appeared in the idylls of Theocritus, was adopted by Virgil, and was revived in the Renaissance by Dante, Petrarch, and Boccaccio. Edmund Spenser’s Shepheardes Calender, a series of 12 eclogues, was the first outstanding pastoral poem in English. Eighteenth-century English poets used the eclogue for ironic verse on nonpastoral subjects. Since then a distinction has been made between eclogue and pastoral, with eclogue referring only to the dialogue or soliloquy form.
Eco Va-ko,\ English Ve-ko\, Umberto (b. Jan. 5, 1932, Alessandria, Italy) Italian critic and novelist. He has taught since 1971 at the Univer¬ sity of Bologna. In The Open Work (1962), he suggested that some lit¬ erature and modem music is fundamentally ambiguous and invites the audience to participate in the interpretive and creative process. He explored other areas of communication and semiotics in A Theory of Semi¬ otics (1976), Semiotics and the Philosophy of Language (1984), and The Limits of Interpretation (1991). His novels include the erudite but best¬ selling murder mystery The Name of the Rose (1980; film, 1986), Fou¬ cault’s Pendulum (1988), and The Island of the Day Before (1995).
Ecole (Nationale Superieure) des Beaux-Arts \bo-'zar\ School of fine arts ( beaux arts ) in Paris. It was founded by the merger in 1793 of the Academie de Peinture et de Sculpture, founded by Charles Le Brun in 1648, and the Academie d’Architecture, founded in 1671 by Jean- Baptiste Colbert. It has traditionally provided instruction in drawing, paint¬ ing, sculpture, engraving, and (until 1968) architecture. The Beaux-Arts style in architecture has been particularly influential.
ecology Study of the relationships between organisms and their envi¬ ronment. Physiological ecology focuses on the relationships between indi¬ vidual organisms and the physical and chemical features of their environment. Behavioral ecologists study the behaviours of individual organisms as they react to their environment. Population ecology, includ¬ ing population genetics, is the study of processes that affect the distribu¬ tion and abundance of animal and plant populations. Community ecology studies how communities of plant and animal populations function and are organized. Paleoecology is the study of the ecology of fossil organ¬ isms. Ecologists frequently concentrate on particular taxonomic groups or on specific environments. Applied ecology applies ecological principles to the management of populations of crops and animals. Theoretical ecologists provide simulations of particular practical problems and develop models of general ecological relevance.
econometrics Statistical and mathematical analysis of economic rela¬ tionships. Econometrics creates equations to describe phenomena such as the relationship between changes in price and demand. Econometricians estimate production functions and cost functions for firms, supply-and- demand functions for industries, income distribution in an economy, mac¬ roeconomic models and models of the monetary sector for policy makers, and business cycles and growth for forecasting. Information derived from these models helps both private businesses and governments make deci¬ sions and set monetary and fiscal policy. See also Ragnar Frisch; macro¬ economics; MICROECONOMICS.
Economic Co-operation and Development, Organisation for (OECD) International organization founded in 1961 to stimulate eco¬ nomic progress and world trade. Based in Paris, the OECD serves as a consultative assembly and a clearinghouse for economic data, and it also coordinates economic aid to developing countries. Its members include Australia, Austria, Belgium, Canada, the Czech Republic, Denmark, Fin-
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594 I economic development ► ecosystem
land, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Iceland, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Luxembourg, Mexico, The Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Poland, Portugal, South Korea, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Turkey, the U.K., and the U.S.
economic development Process whereby simple, low-income national economies are transformed into modern industrial economies. Theories of economic development—the evolution of poor countries dependent on agriculture or resource extraction into prosperous countries with diversified economies—are of critical importance to Third World nations. Economic development projects have typically involved large capital investments in infrastructure (roads, irrigation networks, etc.), industry, education, and financial institutions. More recently, the realiza¬ tion that creating capital-intensive industrial sectors provides only limited employment and can disrupt the rest of the economy has led to smaller- scale economic development programs that aim to utilize the specific resources and natural advantages of developing countries and to avoid disruption of their social and economic structures. See also economic GROWTH.
economic forecasting Prediction of future economic activity and developments. Economic forecasts, which range from a few weeks to many years, are widely used in business and government to help formu¬ late policy and strategy. Macroeconomic forecasts predict the course of the aggregate economy and concentrate on variables such as interest rates, the rate of inflation, and the rate of unemployment. Forecasts of private consumption and investment, government expenditures, and net exports help government policymakers responsible for fiscal policy. For example, part of the justification for a change in taxes is a forecast of its economic effects. Microeconomic forecasts are designed to project the effects of change at the level of an industry or a firm. Most microeconomic fore¬ casts begin with assumptions about the aggregate economy before focus¬ ing on the projected effects in the specific sector that is of interest. Manufacturers and retailers use such forecasts to formulate business plans such as those involving inventory, production levels, or hiring.
economic geology Scientific discipline concerned with the distribu¬ tion of mineral deposits, the economic considerations involved in their recovery, and assessment of the reserves available. Economic geology deals with metal ores, fossil fuels, and other materials of commercial value, such as salt, gypsum, and building stone. It applies the principles and methods of various other fields, especially geophysics, structural geology,
and STRATIGRAPHY.
economic growth Process by which a nation’s wealth increases over time. The most widely used measure of economic growth is the real rate of growth in a country’s total output of goods and services (gauged by the gross domestic product adjusted for inflation, or “real GDP”). Other measures (e.g., national income per capita, consumption per capita) are also used. The rate of economic growth is influenced by natural resources, human resources, capital resources, and technological development in the economy along with institutional structure and stability. Other factors include the level of world economic activity and the terms of trade. See also ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT.
economic indicator Statistic used to determine the state of general economic activity or to predict it in the future. A leading indicator is one that tends to turn up or down before the general economy does (e.g., building permits, common stock prices, and business inventories). Coin¬ cident indicators move in line with the economy; lagging indicators change direction after the economy does.
economic planning Use of government to make economic decisions with respect to the use of resources. In communist countries with a state planning apparatus, detailed and rigid planning results in a command economy; land, capital, and the means of production are publicly owned and centrally allocated, and the government makes both micro- and mac¬ roeconomic decisions. Microeconomic decisions include what goods and services to produce, the quantities to produce, the prices to charge, and the wages to pay. Macroeconomic decisions include the rate of invest¬ ment and the extent of foreign trade. In most industrialized countries, governments influence their economies indirectly through monetary and fiscal policies. A few key economic sectors may be publicly owned, but the trend has been toward the privatization of industries that were social¬ ized in the aftermath of the Great Depression and World War II. Japan is the most notable example of economic planning in a capitalist framework; government and industry cooperate closely in planning patterns of capi¬