On the efficiency comparison of certain randomized response strategies

Comparisons between different randomized response strategies have already been performed by several workers but all have concentrated solely on comparing the variances of the appropriate estimators. A very little attention has been paid by these workers to the degree of privacy protection offered to the interviewees. In the present paper, an attempt has been made in this direction and some important randomized response strategies have been compared with the Warner's model, taking into account the aspect of privacy protection. Received February 2000     

Shareholder Value Maximisation,Stock Market and New Technology: Should the US Corporate Model be the Universal Standard? 1

In 1992 a blue‐ribbon group of US economists led by Michael Porter concluded that the US stock market‐based corporate model was misallocating resources and jeopardising US competitiveness. The faster growth of US economy since then and the supposed US lead in the spread of information technology has brought new legitimacy to the stock market and the corporate model, which is being hailed as the universal standard. Two main conclusions of the analysis presented here are: (a) there is no warrant for revising the blue‐ribbon group’s conclusion; and (b) even US corporations let alone developing country ones would be better off not having stock market valuation as a corporate goal.     

Efficiency Characterization of Liability Rules When Liability Payments Differ from the Actual Harm

Journal of Quantitative Economics - By now, it is well known that damage awards under a liability rule affect the efficiency of the rule. Due to variety of reasons, damage awards fixed by courts...     

A Survey of Agricultural Household Models: Recent Findings and Policy Implications

Semicommercial farms that produce multiple crops make up a largepart of the agricultural sector in developing economies. Thesefarms or agricultural households combine two fundamental unitsof microeconomic analysis: the household and the firm. Traditionaleconomic theory has dealt with these units separately. But indeveloping economies in which peasant farms dominate, theirinterdependence is of crucial importance. Researchers at theFood Research Institute, Stanford University, and at the WorldBank have developed models of agricultural households that combineproducer and consumer behavior in a theoretically consistentfashion. Recent empirical applications of these models haveextended them and expanded the range of policy issues whichcan be investigated using this general framework. This article reports the results of empirical applications ofthis model in India, Indonesia, Japan, the Republic of Korea,Malaysia, Nigeria, Senegal, Sierra Leone, Taiwan, and Thailand.It provides a comparative analysis of the policy implicationsof the approach for such matters as the welfare of farm households,the size of marketed surplus, the demand for nonagriculturalgoods and services, and for hired labor, and the availabilityof budget revenues and foreign exchange.     

Diversification strategy and systematic risk

This paper addresses the relationship between diversification strategy and systematic risk (beta). Beta values are examined for six diversification categories, and it is found that betas for unrelated diversifiers are significantly higher than those of other firms. Possible contributions to this difference, including market power, capital structure, and capital intensity are explored.     

An investigation of subliminal embed effect on multiple measures of advertising effectiveness

The effect of subliminal sex and death embeds on attention to advertising, change in attitude, behavioral intention, and day-after recall of advertising were investigated for two products. Contrary to findings in some previous research, no significant effects were indicated in the current study at any level. A review and comparison to previous research is provided, along with a possible explanation for conflicting research findings in the area.     

Almost unbiased estimation in multiplicative models

In the lognormal linear models the estimation of constant term presents problems. In this paper we use weighted jackknife procedure (suggested by Hinkley 1977) for reducing the bias of the maximum likelihood estimator. The resulting estimator is unbiased upto order (1/T),T being the number of observations, and has the same MSE as that of the MLE to the same order of approximation; moreover, being the jackknife estimator it enjoys all the desirable large sample properties like any other jackknife estimator. The research of this author is partially supported through a research grant from NSERC of Canada.     

The content and focus of Canadian corporate codes of ethics

This paper primarily reports the findings of content analyses of seventy-five codes of ethics ofFinancial Post 500 corporations. The contents of each code were comprehensively evaluated along sixty-one criteria according to four levels. It was found that the focus of these codes was the protection of the firm. While some of them refer to issues of social responsibility, they are principally concerned with conduct against the firm.Maurica Lefebvre holds an Honours Bachelor of Arts Degree in Psychology from the University of Western Ontario and a Bachelor of Commerce degree and MBA from the University of Windsor. She is presently employed marketing consumer packaged goods.Jang B. Singh, B. A. (Toronto), M. A. (St. Thomas), M. A. (Toronto), M. B. A. (Windsor), Ph. D. (Toronto) is Associate Professor at the Faculty of Business Administration of the University of Windsor. His research focus is on ethical issues involved in the management process.     

Global Social Media Usage: Insights Into Reaching Consumers Worldwide

This study documents global social media usage patterns based on a large‐scale survey of 4,630 social media users around the world. The study provides insights into how users in the European Union, United States, and BRIC (Brazil, Russia, India, and China) regions use social media for business and personal use. It analyzes variability in global social media platforms being used in these different world regions. The study also presents insights into usage of multilingual content for global social media consumption and the global user propensity to translate social media. Finally, the paper showcases an innovative technology solution to help companies leverage machine and human translation to enable users to translate social media content. © 2012 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

Cost-effectiveness of second-line atezolizumab in Canada for advanced non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC)

Aim: To assess the cost-effectiveness in Canada of atezolizumab compared with docetaxel or nivolumab for the treatment of advanced NSCLC after first-line platinum-doublet chemotherapy.

Materials and methods: A three-state partitioned-survival model was developed. Clinical inputs were obtained from the phase III OAK trial comparing atezolizumab with docetaxel in patients with advanced NSCLC who progressed after first-line platinum-doublet chemotherapy. Overall survival (OS) and progression-free survival (PFS) were extrapolated beyond the trial period using parametric models. A cure model assuming a 1% cure fraction was fitted to the OS data for atezolizumab. Outcomes for nivolumab were informed by a network meta-analysis (NMA) vs atezolizumab. Resource use and costs were informed by clinical expert opinion and published Canadian sources. Utility values were obtained from the OAK trial. The perspective of the analysis was that of the Canadian publicly-funded healthcare system. The base case time horizon was 10?years, and the discount rate was 1.5% annually for both costs and effects. Scenario analyses were performed to test the robustness of the results and all analyses were performed probabilistically.

Results: Atezolizumab demonstrated a quality-adjusted life-year (QALY) gain of 0.60 compared with docetaxel at an incremental cost of $85,073, resulting in an incremental cost-effectiveness ratio (ICER) of $142,074/QALY. Atezolizumab dominated nivolumab (regardless of dosing regimen), based on modest differences in both QALYs and costs. Docetaxel was most likely to be cost effective at willingness-to-pay (WTP) thresholds below $125,000/QALY gained, while atezolizumab was most likely to be cost effective beyond this WTP threshold. In most scenario analyses, the results remained robust to changes in parameters. A reduced time horizon and alternative approaches to the NMA had the greatest impact on cost-effectiveness results.

Conclusion: Atezolizumab represents a cost-effective therapeutic option in Canada for the treatment of patients with advanced NSCLC who progress after first-line platinum doublet chemotherapy.