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Nuclear power was considered vital to humanity's future until just a short time ago. Since the late seventies, economic viability has joined a list of such issues as waste disposal and radiation hazards which call into question the future of nuclear power. This document discusses (in separate sections): (1) the selling of nuclear power, including worldwide nuclear power commitments; (2) costs, including annual rate increases for nuclear construction; (3) explanations for the rising cost of nuclear power, examining such issues as mismanagement, nuclear power plant sizes, design flaws in early plants that required costly correction, and earthquake resistance; (4) decline of nuclear power programs in the United States; (5) international outlook on nuclear power development; and (6) other issues and problems. It is pointed out in the last section that the economic failings of nuclear power suggest the need for several major policy changes, including a more balanced approach in energy research and development which nuclear power has dominated in most industrial countries since the fifties. (JN)

Eleven indexes of rurality and their effect on the classification of Michigan's 83 counties were investigated. The indexes were based on different concepts of rurality: (1) percent of employment in agriculture, fishing, and forestry; (2) population density and distance to urban centers; and (3) economic conditions. Index rankings were compared to determine if a county's rank varied from one index to another. The two indexes most frequently associated with extreme ranks were then eliminated and a similar analysis performed. The average county still had adifference of 31 between its highest and lowest rank. Further classification into four discrete quartile groupings also revealed substantial difference in county classification depending on the index selected. Rank correlation analysis revealed that 55 pairs of correlations between indexes were significantly different from 0 at the .01 probability level. Index choice, then, did make a difference, since in selecting a particular index, rurality was explicitly or implicity defined. It was concluded that no one index could satisfy the needs of all potential users, since policy is usually problem specific and the rurality index used should also, therefore, be problem specific. (JC)

The publication outlines 19 award winning economic education projects for use on levels K through college. The projects have been judged original and interesting to students and have met contest criteria by describing class situation, scope and sequence, goals, motivational devices, teaching techniques, samples of student work, culmination activities, and evaluation techniques. The report is presented in five chapters. In chapter I, four projects for grades K-3 are described. Activities include parents' show and tell, writing checks, opening savings accounts, producing and selling products, and collecting data on inflation. The four projects in chapter II, for use in grades 4-6, involve the students in group investigation of community change, observation of building construction, simulations, and shopkeeping. Chapter III presents activities for junior high school, including mathematics, community simulation, and career awareness games and production of goods from polyester resin. Activities described in chapter IV for high school students include a mini-unit on sports and economics, seminars on economic concepts, market simulation, and a toy survey for a consumer council. College level activities, presented in chapter V, include relating economics to art history, personal interests, and grades. (Author/DB)

Eighteen award winning, teacher-developed programs, projects, courses, and materials in economic education are presented in condensed versions. The case study projects are designed to be used in primary, intermediate, junior high, senior high, and college, and are organized into five chapters by grade level. Chapter I suggests ways to teach economic concepts in grades K-3 through activities using a minisociety simulation, a classroom corporation, discussion of economic roles throughout history, and building a house. Chapter II, for grades 4-6, focuses on neighborhood economics, comparison of interdependence in bees' systems with that of humans, the role of transportation in society, and the economics of running a school. Chapter III offers projects on the relationship of economic and political decisions through use of a simulation, a work experience painting classrooms, a study of market economy, and career education for junior high school students. Chapter IV, for high school, teaches practical economics to low-income students, some of them slow learners; economic concepts within a western civilization context; and consumer education. The concluding chapter, for college students, focuses on economic concepts and issues analysis through studies of the market system. An appendix at the end of each chapter provides brief overviews of additional courses and programs in economic education. For each case study, information is presented on grade level, project background, time allotment, objectives, activities, and evaluation. (CK)

Although soil erosion is a natural process, it has increased to the point where it far exceeds the natural formation of new soil. However, with only occasional exceptions, national agricultural and population policies have failed to take soil depletion into account. Projections of world food production always incorporate estimates of future cropland area, but what has been lacking has been an effort to project changes in inherent productivity of the projected cropland area. To help remedy this shortcoming in world food supply projections, an estimate of the worldwide loss of topsoil from cropland is presented. Areas discussed include: (1) the causes of soil erosion; (2) dimensions of the problem in various countries; (3) the effects of erosion (particularly related to loss of topsoil) on agricultural productivity; (4) the effects of erosion on other areas (indicating that the loss of topsoil that reduces land productivity may also reduce irrigation, electrical generation, and the navigability of waterways); (5) economic aspects of soil conservation; (6) the role of governments; and (7) global aspects of the problem. (JN)

Intended to provide background for study and discussion, this publication gives updated information on development in sub-Saharan Africa and provides a basis for understanding U.S. policy toward this vital region. The strengths, problems, politics, natural resources, and language and ethnolinguistic groups of this area of the world and the international and regional organizations active here are discussed in detail. Extensive data tables include information on the population, culture, education, labor force, imports, exports, estimated U.S. economic assistance, date of independence, type of government, and chief of state and/or head of government for each of the 46 independent countries south of the Sahara. The 55-item bibliography is divided into three sections: reference and introductory material, historical and cultural background, and contemporary sub-Saharan Africa. (AA)

The current United States industrial policy is not working in the new international economy. As jobs are increasingly exported overseas, the United States faces a major problem in revitalization of its economy. Occupational education has a major role in the revitalization of the country's economy through the upgrading of the training and retraining of a more productive work force. Two areas where occupational education curriculum can directly contribute to build a new competitive economy are through increasing achievement in basic skills and through instruction of students in understanding and use of human systems innovation in work environments. Development of human capital is the critical factor in rebuilding a competitive economy. (Author/YLB)

The report gives a picture, drawn from consumer research, of how the consumer perceives and uses advertising and establishes that the service advertising performs is at least comparable in value to the service it performs for manufacturers. Two major headings are included: (1) Advertising and the Consumer clarifies the terms, "advertising" and "consumers" and notes how advertising and the major social and economic changes over the past 10 years have affected the consumer, especially the housewife; and (2) The Social Criticisms of Advertising lists and explains the criticisms and benefits of advertising. A suggested reading list is included. (SH)

The European Union's most important challenge is to establish permanent, reliable methodologies and systems that support transparency and recognition of vocational qualifications. The concept of "transparency of qualifications" has replaced "recognition" and "comparability.""Transparency" points to the need to make national qualifications more visible and understandable to outsiders; the introduction of common standards is an unnecessary implication. In the 4 decades since the establishment of the European Community, the problems of recognition and transparency of vocational qualifications have been addressed in various ways. Three distinct stages have been identified: harmonization of vocational education and training (1957-73); approximation of vocational training levels (1974-92); and convergence of vocational training (1992-present). A number of projects with partners from several countries have been set up through the Leonardo da Vinci program to address core elements of the transparency problem. Other initiatives have addressed the problem of recognition and comparison of nonformal skills. Unfortunately, the exchange of information is too weak, interpretation too poor, and mechanisms supporting exchange of information and interpretation insufficiently developed. Two complementary strategies to increase transparency and mutual trust have been suggested: a European Qualifications' Transparency Network and a general system of binding agreements among the European countries. (Page format using three columns offer German, English, and French language versions.) (YLB)

Econometric cost functions have begun to appear in education adequacy cases with greater frequency. Cost functions are superficially attractive because they give the impression of objectivity, holding out the promise of scientifically estimating the cost of achieving specified levels of performance from actual data on spending. By contrast, the opinions of education stakeholders form the basis of the most common approach to estimating the cost of adequacy, the professional-judgment method. The problem is that education cost functions do not in fact tell us the cost of achieving any specified level of performance. Instead, they provide estimates of average spending for districts of given characteristics and current performance. It is a huge and unwarranted stretch to go from this interpretation of regression results to the claim that they provide estimates of the minimum cost of achieving current performance levels, and it is even more problematic to extrapolate the cost of achieving at higher levels. In this paper we review the cost function technique and provide evidence that draws into question the usefulness of the cost function approach for estimating the cost of an adequate education. (Contains 28 footnotes and 7 figures.) [Funding for this paper was provided by the Missouri Show-Me Institute.]