Ian M. McDonald

An Evaluation of Collaborative Problem Solving for Learning Economics

In this article, we describe and evaluate a package of measures designed to introduce a collaborative, problem-solving (CPS) approach to learning into the tutorials of a second-year university macroeconomics subject. These findings are derived from a comparison of a trial group of 311 students and a control group of 301 students, each drawn randomly from students enrolled in a single subject, at a single institution, the University of Melbourne. To learn economics successfully, students need to have ability in both abstract thinking and in application. They also need to be able to express complex ideas logically and fluently. The development of these diverse aspects of thinking is challenging for students in their early undergraduate years and may be one reason why students often view economics as a difficult subject. The 1995 CPS project was a pilot for a wider departmental initiative designed to enhance the role of tutorials (one-hour classes of about 20 students led by a tutor) in the teaching and learning process. The project embodied two major components: problem-based learning and collaborative learning. Both these components were thought to be potentially valuable for undergraduate students

Systematic Influences on Teaching Evaluations: The Case for Caution

In this paper, we examine eight years of Quality of Teaching (QOT) responses from an Economics Department in an Australian University. This is done to determine what factors, besides the instructor, have an impact on the raw average student evaluation scores. Most of the previous research on student ratings has been conducted in the US. One significant difference between US and Australian tertiary education is that, on average, the number of foreign undergraduate students in Australia is ten times the number in US institutions. We find that cultural background significantly affects student evaluations. Other factors that have an influence on the average QOT score include: year level; enrolment size; the quantitative nature of the subject; the gender of the student; fee-paying status by gender; course of study; the differences between the course mark and previous marks; the quality of workbooks; the quality of textbooks; and the QOT score relative to those in other subjects taught at the same time. In addition, average QOT scores for instructors who have taught in a mix of subjects are similar to those based on scores adjusted to account for subject and student characteristics.

Ageing, Optimal National Saving and Future Living Standards in Australia

Making allowance for the ageing structure of the population, this paper calculates the levels of optimal national saving and future living ,standards for Australia for the period 1999-2050. For this period, the optimal saving response to the ageing of the Australian population is for national saving to increase from its current level by 2.7 per cent of GDP by the year 2017 and then to decline to the year 2050. The implied growth of living standards is 1.20 per cent per year. Reduced immigration would reduce the rate of growth of living standards but reduced fertility would not. Copyright 2001 by The Economic Society of Australia.

An Estimate of the Range of Equilibrium Rates of Unemployment for Australia

This paper estimates the range of equilibrium rates of unemployment for Australia. The estimation technique nests a unique equilibrium rate of unemployment as a special case. It is found for the period 1965-97 that a range of equilibria of at least 6.6 percentage points of unemployment exists in Australia. The lower limit of this range, which is the minimum rate of unemployment consistent with nonincreasing inflation, was 2-3 per cent in the 1960s, jumped in the early 1970s and was about 5.6 per cent during the 1990s. Copyright 2001 by The Economic Society of Australia.

Population ageing and projections of government social outlays in Australia

This paper makes new projections of government social outlays for Australia. The calculations suggest that government social outlays will increase considerably as a percent of GDP over the next 50 years, by 7.3 percent of GDP in the base case. This is a greater increase than that found by previous investigators. Over 60 percent of this increase will occur between 2011 and 2031, the years when the baby boom generation retires. The major contribution to this increase will have come from increased government outlays on social security. Lower rates of net immigration are shown to yield an even larger increase in the percentage of government social outlays in GDP. The paper also considers the disincentive effect of taxation and the effect of increasing the age of retirement. However, notwithstanding the trends suggested by the projections, the paper argues that there are a number of reasons to be sanguine about the implications of ageing on the share of government outlays in GDP.

The Socially Optimal Level of Saving in Australia, 1960-61 to 1994-95

In this paper a model is developed which determines the socially optimal level of saving for a small open economy. The model also determines the socially optimal disposition of saving between domestic capital accumulation and overseas asset accumulation.

Would A Decrease In Fertility Be A Threat To Living Standards In Australia

Falling rates of fertility in many countries have led to concerns that low fertility is a threat to future living standards. In this article we report simulations of living standards for Australia that take into account the effect of demographic change. These simulations show that reduced fertility would actually increase living standards, albeit by a small amount. We also present projections of government social outlays. These projections suggest that reductions in fertility will have an insignificant or tiny tax-disincentive effect on GDP, thereby reinforcing our conclusion that reductions in fertility are not a threat to future living standards.

Social comparisons and reference group formation: Some experimental evidence

We investigate reference group formation and the impact of social comparisons on ultimatum bargaining using a laboratory experiment. Three individuals compete in a real-e¤ort task for the role of the proposer in a three-player ultimatum game. The role of the responder is randomly allocated. The third individual receives a ?fixed payment - our treatment variable - and makes no decision. The existence of a non-responder has a dramatic e¤ect on bargaining outcomes. In the most extreme treatment, more than half of the o¤ers are rejected. Behavior shows individuals exhibit self-serving bias in the way they de?ne their reference groups.(This abstract was borrowed from another version of this item.)

The Scholarship of Teaching Economics

Abstract The authors provide an overview of papers presented at The Scholarship of Teaching Economics conference that was held at The University of Melbourne in July 2000. The objective of the conference was to bring attention to research being conducted in economic education at the tertiary level and to engage academic economists in discussion about the scholarship of teaching economics. The presentations of seven of the keynote speakers are discussed using the framework of who, what, and how of teaching economics. Who should determine the curriculum? What should be taught? And how should it be taught?

Equilibrium Unemployment: Theory and Measurement in Australia Using the Phillips Curve

This paper reviews the measurement of equilibrium unemployment in Australia using the Phillips curve. To provide a theoretical framework through which these measurement exercises can be understood, the theory of equilibrium unemployment based on wage bargaining is also described and reviewed. The paper shows how studies have moved from specifying a unique and constant equilibrium rate of unemployment to specifications which emphasise the influence of unemployment benefits, hysteresis and a range of equilibrium rates of unemployment. Copyright 2002 by The Economic Society of Australia.