College of Saint Benedict and Saint John's University
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The Response of Macroeconomic Variables to Government Spending Shocks in the Sudanese Economy 1989-2019: Comparing the Structural Shocks (DSGE approach) and Impulse Response (SVAR Model)
Get PDFThe importance that different (approaches and models) to modeling the macroeconomy place on theoretical coherence compared to their capacity to match the data and the quality of the econometric model description varies. Dynamic stochastic general equilibrium (DSGE) models are more theoretical, whereas vector autoregression (SVAR) models provide a better match to the data. For developed economies, there are well-established publications on measuring the response of economic indicators to government spending shocks and aggregate macroeconomic activity. In addition, such empirical studies in emerging nations are scarce. This research seeks to fill this void by utilizing the DSGE model and the SVAR approach to investigate the influence of the response of macroeconomic variables to government spending shocks in the Sudanese economy from 1989 to 2019. The findings indicate that the influence of government expenditure shocks on the Sudanese economy is inconsistent with Keynesian principles, as some selected macroeconomic indicators do not respond positively to government expenditure shocks. The non-responsiveness of the inflation rate and exchange rate to government expenditure shocks is demonstrated; this finding may indicate the monetary authority\u27s weakness in managing monetary variables in the Sudanese economy. In most situations, fiscal and monetary policies were in sync, and double expansionary and double contractionary policy coordination may be the proper approach; and also create tools that fit the Sudanese economy\u27s structure
Rights of Nature: The Indigenous-Led Movement for Sovereignty and a Sustainable Future
Get PDFThe rights of nature movement works to grant legal rights to beings other than humans. Led by Indigenous communities across the globe, the movement is grounded in commonly shared Indigenous beliefs that regard non-human beings as are our relatives and as deserving of the same legal rights as humans. Grounded in Indigenous worldviews, the rights of nature movement pursues the twin goals of creating an environmentally sustainable future and enshrining legal protections for Indigenous values and practices. This article explores how the White Earth Nation, a federally recognized Ojibwe tribal government in Minnesota became the first in the United States to take the rights of nature to court. By examining the achievements accomplished by White Earth and the challenges they still face in the context of the global rights of nature movement, we find that while United States federal and state courts may not yet recognize the rights of nature, strategic partnerships with communities in the global south and with local U.S. governments may provide the best avenue for future success
Weather risks, crop losses, and risk proneness: An examination of evolving risk preferences of rice farmers in Bangladesh
Get PDFChanging climate poses significant challenges for smallholder rice farmers. Weather-related deviations from longer-term patterns and crop losses due to abiotic hazards can affect farmer risk preferences and drive adaptive responses. In addition, farmers’ proneness to and past experiences with crop risks such as drought, submergence, and excess soil salinity can impact their baseline risk preferences and their response to changing risks. Using data for Bangladesh from two waves of the Rice Monitoring Survey, climate-related data (precipitation and temperature), farmer reports of crop losses, and measures of proneness to abiotic risks, this article estimates how weather deviations from longer-term trends, crop losses, and proneness to crop risks (submergence, drought, and soil salinity) affect elicited risk preferences over time. This research finds evidence in favor of the hypothesis that larger absolute seasonal deviations from past patterns of seasonal mean daily minimum temperature and seasonal total precipitation yield increased risk aversion. In addition, the research provides mixed evidence with respect to risk proneness and farmers’ change in risk preferences over time. Contrary to our original hypothesis, individuals with land more prone to soil salinity become more risk averse rather than less, but, consistent with our hypothesis, those with land more prone to crop submergence become more risk preferring over time. Because of differences in crop experiences and degrees of proneness to risk, risk preferences for farmers in different regions are predicted to evolve along different pathways. This article contributes to the literature on risk preference formation by considering the possibility that less significant deviations than shocks might also contribute to evolving risk preferences. In addition, the article emphasizes the regional heterogeneity of changing preferences. An ancillary finding of this work suggests that risk preferences are only weakly related over time, contrary to other findings in the literature on the stability of risk preferences. Of policy relevance, the differential experiences in weather variability at the regional and local levels yield important differences in changes in preferences and should give rise to careful, regional-level policies to support adaptation to changing weather
Isolating microbes from the surface of an introductory laboratory halite hand sample
Get PDFIntroductory geology labs stress simple physical testing (luster, hardness, etc.) to identify common minerals, using mineral charts to eliminate minerals not exhibiting a particular property. Special properties (magnetism, specific gravity, taste, etc.) for specific minerals narrows mineral identity. Students often express safety concerns about licking minerals, especially when they realize others have previously licked the specimen. As an exercise in medical geology, we cultured microbes from a halite sample used for nearly 25 years and licked by numerous students over that time span (Sample 1), a commercially purchased unused and freshly exposed surface of halite licked by one person (Sample 2), and a disinfected sample repeatedly licked by only one person (Sample 3), to determine microbial presence, especially those potentially harmful to students applying the taste test. From the new crystal licked by one person (Sample 2), we identified sixteen different phenotypic groups of microorganisms after incubation of the crystal in growth medium. 16S ribosomal RNA sequence analysis was performed on one representative from nine of the sixteen groups. From this analysis, we obtained one species of Bacillus, four of Paenibacillus, and four of Staphylococcus, including Staphylococcus epidermidis. Comparing our results to published studies of the human tongue biome, we find that all of our cultured microbes occur naturally within a typical person’s mouth and do not pose significant health risk as used in lab. Saliva with microbes can be transmitted as the halite is reused, especially if the test is administered quickly after a previous licking, so caution is warranted, but the process is essentially safe under normal conditions
The journey into inquiry land in Tennessee: How to get there from anywhere? Lessons learned over 25 years
Get PDFDriven by changes in the National Standards during the 1990s, inquiry became the pedagogical methodology of choice for K-12 sciences as a major paradigm shift. Inquiry was chosen because it realistically and accurately modeled how scientists conduct scientific studies. Scientific inquiry is itself a learning process, and early educational research suggested that students learned more efficiently through inquiry. However, inquiry was a difficult pedagogy for teachers to learn and for students to experience, as it appears chaotic and decentralized. K-12 Earth science in Tennessee was in need of revitalization, in terms of shifting to the new Earth systems curriculum and incorporating inquiry as the pedagogy of delivery. To tackle both problems in tandem, the authors collaborated with the Tennessee Department of Education, Tennessee Science Teachers Association, and Tennessee Earth Science Teachers (TEST) to develop a series of Earth science professional development opportunities in which inquiry was modeled as the pedagogical vehicle and content was organized into Earth systems. We provide an anecdotal before-and-after perspective that spans 25 years of experiential lessons the workshop leaders learned about the “journey into inquiry land” from any other pedagogy. These lessons, applicable to all sciences, serve as the cornerstone to teaching inquiry to new teachers, as well as to seasoned veteran teachers making the switch to the inquiry-driven classroom
Finding God in All Things: Contemplation and Action in Karl Rahner and Bernard Lonergan
Get PDFThis thesis aims to explore the Ignatian influence that Karl Rahner and Bernard Lonergan share as a way of comparing the two figures and, consequently, articulating a transcendental theological anthropology that expresses the insights of both and complements each with the other. What emerges from an investigation of the Ignatian roots of Rahner and Lonergan is an awareness of two distinct categories within human experience, an inward dimension wherein psychological and spiritual movements are discerned and an outward dimension where the terms of those movements are worked out—what the Christian tradition has often termed “contemplation” and “action.” For Ignatius, Rahner, and Lonergan, God is to be found in and through both. The ultimate aim, again, is to demonstrate that, as a function of their common Ignatian heritage, Rahner and Lonergan share a similar account of the human person, both with respect to the relation of the person to themselves and in relation to the world around them.
To that end, this thesis aims to do three things: to explain and describe some constitutive elements and features of Ignatian spirituality; to indicate the influence of that spirituality on the work of Karl Rahner and Bernard Lonergan; and to utilize that shared horizon as a lens for comparison of the two to each other and the articulation of an Ignatian theological anthropology of contemplation and action.
As Lonergan noted that Rahner, via Harvey Egan, helped him to understand, the core of Ignatian spirituality is an examination of the interior states of one’s conscious “intentions, actions, and operations” such that, in discerning the movements experienced within, the person might act in light of what they have discerned and, thereby, live out the person that God intends them to be
