great Britain) E-boo, Routledge, 2010, 1st edition Inclusion: Does it matter where pupils are taught? Ofsted, 2006 Lewisham Local Education Authority publications: School Action/School Action Plus guidance criteria (2010) Inclusion debate treads new ground, The Guardian, Tuesday 31, 2006 Hallett, F & Hallett, G (2010). Transforming the Role of the SENCO: Achieving the National Award for SEN Coordination; Open University Press Special Educational Needs and Disability Policy, Rose and Lyle, 2011

Skidelsky Warwick Lecture

In my third and fourth lectures examine the monetary and fiscal confusion which as reigned in the last five years -the experiments with ‘unorthodox monetary policy' and the austerity drive in fiscal policy -as policy makers sought a path to recovery. In my fifth lecture 1 kick at the causes Of the crisis from the standpoint of the world monetary system. Finally, I ask the question: what should post-crash economics be like? What guidance should economics offer the policy-maker to prevent further calamities of the kind we have just experienced?What should students of economics be taught? In this lecture I will consider only those bits of pre-crash orthodoxy relevant to policy making, tit main emphasis being on UK developments. Theories of expectation formation played an overwhelming parting shaping the theory of macroeconomic policy; with changes in the way economists modeled expectations marking the different phases of theory. I will treat these in roughly chronological order, s tarting with the Keynesian theory. II.UNCERTAIN EXPECTATIONS Keynesian macro theory dominated policy from roughly 1945-1975. The minimum doctrine -not in Keynes, but in accepted versions of Keynesian theory -to justify policy intervention to stabilize economies is: SLIDE 1 1. Uncertain expectations, particularly important for investment, leaving investment to depend on ‘conventions' and ‘animal spirits'. 2. Relative interest-inelastic of investment. 3. A) sticky nominal wages (unexplained) and b) sticky nominal interest rates (explained by liquidity preference).The first point suggested investment was subject to severe fluctuations; the last suggested there was a lack or weakness of spontaneous recovery mechanisms- ii the possibility of ;under-employment equilibrium'. This led to a prescription for macro-policy: to prevent or minimize fluctuations of investment demand. Point 2 in combination with b suggested primacy of fiscal over monetary policy for stabilization. SLIDE 2 ‘For Keynes, it was the tendency for the private sector, from time to time, to want to stop spending and to accumulate financial assets instead that lay behind the problems of slumps and unemployment.It could be checked by deficit spending'. (C J. Also and D. Makes (1985), in D. Morris (De. ) ‘The Economic System in the UK†, 374) ‘In the standard Keynesian economic model, when the economy is at less than full capacity, output is determined by demand; and the management of economic activity and hence employment is effected by managing demand'. (ibid, 370) Mention in passing, that there was a theoretical and social radicalism in Keynes obliterated in the standard postwar Keynesian model.For example, he thought insufficient demand was chronic and would get worse; and that, in consequence, the longer term survival of a free enterprise system depended on the redistribution of wealth and income and the reduction in hours of work. I will return to these points in my last lecture. Demand- management The government used fiscal policy (variations in taxes and spending) to maintain full employment, while keeping short term interest rates close to some ‘normal' (or expected) level. Eel. Monetary policy was largely bypassed as a tool of demand-management.The government forecast real GAP for the following year by forecasting year on movement of its expenditure components: consumption, fixed capital formation, stock building spending, and net exports. Budget deficits then adjusted to maintain full employment. There was no explicit modeling of expectations, though attention was paid to the issue of ‘confidence'. The prevalent view was that the confidence of the cuisines community was best maintained by a commitment to full employment. It was different with the balance of payments.With sterling convertible into foreign currencies at a fixed exchange rate, governments also needed to retain confidence of non-resident holders of sterling, so the two requirements of confidence might pull in different directions. ‘Stop-Go' was the result. Stop-Go not withstanding, fiscal activism proved highly successful, aided by the long post-war boom. The budget remained in surplus with current account revenues exceeding expenditure and with borrowing mostly stricter to finance public investment not covered by current-account surpluses.Chancellors from Crisps to Macmillan were even tempted to extend this-above-the-line surplus to an overall surplus by covering capital expenditure below the line from revenue yet this was not achieved 1 . Nonetheless, the public-sector borrowing requirement (ESP.) fell from an average of 7. 5% of GAP (1952-1959) to 6. 6% of GAP (1960-1969). The national debt-to-income ratio fell from 3:1 in 1950 to 0. 7:1 in 19702. Unemployment was consistently below 2. 5% and inflation was low. Ill. THE RISE AND FALL OF PHILLIPS CURVE KEYNESIAN The post-war problem turned out to be not unemployment but inflation. With full capacity utilization, whether generated by Keynesian policy or by benign world conditions, there was always going to be pressure on prices. So the attention of Keynesian policymakers was increasingly turned to fighting inflation, using both fiscal and monetary tools. In this they were also successful for a time. But from the late asses, inflation started to creep up; and the unemployment cost of restraining it started to rise: we enter the era of ‘stagflation'. The underlying theoretical question was: what caused inflation? Was it excess demand or ‘cost-push'?There was no single Keynesian answer to this question. Some Keynesian economists argued that labor market was like any other, with price being determined by the balance between supply and demand. A reduction in the demand for labor would lower its price. Deflation would slow the rise of nominal wages, and hence a rise in the general price level. The question of course was how much deflation would be needed for stable prices? This was not an easy case for Keynesian to argue. Given their belief in sticky nominal wages, the unemployment cost might prove very high.Most Keynesian economists were more comfortable with the ‘cost push' theory of inflation: unions pushing up wages ahead of productivity. Prices rose because business managements raised them; managements raised prices because their costs had risen; costs rose owing to pay increases; and pay increased because otherwise unions would come out on strike. Higher unemployment would not stop them because most of the unemployed could not do the strikers' jobs. In fact, cost-push could occur at levels well below full employment.Short of bringing back mass unemployment, deflating demand would not stop inflation. What was required was a compact with the unions to restrain pay push: incomes policies. Anti-inflation policy in the 1 sass and asses wobbled between fiscal and monetary measures to restrain demand and attempts to reach pay deals with the unions. The Keynesian were rescued from this dilemma by the econometric work Of A. W. Phillips. In 1 958, A. W. Phillips published a famous article which claimed to demonstrate a well-determined relationship between the unemployment rate and the rate of wage increases.The Phillips Curve implied that there was a stable trade-off between unemployment and inflation. The prize was price stability with a small increase in unemployment, way short of the depression. More generally, policy-makers were supposed to have a ‘menu of choice' between different rates of inflation and unemployment. SLIDE 3. ORIGINAL PHILLIPS CURVE The Keynesian policy of demand-management unraveled with the attack on the Phillips Curve by Milton Friedman of Chicago University. In a single lecture in 1 968, he demolished Phillips Curve Keynesian and started the monetarist counter-revolution.Adaptive Expectations Friedman restated the pre-Keynesian idea that there was a unique equilibrium rate of unemployment which he called the ‘natural rate'. Inflation was caused by government attempts to reduce unemployment below the natural rate by increasing the amount of money in the economy. Friedman accepted that there was a trade-off between inflation and unemployment, but that it was temporary, and existed only because workers were fooled into accepting lower real wages than they wanted by not taking into account the rise in prices.But if government repeatedly resorted to monetary expansion (for example by running budget deficits) in order to educe unemployment below its ‘natural' rate, this ‘money illusion' would disappear and workers would put in increased wage demands to match the now expected rise in prices. In short, after a time workers developed inflationary expectations: they built the expected inflation into their wage bargaining. One could not use the Phillips Curve to control inflation in the long run since the Curve itself shifted due to the level of inflation rising. SLIDE 4.FRIEDMAN'S EXPECTATIONS AUGMENTED PHILLIPS CURVE SLIDE 5. One simple version of adaptive expectations is stated in the following equation, where pee is the next year's rate of inflation that is currently expected; p-Eel is this year's rate of inflation that was expected last year; and p is this year's actual rate of inflation: where is between O and 1. This says that current expectations of future inflation reflect past expectations and an â€Å"error-adjustment† term, in which current expectations are raised (or lowered) according to the gap between actual inflation and previous expectations.This error-adjustment is also called â€Å"partial adjustment. † Friedman's work had huge anti-Keynesian policy implications. The five main Ones Were: First, macro-policy can influence nominal, but not real variables: the price level, not the employment or output level. Second, Friedman re-stated the Quantity Theory of Money, the theory that prices (or no minal incomes) change proportionally with the quantity of money. Conversely, fiscal ‘fine tuning' operates with ‘long and variable lags': it is liable to land the economy in the wrong place at the wrong time.Consequently, such stabilization as was needed is much better done by monetary policy than fiscal policy. It lies within the power of the central bank, but not the Treasury, to keep nominal income stable. Provided the government kept money supply growing in line with productivity there would be no inflation, and economies would normally be at their ‘natural rate' of unemployment. Third, Friedman argued that ‘inflation was always and only a monetary phenomenon'.It was the total money supply in the economy which determined the general price level; cost pressures were not independent sources of inflation; they had to be validated by an accommodating monetary policy to be able to get away with a mark-up based price determination strategy; Fourth, Friedman's p ermanent income hypothesis -dating from the early 9505 -suggested that it is households' average long-run income (permanent income) that is likely to determine total demand for consumer spending, rather than fluctuation in their current disposable income, as suggested by the Keynesian consumption function.The reason for this is that agents Want smooth consumption paths. This implied that the degree of self-stabilization of the economy was greater than Keynes suggested, and that consequently multipliers were smaller. Keynesian tried to fight the monetarist onslaught by strengthening Keynesian micro-foundations, especially of observed nominal rigidities. They plopped models with ;menu costs', ‘insider-outsider' labor markets, ‘asymmetric information'. These kept the door open for policy interventions to sustain aggregate demand. Nevertheless, Friedman's impact on macro-policy was swift and decisive.SLIDE 6 ‘We used to think that you could spend your way out of a rece ssion, and increase employment by cutting taxes and boosting Government spending. Tell you in all candor that that option no longer exists, and that in so far as it ever did exist, it only worked on each occasion since the war by injecting a bigger dose of inflation into the economy, followed by a higher level of employment as the next step'. Prime Minister James Callaghan (1976), Leader's speech, Blackball ‘The conquest of inflation should be the objective of macroeconomic policy.And the creation Of conditions conducive to growth and employment should be the objective of microeconomic policy'. Chancellor of Exchequer Engel Lawson (1 984), Mass Lecture Discretionary demand-management was out; balanced budgets were back. The unemployment target was replaced by an inflation target. The ;natural' rate of unemployment was to be lowered by supply-side policies, which included legislative curbs on trade unions. V. RATIONAL EXPECTATIONS AND THE NEW CLASSICAL ECONOMICS With rational e xpectations we enter the world of New Classical Economics. RE is the ‘radical wing of monetarism†¦ Est. known for the startling policy conclusion †¦ that macro-economic policies, both monetary and fiscal, are ineffective, even in the short-run'4. Rational expectations first appeared in the economic theory literature in a famous article by J. Mouth in 1961, but only filtered through to policy discussion in the early 1 sass with the work of Robert Lucas and Thomas Sergeant on business cycles, and Eugene Fame on financial markets. The Lucas critique Of adaptive expectations (1976) put paid to the idea Of an exploitable trade-off between employment and inflation.Friedman's adaptive expectations rely on gradual adjustment of expectations to the experienced behavior of a variable. But our knowledge includes not just what we have experienced but current pronouncements of public authorities and theoretical knowledge of aggregate relationships. For example, the Minister of Fi nance announces that he will increase money supply by 10% a year to stimulate employment. STEM tells us that an increase in the money supply will ease prices proportionately. So it is rational to expect inflation to be a year.All nominal values -interest rates, wage rates- are instantly adjusted to the expected rate of inflation. There is not even a brief interval of higher employment. Friedman's distinction between a Keynesian short run in which agents can be fooled and a Classical long run in which they know what to expect disappears. Adaptive behavior is a description of irrational behavior if agents know what to expect already. Notice though that in this example, rational expectations is defined as belief in the STEM.SLIDE 7 Expectations, since they are informed predictions of future events are essentially the same as the predictions of the relevant economic theory†¦ Expectations of firms (or more generally, the subjective probability distribution of outcomes) tend to be di stributed for the same information set, about the prediction Of the theory (or the ‘objective' probability distribution Of outcomes)' (G. K Shaw (1 984), 56) Formally, the rational expectations hypothesis (ERE) says that agents optimally utilities all available information about the economy and policy to construct their expectations.As such, such they have ‘rational' expectations. They are also rational in that they use their expectations to maximize their utility or profits. This does not imply that agents never make mistakes; agents may make mistakes on occasion. However, all that is there to be learnt has already been learnt, mistakes are assumed to be random, so that agents are correct on average. Agents learn the true value of parameters through repeated application of Bases' theorem. Eel they turn their subjective bets into objective probability distributions.An equivalent statement is that agents â€Å"behave in says consistent with the models that predict how th ey will behave†6. Since the models contain all the available information, ii. They are rational expectations models, following the model minimizes the possibility of making expectation errors. At the core of the rational expectations hypothesis is the assumption that the model of the economy used by individuals in making their forecasts is the correct one -that is, that the economy behaves in a way predicted by the model.The math is simplified by the device of the Representative Agent, the sum of all agents, possessed of identical information and utility preferences. This micro-economic device means that the framework can be used to analyses the impact of policies on aggregate welfare, as welfare is the utility of the agents. The implication of the ERE is that outcomes will not differ systematically from what people expect them to be. If we take the price level, for instance, we can write: SLIDE 8 This says that the price level will only differ from the expectation if there is a surprise.So ex ante, the price anticipated is equal to the expectation. [E[P] is the rational expectation based on all information up to date; is the error ERM, which has an expected value of zero, and is independent of the expectation. With rational expectations the Phillips Curve is vertical in the short-run and in the long-run. SLIDE 9. THE SERGEANT-LUCAS PHILLIPS CURVE. With rational expectations, government action can affect real variables only by surprise. Otherwise they will be fully anticipated. This rules out any fiscal or monetary intervention designed to improve an existing equilibrium.More generally ‘any portion Of policy that is a response to publicly available information -such as the unemployment rate or the index of leading indicators -is irrelevant to the real economy' 7. Policy can influence real variables only by using information not known to the public. The Efficient Market Hypothesis The application of rational expectations to financial markets is know n as the â€Å"Efficient Market Hypothesis† (MME), made popular by Eugene Fame (1970, 1976). The MME postulates that shares are always correctly priced on average because they adjust instantaneously and accurately to any newly released information.In the words of Fame, â€Å"l take the market efficiency hypothesis to be the simple statement that security prices fully reflect all available information† 8. So prices can't be wrong because if they were, someone would seek to profit from the error and correct it. It follows that according to the efficient market hypothesis, it is impossible to consistently achieve returns in excess of average market returns (beat the market). In an RE joke, two economists spot a $10 bill on the ground. One stoops to pick it up, whereupon the other interjects, ‘Don't.If it were really $1 0, it wouldn't be there anymore. † The efficient market hypothesis is the modern manifestation of Adam Smith's ‘invisible hand'. Increase d regulation can only aka markets less efficient because regulators have less information than those engaged in the market, risking their own money. There are different versions of the efficient market hypothesis. In its ‘weak' form, investors make predictions about current prices only using historical information about past prices (like in adaptive expectations).In its ‘semi-strong' form, investors take into account all publicly available information, including past-prices. (This is the most ‘accurate' and the closest to rational expectations). In its ‘strong' form, investors take into account all information that can possibly be known, including insider information. Rational expectations models rely heavily on math. Lucas defined expectations as the mean Of a distribution of a random variable. The greater the number of observations of a random variable, the more likely it is to have a bell shaped or Normal distribution.The mean of the distribution, in ordin ary parlance the average of the observations, is called the Expectation of the distribution. In the bell-shaped distribution, it coincides with the peak of the bell. Those who are supposed to hold Rational Expectations (ii all of us) are assumed to know how the systematic parts of he model determine a price. We use that knowledge to generate our prediction. This will be correct except for random influences. We can assume that such random events will also adhere to the bell-shaped distribution and that their mean/expectation will be zero.Thus the systematic or deterministic prediction based on theory is always correct. Errors have zero expectation. The tendency of the MME, as is readily seen, is to rule out, or minimize, the possibility Of bubbles -and therefore crashes; more generally to rule out the possibility of crises being generated within the financial system: historically he most important source of crises. This being so, policy did not have to pay much attention to banks. Fo llowing the acceptance of the MME, the financial system was extensively De-regulated.Real Business cycle DOGS DOGS modeling takes root in New Classical macroeconomics, where the works of Lucas (1975), Jutland and Prescott (1982), and Long and Peoples (1983) were most prominent. The earlier DOGS models were pure real business cycle (RIB) models. ii models that attempted to explain business cycles in terms of real productivity or consumption shocks, abstracting from money. The logic behind RIB models is clear. If money cannot affect real variables, the source of any disturbance to the real economy must be non-monetary.If we are all modeled as having rational expectations, business fluctuations must be caused by ‘real' and ‘unanticipated' ‘shocks'. (Notice the use of word ‘shock'). These shocks make the economy dynamic and stochastic. Unemployment is explained in these models by rational adjustments by workers of their work/leisure trade off to shifts in product ivity. This is a fancy way of saying that there is never any unemployment. As a result of continuously re-optimizing agents, economies in DOGS models re always in some form of equilibrium, whether in the short run or long run.The economy always starts from an equilibrium position, and even when there is a shock, it immediately jumps onto an equilibrium time path – the saddle path. So the economy never finds itself in a position of disequilibrium. SLIDE 10 ‘The model provides an example of an economy where real shocks drive output movements. Because the economy is Wallabies, the movements are the optimal response to the shocks. Thus, contrary to the conventional wisdom about macroeconomic fluctuations, here fluctuations do not reflect NY market failures, and government interventions to mitigate them can only reduce welfare.In short, the implication of real-business cycle models, in their strongest form, is that observed aggregate output movements represent the time-varyi ng Parent optimum'. (Roomer (2011 ) â€Å"Advanced Macroeconomics†, 204) Translated into English: depressions are optimal; any attempt to mitigate them will only make things worse. Later came the New Keynesian who preserved the basic framework of the New Classical RIB/DOGS models, but added ‘market frictions', like monopolistic competition and nominal rigidities, to make the models more applicable to the real world. Critiques: 1 .The fundamental criticism is that this whole class of New Classical models carries an intellectual theorem -that agents are rational optimizers – to an extreme and absurd conclusion. By postulating complete information and complete markets, ii. By abolishing Keynesian or Knighting uncertainty, they cut off enquiry into what might be rational behavior under uncertainty -such as ‘herd behavior'. They also exclude irrational expectations. Behavioral economics only really took off after the crisis. 2. The aim of New Classical economics was to unify macro and micro by giving macro-economic secure micro-foundations.Macroeconomic models should be based on optimization by firms and consumers. But New Classical models are not well grounded in micro-economics since their account of human behavior is seriously incomplete. 3. Ay defining rational as the mean of a random distribution, the New Classical models rule out as too exceptional to worry about ‘fat tails' – that is extreme events with disproportionately large consequences. 4. The vast majority of DOGS models utilities log-landslides utility functions which eliminate the possibility of multiple equilibrium. 1 5. New Classical models have no place for money, and therefore for money hoarding, which depends on uncertainty. In pure DOGS models there is no financial sector. DOGS models depend on what Goodhearted calls the ‘transversally condition', which says that â€Å"by the end of the day, or when the model stops, all agents shall have repaid all their debts, including all the interest owed, with certainty. In other words, when a person dies he/she has zero assets left' 12. Defaults cannot happen. This is another kind of logical madness.

Essay on Consumerism Taking Over Our Universities

In contemporary society, the average person is coddled and raised to be sensitive about everything whether it be good or bad. This translates over to universities, which causes them to be less academic and more consumer- based. As the years progress, the trend is becoming more prevailing which poses the question, do universities truly care about the education that they are providing, or is it turning more into a business? Although some consumerism in education is good and is a driving force to better institutions, too much like we have in it now is beginning to deteriorate the quality of the education provided and in turn weakening American society. Consumerism is becoming more widespread in universities due to the rising number of†¦show more content†¦According to, Grade Inflation in the College Classroom, â€Å"Students are paying more for a college education every year, and increasingly they are demanding the reward of a good grade for their purchase† (Tucker, Cour ts 2). The expectations that the students have going into college are telling of how consumerism is tarnishing higher education. Consumerism affects students’ grades, according to, Grade Inflation in the College Classroom, students are not studying as much as students in the past and their grades are still on a rise. This shift in focus by the university causes the classes to become less intense creating a more mediocre education for the students. This harms students who will have to face the problem of entering the workforce with an inferior education. Studies have shown that, â€Å"Many students feel that lower grades can significantly damage their opportunities to gain employment after attending a university [†¦] it may be difficult to compete with a near straight-A student from a university that has shown grade inflation, if ones grades are lower. Many believe that grade inflation gives certain students an unfair advantage in the job market or when applying to gradu ate schools† (Tucker, Courts 2). If one student goes to a school that is known for a certain subject and graduates with a good grade point average, they could lose theShow MoreRelatedHannah Hoch and James Rosenquist --Insiders and Outsiders of Consumerism and Gender 1551 Words   |  7 Pagesaccordingly the availability of consumer goods. And with the rise of the mass media, various products have been targeted on broad groups of consumers. Consumerism, which is propelled by a system of mass production and high levels of consumption, has been one of the themes in art works from twentieth century till now. In regard to consumerism and gender, I find two figures—Hannah Hoch and James Rosenquist--connected. 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