The role of personality traits in pension decisions: findings and policy recommendations

Many countries need to stimulate pension participation and contribution to ensure their citizens are prepared adequately for retirement. Identifying at-risk groups with tendencies of not joining pension plans will help governments target strategies to improve pension awareness and participation. This study investigates the role of personality traits in pension decision making using data from the UK Household Longitudinal Study. Our results demonstrate that Extraversion significantly correlates with non-participation in private pensions, including both employer run and personal pensions. Individuals who are high in Conscientiousness are more likely to participate and pay more into personal pensions. Openness to experience is negatively correlated with saving via personal pensions. Agreeableness and Extraversion correlate inversely with the amount contributed to personal plans. This paper discusses our findings in detail and offers policy implications which may help promote pension participation and ease the problem of old age poverty.     

Further validation of the psychometric properties of the Bowel Function Index for evaluating opioid-induced constipation (OIC)

Abstract

Objective:

The BFI (Bowel Function Index) is a 3-item questionnaire for assessing opioid-induced constipation (OIC). The aim of this study was to contribute to the validation of the psychometric properties of the BFI by confirming a constipation threshold, and through correlation with other validated tools: KESS (Knowles Eccersley Scott Symptom) score and generic (12-Item Short Form Health Survey, SF-12) and specific (Patient Assessment of Constipation–Quality of Life, PAC-QoL) quality-of-life scores.

Methods:

A survey on opioid-requiring cancer-patients was carried out in France. A questionnaire was filled out for all patients that recorded their demographic characteristics, an assessment of their constipation using BFI and KESS scores, and included a self-assessment of quality-of-life using PAC-QoL and SF-12. Correlation of BFI with KESS, PAC-QoL, and SF-12 was investigated.

Results:

Five hundred and twenty patients participated in the entire data collection with no loss. BFI was shown to be statistically correlated (r?=?0.571; p?<?0.0001) with the KESS score and matches up with PAC-QoL and to a lesser extent with the SF-12 generic quality-of-life questionnaire. A BFI threshold of 27–29 to discriminate constipated from non-constipated patients was confirmed.

Key limitations:

This cross-sectional study in a selected population of cancer pain patients has validated the psychometric properties of the BFI. Further confirmation of the validity of the BFI could be sought through the use of longitudinal studies, and larger populations, such as non-cancer pain patients treated with opioids.

Conclusion:

This study contributes to the validation of the psychometric properties of the BFI. It confirms the BFI as an easy-to-use tool to assess constipation and its impact on quality-of-life in chronic pain patients.     

Careers guidance,psychometric testing and unemployment amongst young people: an empirical analysis for Northern Ireland

Psychometric tests continue to form an important part of careers guidance for young people of school leaving age throughout the UK. In the existing literature, there is little evidence about the impact of testing on subsequent labour market success. This paper presents a quantitative analysis of the effect of testing in Northern Ireland on young people's subsequent experiences of unemployment and long-term unemployment between the ages of 16 and 18. On account of the sample selection problem, standard single equation estimates of the effects of testing are likely to give biased results, and so the bivariate probit model is used in the estimation. The results suggest that although testing is not having an adverse impact, it is not having a statistically significant positive effect. This may be attributable to some aspects of test administration in Northern Ireland which, in many cases, seems to fall short of recommended guidelines.     

Age and organizational identification: empirical findings from professional sports

Although identification is critical to organizational survival, knowledge on how identification changes and evolves over time is still limited. Not only can tastes and choices vary across both social context and time, but individuals can change or choose their identity, as well as their ideals, group loyalty and/or social category. Hence, in this letter, we examine the relation between organizational identification and age using five large sports consumer surveys as a snapshot of the age distribution of team identification. Our results provide evidence of robust U-shaped age profiles, with a probable turning point in the 40s.     

Cystadenoma of the seminal vesicle: US and CT findings

Ultrasonographic (US) and computed tomographic (CT) features of a cystadenoma of the seminal vesicle are presented.     

Peritoneal mesothelioma: Sonographic findings in nine cases

Ultrasonographic findings in nine cases of peritoneal mesothelioma are presented. The most common findings were sheetlike or nodular peritoneal thickening, soft tissue masses, fixation of the intestinal loops, mesenteric thickening, and minimal ascites which was disproportional to the degree of tumor dissemination. The authors found that abdominal sonography, using 3.75–7.5 MHz transducers, is a useful imaging method for diagnosis of peritoneal mesothelioma in high-risk groups.     

Eudaimonic well-being,inequality, and health: Recent findings and future directions

The theoretical and philosophical underpinnings of a eudaimonic model of well-being are examined, and its empirical translation into distinct dimensions of well-being is described. Empirical findings have documented aging declines in eudaimonic well-being, but there is considerable variability within age groups. Among older adults who remain purposefully engaged, health benefits (reduced morbidity, extended longevity) have been documented. Eudaimonic well-being also appears to offer a protective buffer against increased health risks among the educationally disadvantaged. Neural and genetic mechanisms that may underlie eudaimonic influences on health are briefly noted, and interventions designed to promote eudaimonic well-being are sketched. Needed future research directions include addressing problems of unjust societies wherein greed among privileged elites may be a force compromising the eudaimonic well-being of those less privileged. Alternatively, and more positive in focus, is the need to better understand the role of the arts, broadly defined, in promoting eudaimonic well-being across all segments of society.     

Economic decision-making by cohabitors: findings regarding income pooling

Cohabitation rates are increasing in the US but little is known about how cohabitors make economic decisions. For instance, do female cohabitors treat their male partner's income as shared household income when choosing hours worked? Does income sharing differ among types of cohabitors? This study investigates whether or not cohabitors pool income by drawing inferences from a generalized model of labour supply. The empirical work uses data from the 1993 Current Population Survey and the 1987 National Survey of Families and Households. These data sets provide evidence that cohabitors, taken as a group, do not pool all income. However, there is also evidence that cohabitors are not homogeneous in their behaviour; income pooling is not rejected for cohabitors in longer-term relationships and for those who have a biological child together.     

The effects of financial and administrative decentralization of public mental health services in california: Preliminary findings (summary)

This preliminary report illustrates the social and financial benefits of decentralization of public mental health services. Increased local financial risk and flexibility have resulted in greater use of less costly local outpattent mental health services, which are less restrictive and empirically more therapeutic.     

The effects of financial and administrative decentralization of public mental health services in california: Preliminary findings (summary)

This preliminary report illustrates the social and financial benefits of decentralization of public mental health services. Increased local financial risk and flexibility have resulted in greater use of less costly local outpattent mental health services, which are less restrictive and empirically more therapeutic.     

Carcinoma of the gallbladder: CT findings in 50 cases

Fifty patients with histologically proven carcinoma of the gallbladder were examined by computed tomography (CT). The gallbladder masses were categorized into two broad groups: group 1 (74%) included patients in whom the gallbladder was identified along with a mass lesion; and group 2 (26%), where a large mass was present in the gallbladder fossa with no identifiable gallbladder. Group 1 was further divided into three types according to the nature of the tumor: Type 1, mass almost filling the entire gallbladder lumen; Type 2, a polypoidal mass projecting into the lumen; type 3, an infiltrating tumor seen as focal or diffuse wall thickening. Liver involvement, in the form of localized invasion in the vicinity of the primary gallbladder malignancy, was the most common associated finding (80%). Other ancillary features included presence of calculi, lymphadenopathy, and biliary obstruction. CT was found useful for characterizing and defining the extent of carcinoma of the gallbladder. However, it may not consistently demonstrate involvement of the gastrointestinal tract, omentum, and abdominal wall. CT can also be used for aspiration/biopsy guidance of the gallbladder mass in selected cases.     

The triggers and clustering properties of merger waves

This article studies the triggers and the agglomeration of mergers and acquisitions (M&A) activity within clusters constituted by time, market and industry. Based on almost 500,000 individual transactions, we find that industry factors play a significant role in triggering activity and that M&A agglomerates strongly across related industries. While clustering in time turns out to be insignificant, stock market effects can be either an attracting or a repelling force, depending on the type of deal examined. This supports the view that merger waves are largely driven by industry shocks.     

A national energy-conservation policy Delphi: report of the findings

In formulating a National Energy Conservation Policy, it is essential to be aware of all available options as well as the opinions of experts. The Policy Delphi approach is used hereto identify policy issues involved in conserving energy in the national context. The three objectives of this study were 1) to identify and select critical, operational, and future-oriented policy statements concerning energy conservation, 2) to obtain the consensus of experts in the field, and 3) to estimate the potential utility of the technique in studying energy conservation policy planning. The study was conducted in three rounds. The results favored the formulation and implementation of a national policy on energy conservation. This study is expected to be of use to policy-planning agencies like the Planning Commission, Ministry of Energy, Department of Science and Technology, etc.     

The nonlinear time series properties of unemployment rates: some further evidence

The time series properties of unemployment rates for Germany, Japan, the UK and the US are re-examined. Evidence of nonlinear structure in the residuals of the most parsimonious linear ARMA models is reported for all countries except Japan. Modelling this nonlinearity using SETAR models suggests strong asymmetry in unemployment dynamics and the presence of a possible limit cycle for the UK. However, residual diagnostics for these models indicate remaining structure. Alternative TAR models conditioned on past growth rates of industrial production yield substantial reductions in residual variance over both linear and SETAR counterparts, iid residuals in all cases other than the US, and threshold values at or very near zero, clearly identifying the asymmetric behaviour of unemployment during expansionary and contractionary phases of the business cycle.     

The impossibility of compromise: some uniqueness properties of expected utility preferences

Summary. We focus on the following uniqueness property of expected utility preferences: Agreement of two preferences on one interior indifference class implies their equality. We show that, besides expected utility preferences under (objective) risk, this uniqueness property holds for subjective expected utility preferences in Anscombe-Aumann's (partially subjective) and Savage's (fully subjective) settings, while it does not hold for subjective expected utility preferences in settings without rich state spaces. Indeed, when it holds the uniqueness property is even stronger than described above, as it needs only agreement on binary acts. The extension of the uniqueness property to the subjective case is possible because beliefs in the mentioned settings are shown to satisfy an analogous property: If two decision makers agree on a likelihood indifference class, they must have identical beliefs. Received: November 15, 1999; revised version: December 29, 1999     

Wage-related labour standards and FDI in China: some survey findings from Guangdong province

Abstract. The paper presents findings from a survey of foreign invested enterprises (FIEs) in Guangdong, China, on the relationship between foreign direct investment (FDI) and wage‐related labour standards (regular wages, and compliance with official overtime and minimum wages), which show that wage‐related standards are statistically higher in FIEs whose home countries’ standards are higher, after controlling for other influences. However, a cost‐reduction FIE is more likely to be associated with inferior standards. The results call for a finer examination of the relationship between FDI and labour standards beyond the simple ‘race to the bottom’ thesis.     

Shang inquiry as an alternative to Delphi: Some experimental findings

A new group judgment method known as Shang is presented as an alternative to Delphi. Shang is structured to avoid Delphi problems associated with convergence pressures and response commitment while incorporating Delphi advantages. The new method is evaluated through an experiment comparing it with a control method and two Delphi techniques, one using point estimates and one using distributional estimates. Findings indicate that Shang is generally superior to Delphi in producing accurate numerical estimates from the judgments of a group of experts.     

The inflation-hedging properties of Turkish REITs

This study empirically tests the inflation-hedging abilities of Turkish REITs in comparison to the indices of common stocks listed on the Istanbul Stock Exchange (ISE) over the period December 1999 to December 2004. Two main factors motivate this study. First, compared to their counterparts in developed capital markets, Turkish REITs have some important tax incentives as well as flexibility in managing their portfolios. Second, the Turkish economy provides a rare and good opportunity to test the hedging behaviour of real estate stocks in periods of both high- and moderate-inflation rates. The empirical results show that Turkish REITs, in general, provide a better hedge against both actual and expected inflation than do the ISE common stock indices. Dividing the entire sample period into the high- and moderate-inflation sub-periods, we find that the hedging ability of REITs is better under high inflation than under moderate inflation.