title: How sustainable are OECD current account balances in the long run?

authors: Holmes, Mark J.

subjects: OECD

abstract: The study examines the long-run sustainability of OECD current account balances. For this purpose, tests for current account stationarity and then cointegration between exports and imports are based on recently developed panel data methods that offer increased power over existing time-series techniques. Unlike existing panel studies on this topic, this study utilizes techniques that enable the examination of sustainability for individual panel members. The first stage of the investigation relies on a novel approach to unit root testing whereby tests for stationarity are conducted within a seemingly unrelated regression framework. The second stage involves the estimation of the long-run relationship between exports and imports by a range of recently developed panel data techniques advocated by Pedroni. Using a panel of 11 OECD countries, the results from these techniques suggest that sustainability is present in six countries at most. Also, sustainability is generally a characteristic of the non-Euro countries. These results can be contrasted with existing group mean unit root and cointegration tests that indicate sustainability for the group as a whole.

text: How sustainable are OECD current account balances in the long run? The study examines the long-run sustainability of OECD current account balances. For this purpose, tests for current account stationarity and then cointegration between exports and imports are based on recently developed panel data methods that offer increased power over existing time-series techniques. Unlike existing panel studies on this topic, this study utilizes techniques that enable the examination of sustainability for individual panel members. The first stage of the investigation relies on a novel approach to unit root testing whereby tests for stationarity are conducted within a seemingly unrelated regression framework. The second stage involves the estimation of the long-run relationship between exports and imports by a range of recently developed panel data techniques advocated by Pedroni. Using a panel of 11 OECD countries, the results from these techniques suggest that sustainability is present in six countries at most. Also, sustainability is generally a characteristic of the non-Euro countries. These results can be contrasted with existing group mean unit root and cointegration tests that indicate sustainability for the group as a whole.

year: 2006

title: Temporal and spatial variations in phytoplankton productivity in surface waters of a warm-temperate, monomictic lake in New Zealand

authors: von Westernhagen, Nina

subjects: Eutrophication

abstract: Surface phytoplankton productivity measurements were carried out in morphologically complex Lake Rotoiti with the objective of defining variations between sites and seasons, and the dominant environmental drivers of these variations. Measurements were carried out monthly at two depths at each of three morphologically diverse stations for 1 year throughout the lake. Productivity at the surface of the shallow embayment was significantly higher in most months of the year compared with the surface of the other two stations but there were no significant differences from September to December 2004. There were no relationships between measured environmental variables and primary productivity or specific production. Inorganic nutrient concentrations at the surface of the shallow station were low throughout the whole year but at the other two stations they showed a typical pattern for monomictic lakes of higher levels during winter mixing and declining concentrations during thermal stratification. The high variability between sites found in this study indicates that it is important to account for local differences in productivity in morphologically diverse lakes, and that whole lake productivity estimates may vary greatly depending on the location and depth of productivity measurements.

text: Temporal and spatial variations in phytoplankton productivity in surface waters of a warm-temperate, monomictic lake in New Zealand Surface phytoplankton productivity measurements were carried out in morphologically complex Lake Rotoiti with the objective of defining variations between sites and seasons, and the dominant environmental drivers of these variations. Measurements were carried out monthly at two depths at each of three morphologically diverse stations for 1 year throughout the lake. Productivity at the surface of the shallow embayment was significantly higher in most months of the year compared with the surface of the other two stations but there were no significant differences from September to December 2004. There were no relationships between measured environmental variables and primary productivity or specific production. Inorganic nutrient concentrations at the surface of the shallow station were low throughout the whole year but at the other two stations they showed a typical pattern for monomictic lakes of higher levels during winter mixing and declining concentrations during thermal stratification. The high variability between sites found in this study indicates that it is important to account for local differences in productivity in morphologically diverse lakes, and that whole lake productivity estimates may vary greatly depending on the location and depth of productivity measurements.

year: 2010

title: Stop playing up! A critical ethnography of health, physical education and (sub)urban schooling

authors: Fitzpatrick, Katie

subjects: Health

abstract: This thesis explores the place of health and physical education in the lives of Otara youth in New Zealand. Situated in the southern suburbs of New Zealand’s largest city, Otara, South Auckland is known for its cultural diversity, as well as for poverty and crime. It is home to large numbers of indigenous Maori and migrant Pasifika (Pacific Island) youth. Based on a year-long critical ethnography of a multiethnic high school, this thesis explores how these young people engage with and respond to the school subjects of health and physical education. It also discusses broader issues in their lives, including the social geographies within which they reside, and how they understand their bodies, sexuality, health, gender and physicalities. The subjects of health and physical education are compulsory in most schools internationally – in New Zealand they are directly linked in curriculum policy documents and in school practice – but share a somewhat uneasy relationship and differing historical positions. Considered low status in schools, these subjects are also conflated with narrow body and health norms, possibly problematic for young women, and/or are wedded to the social and cultural world of sport. Curriculum policy documents established in the last ten years offer the possibility of critical and social approaches to these subjects, but examples of critical practice remain rare. Health and physical education are thus compulsory, contentious, contradictory and complex subjects within contemporary schooling. Critical ethnographies of schooling are relatively scarce compared with conventional ethnographic accounts, but critical ethnographies of health and physical education (PE) are almost unheard of. The use of such a methodology in this study enabled an indepth account of Otara youth in the subjects of health and PE at school. It also provided a platform for storied accounts of how one teacher, Dan, enacted a critical and culturally connected pedagogy of health and PE with the young people in his classes. This thesis explores the complex potential for health and PE as key sites of learning for Pasifika and Maori youth. It examines health and PE as subjects that are both politically fraught and spaces of hope.

text: Stop playing up! A critical ethnography of health, physical education and (sub)urban schooling This thesis explores the place of health and physical education in the lives of Otara youth in New Zealand. Situated in the southern suburbs of New Zealand’s largest city, Otara, South Auckland is known for its cultural diversity, as well as for poverty and crime. It is home to large numbers of indigenous Maori and migrant Pasifika (Pacific Island) youth. Based on a year-long critical ethnography of a multiethnic high school, this thesis explores how these young people engage with and respond to the school subjects of health and physical education. It also discusses broader issues in their lives, including the social geographies within which they reside, and how they understand their bodies, sexuality, health, gender and physicalities. The subjects of health and physical education are compulsory in most schools internationally – in New Zealand they are directly linked in curriculum policy documents and in school practice – but share a somewhat uneasy relationship and differing historical positions. Considered low status in schools, these subjects are also conflated with narrow body and health norms, possibly problematic for young women, and/or are wedded to the social and cultural world of sport. Curriculum policy documents established in the last ten years offer the possibility of critical and social approaches to these subjects, but examples of critical practice remain rare. Health and physical education are thus compulsory, contentious, contradictory and complex subjects within contemporary schooling. Critical ethnographies of schooling are relatively scarce compared with conventional ethnographic accounts, but critical ethnographies of health and physical education (PE) are almost unheard of. The use of such a methodology in this study enabled an indepth account of Otara youth in the subjects of health and PE at school. It also provided a platform for storied accounts of how one teacher, Dan, enacted a critical and culturally connected pedagogy of health and PE with the young people in his classes. This thesis explores the complex potential for health and PE as key sites of learning for Pasifika and Maori youth. It examines health and PE as subjects that are both politically fraught and spaces of hope.

year: 2010