Cultural tourism: an integrated analysis based on official data

Quality & Quantity - The main aim of this paper is to analyze cultural tourism in Italy and its relationship with the territory (that is considered the principal driver of the analysis) and to...     

Institutional investors and industrial relations data: an empirical survey

Financial institutions play a major role in investing funds in the shares of individual companies. To what extent do investment managers and analysts take account of industrial relations information when making their decisions?     

Panel data methods for fractional response variables with an application to test pass rates

We revisit the effects of spending on student performance using data from the state of Michigan. In addition to exploiting a dramatic change in funding in the mid-1990s and subsequent nonsmooth changes, we propose nonlinear panel data models that recognize the bounded nature of the pass rate. Importantly, we show how to estimate average partial effects, which can be compared across many different models (linear and nonlinear) under different assumptions and estimated using many different methods. We find that spending has nontrivial and statistically significant effects, although the diminishing effect is not especially pronounced.     

对我国大城市行政区划调整的思考——以广州市近年来行政区划调整为例

在分析了行政区划调整的背景和主要原因的基础上,以广州市近年来的城市行政区划调整为例,总结其成功经验,如保持历史文脉,相似相融;小区合并、大区分解;降低行政管理成本;对开发区的行政管理体制做了大胆探索;行政区划调整与城市发展战略规划相衔接等。分析了现行城市行政区划调整过程中需要关注的问题,包括国有资产的流失、行政设施的浪费、缺少经济推动的引导、行政区划面状蔓延而缺少长远规划和整体协调,并就我国现阶段大城市地区行政区划调整思路和方向进行了探讨。     

Assessment of European Use tables at basic prices and valuation matrices in the absence of official data

Input–Output modellers are often faced with the task of estimating missing Use tables at basic prices and also valuation matrices of the individual countries. This paper examines a selection of estimation methods applied to the European context where the analysts are not in possession of superior data. The estimation methods are restricted to the use of automated methods that would require more than just the row and column sums of the tables (as in projections) but less than a combination of various conflicting information (as in compilation). The results are assessed against the official Supply, Use and Input–Output tables of Belgium, Germany, Italy, Netherlands, Finland, Austria and Slovakia by using matrix difference metrics. The main conclusion is that using the structures of previous years usually performs better than any other approach.     

Big data for cyber physical systems in industry 4.0: a survey

ABSTRACT

With the technology development in cyber physical systems and big data, there are huge potential to apply them to achieve personalization and improve resource efficiency in Industry 4.0. As Industry 4.0 is the relatively new concept originated from an advanced manufacturing vision supported by the German government in 2011, there are only several existing surveys on either cyber physical systems or big data in Industry 4.0. In addition, there are much less surveys related to the intersection between cyber physical systems and big data in Industry 4.0. However, cyber physical systems are closely related to big data in nature. For example, cyber physical systems will continuously generate a large amount of data which requires the big data techniques to process and help to improve system scalability, security, and efficiency. Therefore, we conduct this survey to bring more attention to this critical intersection and highlight the future research direction to achieve the fully autonomy in Industry 4.0.     

Problems in the estimation and interpretation of the reliability of survey data

In this paper I discuss several of the difficulties involved in estimating the reliability of survey measurement. Reliability is defined on the basis of classical true-score theory, as the correlational consistency of multiple measures of the same construct, net of true change. This concept is presented within the framework of a theoretical discussion of the sources of error in survey data and the design requirements for separating response variation into components representing such response consistency and measurement errors. Discussion focuses on the potential sources of random and nonrandom errors, including “invalidity” of measurement, the term frequently used to refer to components of method variance. Problems with the estimation of these components are enumerated and discussed with respect to both cross-sectional and panel designs. Empirical examples are given of the estimation of the quantities of interest, which are the basis of a discussion of the interpretational difficulties encountered in reliability estimation. Data are drawn from the ISR's Quality of Life surveys, the National Election Studies and the NORC's General Social Surveys. The general conclusion is that both cross-sectional and panel estimates of measurement reliability are desirable, but for the purposes of isolating the random component of error, panel designs are probably the most advantageous.     

Ensuring survey research data integrity in the era of internet bots

Quality & Quantity - We used an internet-based survey platform to conduct a cross-sectional survey regarding the impact of COVID-19 on the LGBTQ?+?population in the United States....     

Prediction in the Panel Data Model with Spatial Correlation: the Case of Liquor

Abstract

This paper considers the problem of prediction in a panel data regression model with spatial autocorrelation in the context of a simple demand equation for liquor. This is based on a panel of 43 states over the period 1965–1994. The spatial autocorrelation due to neighbouring states and the individual heterogeneity across states is taken explicitly into account. We compare the performance of several predictors of the states’ demand for liquor for 1 year and 5 years ahead. The estimators whose predictions are compared include OLS, fixed effects ignoring spatial correlation, fixed effects with spatial correlation, random-effects GLS estimator ignoring spatial correlation and random-effects estimator accounting for the spatial correlation. Based on RMSE forecast performance, estimators that take into account spatial correlation and heterogeneity across the states perform the best for forecasts 1 year ahead. However, for forecasts 2–5 years ahead, estimators that take into account the heterogeneity across the states yield the best forecasts.     

Selection of the best population: an information theoretic approach

This paper is devoted to the statistical problem of ranking and selection populations by using the subset selection formulation. The interest is focused (i) on the selection of the best population among k independent populations and (ii) on the selection of the best population, which is closest to an additional standard or control population. With respect to the first problem the populations are ranked in terms of entropies of their distributions and the population whose distribution has maximum entropy is selected. For the second problem the populations are ranked in terms of divergences between their distributions and the distribution of the standard or control population and the population with the minimum divergence is selected. In each case the populations are assumed to have general parametric densities satisfying the classical regularity conditions of asymptotic statistic. Large sample properties of the estimators of entropies and divergences of the populations will be studied and used in order to determine the probabilities of correct selection of the proposed asymptotic selection rules. Illustrative examples, including a numerical example using real medical data appeared in the literature, will be given for multivariate homoscedastic normal populations and populations described by the regular exponential family of distributions. Received December 2001     

Earnings inequality in Hungary: A comparative analysis of household and enterprise survey data

This study examines trends in the distribution of gross earnings in Hungary since 1988, using official household budget surveys and enterprise-based earnings surveys. We find a significant growth in inequality since 1988, to levels comparable with western Europe. There is little evidence of a serious discrepancy between the two data sources used.     

Fundraising in the usa and the united kingdom: Comparing today with directions for tomorrow

In 1995, residents of the United Kingdom — a population of 58 million — contributed £9.1bn ($14.56bn) to charities. During the same time period, $143.85bn was donated by the 265 million inhabitants in the United States. Going just by the numbers, the not-for-profit world often assumes Americans are the most philanthropic people on earth. But, a careful look at some actual indicators of charitability suggest this belief may, in fact, be more wishful thinking than reality. Here are the facts.     

流动人口社会融合现状与测度——基于大连市的调查数据

在快速城市化的背景下,流动人口的社会融合问题逐步成为影响城市管理的重要因素。利用对大连市1017名流动人口的调查数据,从公共服务、经济地位、社会保障、社区参与和身份认同5个方面对流动人口的社会融合状况进行了测量分析。研究结果表明,流动人口的总体社会融合程度偏低。从具体维度来看,流动人口的身份认同程度较好,而他们享受的公共服务有限,其经济地位、社会保障、社区参与的融合程度呈现出依次下降的趋势。户籍因素造成的"城乡差分"使得城—城流动人口的社会融合程度高于乡—城流动人口,而人力资本和社会资本也是影响流动人口社会融合程度的重要因素。     

Dynamic Modeling with Structural Equations and Stochastic Differential Equations: Applications with the German Socio-economic Panel

The paper discusses an application of linear dynamic models to multi-wave longitudinal data. Starting from three-wave and four-wave simplex models using standard structural equations, linear dynamic state space models with stochastic differential equations are presented. The main differences between longitudinal structural equations (static view) and stochastic differential equations (dynamic view) are emphasized. Substantively, the models prove the relation, stability and change of two concepts in a period of 10 years: National Identity and Intention to stay in Germany. Data from a sample of migrant workers in Germany included in the German Socio-economic Panel (GSOEP) are used for the analyses. Results and further developments of dynamic models are discussed in the final section.The authors thank Hermann Singer for his comments and discussions on applications of dynamic models.     

The wording of questions in a CATI-based lifestyle survey: Effects of reversing the polarity of AIDS-related questions in continuous data

There is a need for reliable measurement of health-related attitudes and opinions in data which have been collected over time. The analysis presented concentrates on several questionnaire items from a lifestyle and health survey. The effect of changing the polarity of the questions is considered. This change was carried out during an 8-month period (involving 5,891 interviews) of a total of 23 months of observation (15,221 interviews). The main finding is that reversing the response direction of questions has different effects for different items. Time effects and socio-demographic characteristics have been considered as well as possible effects on items, but overall time trends are not affected.     

Simulation Estimation of Two‐tiered Dynamic Panel Tobit Models with an Application to the labour Supply of Married Women: A Comment

We find that the empirical results reported in Chang (Journal of Applied Econometrics 2011; 26 (5): 854–871) are contingent on the specification of the model. The use of Heckman's initial conditions combined with observed and not latent lagged dependent variables leads to a counter‐intuitive estimation of the true state dependence. The use of Wooldridge's initial conditions together with the observed lagged dependent variable and a proper modelling of censoring provides a much more natural estimate of the true state dependence parameters together with a clearer interpretation of the decision to participate in the labour market in the two‐tiered model. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

New data collection modes for surveys: a comparative analysis of the influence of survey mode on question-wording effects

New opportunities have recently emerged in survey practice, coupled with a need to make changes, and alternative survey data collection modes such as those based on new technologies (for example, the Web and mobile phones) have become a focus of interest. Studies have considered the biases due to data collection modes and to the wording of questions in questionnaires, but they have rarely dealt with the interaction between the two phenomena. This paper presents the results of a study on the interactions between some of the best-known question-wording effects and three data collection modes: face-to-face, Web-based and SMS-based (Short Text Messaging). The results have highlighted some interesting characteristics of the various modes—innovative ones in particular—and have confirmed the existence of potential interactions between data collection modes and question-wording effects. The findings may have significant implications for the study and practice of surveys and entail that, when surveys are designed, account is taken of specific factors associated with the method used to word the questions in questionnaires.     

Issues in the Design and Analysis of Panel Studies: A Cursory Review

This paper offers a broad review of some aspects in the design and analysis of panel studies, chiefly of household panel surveys. Both the analytic benefits and the potential problems of panel surveys are briefly outlined, and selected methodological and operational issues, which crucially affect data quality are highlighted. These questions are then considered under four headings: (i) dynamic population and its implications for initial sampling and following rules; (ii) panel length and number of waves; (iii) tracking and tracing techniques, and other strategies for maintaining high participation rates; (iv) questionnaire design and strategies for collecting retrospective information. While no technical details are offered, there is some discussion of the possible drawbacks and advantages of the different approaches described.