Creatore di test a scelta multipla [download]

Purtroppo ho un pò tralasciato il blog ultimamente.
E oggi torno non con un post, ma con un file.
Qui sotto trovate un piccolo generatore di test a scelta multipla.
E' pensato per test da stampare su carta, come si usa nella maggior parte delle scuole e delle università.
Gratis, niente installazione, potete vedere come funziona e potete modificarlo come vi pare.
E' un semplice file excel (purtroppo l'ho fatto in excel, quindi è in formato proprietario).
Lo può usare chiunque e praticamente non richiede competenze.
E' tutto preimpostato: basta inserire le domande (il file è utile anche come database), aggiornare qualche cella e potete creare test con domande e risposte in ordine casuale.
Il risolutore è generato automaticamente.
Se le domande sono su diversi argomenti, c'è la possibilità di sceglierne uno.
Un volta creati il test e le soluzioni (entrambi con un codice identificativo), basta fare copia-incolla dove vi pare, per es. nel file di testo di un esame, e stampare.
Spero sia utile a qualcuno.

Io l'ho usato qualche volta e non mi pare ci siano intoppi nelle formule, ma non mi assumo nessuna resposabilità circa il corretto funzionamento del file. Se qualcuno trova errori per favore me lo faccia notare.

Ecco alcune immagini del database con le domande e del test e delle soluzioni generate, pronte per essere copiate e incollate dove vi pare.

Il database delle domande (click per ingrandire)

Il test generato (click per ingrandire)

Le soluzioni generate (click per ingrandire)

Capital and Institutions First

Good article about the lack of competitiveness (read "productivity" in a broad sense, if you find "competitiveness" vague and misleading) of Southern Europe countries (link).

We all know that when residents of poor countries emigrate to rich ones, the same weak bodies and flawed characters that produce very little at home suddenly explode into economic vigor.

If Southern Europe lacks competitiveness, the part of the cost structure that needs to be reformed has to do with rents paid to capital rather than the sticky wages of workers.

The European periphery was rendered uncompetitive by toxic patterns of capital allocation, for which both Northern Europe’s financial institutions and Southern Europe’s regulators ought to be held accountable.

The wages workers are paid for the goods and services they do produce are in line with the rest of Europe’s.

Knowing a little of my country and some Italians, I quite agree.
In my experience, it's not workers per se that are less productive, less trained or have less potential. And from what I know those who did move outside of Italy indeed perform well abroad. Maybe there's a little selection bias since those who move might be better than those who remain on average. But I believe this is not so strong and in my experience I did not find large intrinsic difference in the people I worked with within Italy and outside it.

The real and large difference is in the "system", or in the capital depth in a broad sense as social and physical capital. It's the fact that the same person may not find himself in the right condition to perform and behave well (and live better). He may not have the right infratructure and the right incentives.

Cochrane sulla crisi europea

Interessante articolo di John Cochrane sulla crisi europea e sull'euro.
Trovo molto condivisibile la parte sui pericoli della svalutazione.
Sono abbastanza d'accordo sul fatto che l'unione fiscale non sia un nodo cruciale, specialmente se questo implica che chi adotta l'euro si fa anche carico di salvare eventuali Stati in crisi. Ritengo però che un qualche tipo di unione fiscale, forse politica, sia comunque la strada da perseguire nel lungo periodo per ragioni economiche ed anche di politica internazionale.
Concordo anche sulla necessità di una migliore regolamentazione bancaria, più che di salvataggi ecc.

Insomma un articolo con molti spunti per ragionare e non scontato, almeno rispetto a quel che si sente normalmente in giro.
Buona lettura.

Come le cattive idee peggiorano la crisi del debito europeo

We could be creationg jobs, but we don't.

I, as an economist and as an Italian, found this article very touching.
The reasoning is neat. And it makes clear what kind of issues arise in the labour market on the enterpreneur's side.
Is it really only about Hungary?

I wish more people in Italy could listen and understand the argument with an impartial eye. And think about our labor market again. In particular about what should be the role of the State in solving these kind of frictions.

To give you an idea, here an abstract (full article):

I could hire 12 people with €760 net salary, but I don't.

Stop ACTA & TPP

Stop ACTA & TPP: Tell your country's officials: NEVER use secretive trade agreements to meddle with the Internet. Our freedoms depend on it!
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Cosa sono ACTA e TPP?
Per cominciare inquadriamo la cosa: stiamo parlando di internet, copyright e proprietà intellettuale.
Siamo nello stesso campo del SOPA, di cui al post precedente.

Le mie idee al riguardo le ho già espresse, perciò rimando ai vecchi post, ricordando che il mi pensiero deriva solo in parte da convinzioni personali, ma soprattutto da ragionamenti coerenti dal punto di vista economico, dall'analisi dei fatti e da alcune argomentazioni di tipo etico.

Stop SOPA

 

PROTECT IP / SOPA Breaks The Internet from Fight for the Future on Vimeo.

More info at: http://sopastrike.com/


UPDATE

So it seems the protest is being succesful...
I hope freedom will be preserved and that the fact that intellectual property means monopoly will be recognized as inefficient as it is.
Authorship and identity are crearly a fair right, but why should someone have a monopoly over the copies of a work? Why should I pay someone for using their work when my use does not impose any additional cost for the production of the orginal work?
It's a matter of freedom, first. But that might be a particular vision of the world. However, it's a matter of efficiency and that's objective: Intellectual property imposes a cost on society without any proof that is boosts innovative works. Stop.
If producing a copy costs near to 0 (marginal cost is zero), then the best thing we can to it to set its price near to zero. If there are fixed costs that need to be repaid, their remuneration must not come from pricing, for the simple reason that it is inefficient.
Some other way to repay the fixed cost must be found, and the evidence I know shows that it normally happens by some first-move advantage of the author even in the absence of intellectual property (or invasive intellectual property). So actually nothing needs to be done in most situations.
What's the best way to be effcient and get marginal cost pricing? Competition. Granting, by law, an intellectual monopoly is inefficient and enforcing it is very costly both in monetary and freedom terms.
Moreover as long as any original work and innovation is based on previous works, having to pay for using those works just adds to costs of innovating: Another source of inefficiency.

Here another video explainging SOPA and PIPA:

The coming war on general computation (?)