A numerical representation of semiorders on a countable set

Let be a semiorder on a countable setX and letx⁰ y if and only if either there existsx withxxy or there existsx withxxy. Then ⁰ is a preference relation with transitive indifference, which can be represented by a utility functionf of the usual sort. It is well known that is represented by a pair of real-valued functionsu, v, in the sense thatxy if and only ifu(x)>v(y). We prove that there exists a pair of functionsu, v, representing , such thatu+v is the utility function which represents in the usual sense. Moreover it is easily seen that, for such a pair of functionsu, v, we havex⁰ y if and only if eitheru(x)>u(y) or (u(x)=u(y) andv(x)>v(y)).

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Sommario Consideriamo unsemiordine su un insiemeX numerabile e poniamox⁰ y se e solo se esistex tale chexxy, oppure esistex tale chexxy. In questo caso ⁰ è unordine debole, che può essere rappresentato da una funzione di utilitàf nel senso usuale. D'altra parte è rappresentato da una coppia di funzioniu, v, nel senso chexy se e solo seu(x)>v(y). In questo lavoro si prova che ammette una rappresentazioneu, v tale chex⁰ y se e solo seu(x)+v(x)>u(y)+v(y). Si dimostra altresì che, con riguardo ad una siffatta rappresentazioneu, v di , riescex⁰ y se e solo seu(x)>u(y) oppure (u(x)=u(y) ed anchev(x)>v(y)).

     

Union Rules Intrude Upon the Nonunion Domain: Workplace Investigations and the NLRB

This paper examines the new legal landscape for nonunion employers who contemplate conducting investigations of alleged wrongdoing by their employees. The National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) has ruled that a certain right (the Weingarten right) previously guaranteed only to union members applies equally to at-will employees in nonunionized firms. As a result, all employees now possess the right to ask that a coworker be present during an investigatory interview. While the Weingarten right is sensible in a union environment, significant public policy and practical problems arise when this right is extended to the nonunion environment. This paper offers advice on managing the investigative process, given this new right, and it discusses the propriety of imposing union rules on the nonunion workplace.     

Expectations of Consistency in Organizational Life: Stories of Inconsistency from People with Unseen Chronic Illness

This paper commences by considering that the current global climate of terrorism and human suffering demands a more critical consideration of flawed expectations. Addressed here is the flawed expectation of consistency in organizational life. Work life narratives from people with unseen chronic illness, that is, illness that is ongoing, may not be treatable or curable, and cannot be seen by colleagues, are considered to portray the problematic outcomes of expectations of consistency. Respondents of this phenomenological study demonstrate that expectations of consistency, from themselves and others, were unreasonable as their responses to situations and their illness demands varied from day to day and minute to minute—a problem for one working in the rational workplace. What is concluded is that recognition of the postmodern perspective, especially its appreciation of the multiphrenic qualities in these peoples lives, may assist understanding of these people's experiences, as well as the experiences of other traumatized individuals. Adherence to flawed expectations may make things worse.     

The Irish Economic Resurgence and Small Nation Development

The success of the economy of the Republic of Ireland since the mid-1990s has prompted the characterization The Celtic Tiger. This paper describes the elements of the success and examines the strategic basis for it. Ireland's development strategy focused on building a consensus on fiscal and economic policy; capitalizing on membership in the European Union; promoting direct foreign investments with aggressive incentives; and cultivating a young and educated work force. Far from being a miracle, Ireland's success provides a model for economic development for small nations in a global economy. The authors examine and assess economic development efforts in Puerto Rico and Costa Rica in light of lessons learned from Ireland's experience.     

The Dangers of Misclassifying “Employees”: Microsoft Litigation Emphasizes Distinctions Between Employees and Nontraditional Workers

In the past decade, businesses, for reasons such as greater flexibility and lower total costs, have increased their use of nontraditional workers such as independent contractors and temporary agency employees. The Internal Revenue Service's crackdown on misclassifying employees slowed this growth. Additionally, recent lawsuits by nontraditional workers against employers such as Microsoft Corporation have resulted in some client employers being forced to pay more benefits to nontraditional employees because of employment misclassification and coemployment rulings. Such rulings might reduce or even eliminate the use of some types of nontraditional employees. This paper analyzes the vast array of types of workers that have evolved into the nontraditional work force and the difficulty of defining employee with respect to entitlement to employer benefits. Possible recommendations for employers include auditing present use of nontraditional workers, accurately classifying employees, and taking proper actions to minimize problems in the future.     

Two-dimensional Bernstein polynomial density estimators

A Bernstein polynomial estimator for f_nN(x, y) for an unknown probability density functionf(x, y) concentrated on the triangle ={(x, y): 0x, y<1,x+y<1} or on the square =(x, y):0 x, y 1 is developed. As a measure of quality the exact order of magnitude for the pointwise mean squared error is established. It is seen that the quality of these Bernstein polynomial estimators is comparable with the quality of the so-called kernel estimators. Further for such estimators uniform weak consistency results and central limit theorems are developed.     

The practical view of employee rights

Advocates of employee rights, relying upon moral and legal perspectives, have used moral appeals and the threat of legal sanctions to persuade managers to act responsibly. Drawing on a behavioral perspective and analyzing interviews and literature about employee complaints, this paper develops the practical view. This view emphasizes employees' perceptions of their rights, as represented by eight broad categories of asserted rights, and the subtle costs that employees can impose when their standards of proper treatment are violated. While important differences between the behavioral, legal, and moral perspectives are identified, a general standards-setting framework is presented that indicates the complementarity of the three perspectives and the advantages of a multidisciplinary combination.     

Estimation of a regression coefficient after two preliminary tests of significance

Summary The estimation of the regression coefficient of a population, defined byE (y)= +x, incorporating two preliminary tests of significance has been discussed. The experimenter has two random samples of different sizes from two such populations, as defined above, with regression coefficients ₁ and ₂ respectively, where ₂ may possibly be equal to ₁. Besides this, it is also conjectured that the common conditional variance ² of the two populations has a specified value ₀ ² . The two preliminary tests are used to resolve these two uncertainties.The author has rejoined Lucknow University, Lucknow India on Oct. 4, 1976 after availing leave for two years.     

Some brief notes on the “unfinished business” of qualitative inquiry

The paper argues that there are a variety of implicit issues in qualitative inquiry that need to be addressed if the area is to develop in some normal science sense. This unfinished business is concerned with a deeper investigation of basic terms that are now simply taken for granted, such as theme and pattern. It also includes the need to develop rules which will assist in making and justifying how qualitative interpretations are made from the implicit processes of inference. Specific suggestions are made for accomplishing these issues.     

RAM: A Range Adjusted Measure of Inefficiency for Use with Additive Models,and Relations to Other Models and Measures in DEA

Generalized Efficiency Measures (GEMS) for use in DEA are developed and analyzed in a context of differing models where they might be employed. The additive model of DEA is accorded a central role and developed in association with a new measure of efficiency referred to as RAM (Range Adjusted Measure). The need for separately treating input oriented and output oriented approaches to efficient measurement is eliminated because additive models effect their evaluations by maximizing distance from the efficient frontier (in ₁, or weighted ₁, measure) and thereby simultaneously maximize outputs and minimize inputs. Contacts with other models and approaches are maintained with theorems and accompanying proofs to ensure the validity of the thus identified relations. New criteria are supplied, both managerial and mathematical, for evaluating proposed measures. The concept of approximating models is used to further extend these possibilities. The focus of the paper is on the physical aspects of performance involved in technical and mix inefficiencies. However, an Appendix shows how overall, allocative and technical inefficiencies may be incorporated in additive models.     

Maximal asymptotic power and efficiency of two-sample tests based on generalized U-Statistics

In this article a systematic study is given of the asymptotic behavior of two-sample tests based on U-Statistics with arbitrary antisymmetric kernels . Besides the investigation under the hypothesis and under fixed alternatives we determine the local power as a function of as well as its maximizing value _opt. Moreover formulas for the asymptotic relative efficiency ARE(₂,₁) of the ₂-test with respect to the ₁-test are derived. It turns out that _opt also yields the most efficient test in the sense that ARE(_opt,)1 for all (admissible) kernels .     

The Effects of 9/11 and Terrorism on Human Resource Management: Recovery, Reconsideration, and Renewal

The United States suffered an unprecedented loss of life on September 11, 2001, from what was labeled a terrorist attack. Mainly on the basis of data from professional association surveys and government agencies, it was found that the United States and many other countries of the world have been significantly affected by the events and aftermath of that morning's events. As an unprecedented attack on a country not usually affected by external terrorism, it allows a unique study of how terrorism can affect countries in the world. As a result of 9/11 there were significant changes in the U.S. economy and society that, because of the global economy and politics as well as the international war on terrorism, certainly have international consequences. Changes also occurred in most areas of human resource management as well as producing a much greater emphasis on having an overall business crisis management program. However, many of the initial changes appear to have diminished over time. The resultant changes, and lack of changes, produce rich questions for further research.     

Sulla dipendenza continua della probabilità di rovina dal caricamento dei premi

Si studia un modo di approssimare la probabilità di rovina relativa a un caricamento ₀ con le probabilità di rovina relative a una successione di caricamenti ( _k ) _k , che approssimano ₀ quandok tende all'infinito.

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Summary In this paper we study a way of approximating the probability of ruin related to a loading ₀, by the probabilities of ruin related of a sequence of loadings ( _k ) _k which «approximate» ₀ ask converges to infinity.

     

On the power of nonparametric changepoint-tests

We consider a sequenceX _1n,..., X_nn, n N, of independent random elements. Suppose there exists a [0, 1) such thatX _1n,...,X _(n),n have the distribution v₁ andX _[n]+1.n ,...,X _nn have the distribution v₂v₁. We construct consistent level- tests forH ₀:=0 versusH ₁:(0, 1), which are based on certainU-statistic type processes. A detailed investigation of the power function is also provided.     

Minimal efficiency of designs under the class of orthogonally invariant information criteria

Consider the linear regression model with uncorrelated errors and an experimental design . In the article, we address the problem of calculating the minimal efficiency of with respect to the class of orthogonally invariant information criteria, containing all Kiefers criteria of _p-optimality, among others. We show that the -minimal efficiency of is equal to the minimal efficiency of with respect to a finite class of criteria which generalize the criterion of E-optimality. We also formulate conditions under which a design is maximin efficient, i.e. the most efficiency-stable for criteria from . To illustrate the results, we calculated the -minimal efficiency of _p (in particular D, A and E) optimal designs for polynomial regression on [–1,1] up to degree 4. Moreover, for the quadratic model we explicitly constructed the -maximin efficient design.Acknowledgement. The author would like to thank prof. Pázman as well as an anonymous referee for useful and inspiring comments on earlier versions of this article.Supported by: VEGA grant of the Slovak Agency No. 1/0264/03     

Eine Verallgemeinerung des „Gesetzes seltener Ereignisse”

Zusammenfassung Beim bekannten Gesetz seltener Ereignisse betrachtet mane große Zahl unabhängiger Ereignisse, die jeweils mit der gleichen kleinen Wahrscheinlichkeit eintreten können. Unter geeigneten Annahmen ist die Zahl der eingetretenen Ereignisse näherungsweise poissonverteilt. [Vgl. z.B. Morgenstern, p. 39, 1968;Waerden, p. 47, 1957].Ein oft angegebenes Beispiel hierfür ist die Häufigkeitsverteilung von Unfällen, die jeweils nur eine Person oder ein Fahrzeug betreffen. In dieser Arbeit gehen wir von Unfällen mit zwei Beteiligten aus. Auf diese Weise erhält man eine Verallgemeinerung des Gesetzes seltener Ereignisse auf gewisse abhängige Ereignisse.Außerdem wird ein neuer Beweis für die allgemeine Formel der Momente der Poissonverteilung gegeben.Damit ist ein Grenzwertsatz für eine spezielle Folge schwach abhängiger Zufallsgrößen bewiesen.

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Summary The well-known law of rare events deals with a large number of independent events, each of which can occur with the same probability. Under suitable assumptions the number of events which occur has approximately a Poisson distribution. [CompareMorgenstern, p. 39, 1968;Waerden, p. 47, 1957].An example which is often used for illustration is the frequency distribution of accidents, in which only one car or one person is involved. In this paper we refer to accidents in which two parties are involved. This leads to a generalization of the law of rare events where cases of dependent events are concerned.In addition a new proof of the general formula as to the moments of Poisson distribution is given.This proves a limit theorem of weakly dependent random variables of a certain sequence.

     

Eine Invarianzeigenschaft für Startverteilungen einer Klasse stochastischer Prozesse

Summary This paper discusses some concepts of mixing for stochastic processes with discrete time. The idea of mixing, which is defined with respect to a starting distribution , means that the tranjectories of the process get out of any set with -measure zero with probability one. Such -mixing processes satisfy an invariance property; an asymptotic event has probability zero under any starting distribution, provided that it has probability zero under the starting distribution . Concerring stationary Markov chains these results imply a weak zero-one-law the relation of which with well-known stronger versions especially for aperiodic Harris chains and with the notions of weak ergodicity and a.s. triviality is studied.     

Who consults investment analysts?

This paper shows that the questions: Who consults investment analysts? and Who goes to the El Farol bar in Santa Fe? are similar. Thus, investors use a mixed optimal strategy. The demand for consulting services is also characterized.Received: 25 September 2002, Accepted: 26 May 2003, JEL Classification: D81, C70Jacob Paroush: The author is grateful to Yaw Nyarko, Yigal Milchtaich and an anonymous referee for helpful comments and suggestions.     

An Efficiency Comparison of European Banking Systems Operating under Different Environmental Conditions

The paper investigates the operating efficiency differences of a sample of commercial banks across 10 European countries. First, the paper analyzes the technical efficiency of each country sample following the basic Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) model incorporating only banking variables. Then, a complete DEA model is introduced, incorporating environmental factors together with the banking variables of the basic model. The comparison between the two models shows that country-specific environmental conditions exercise a strong influence over the behavior of each country's banking industry.     

Wrongful termination: Balancing employer and employee rights—A summary with recommendations

The employer's right to terminate for any cause has been seriously constrained. Recent court rulings and discrimination legislation make employee termination a hazardous undertaking. The prevailing logic is based on the concept of just cause. This concept attempts to balance employer, employee, and society's rights and fit action to the situation. Recommended management action involves little more than careful management of human resources as practiced by well managed firms for many years.