Optimal location of new forests in a suburban region

This paper looks at the optimal location of new forests in a suburban region under area constraints. The methodology takes into account use benefits, non-use benefits (both bequest and existence values), opportunity costs of converting agricultural land, as well as planting and management costs of the new forest. The recreational benefits of new forest sites are estimated using function transfer techniques. We show that the net social benefit of the total afforestation project varies up to a factor 6. The recreational value of a site varies considerably with the available substitutes.     

A toolkit in SAS for the evaluation of multiple imputation methods

This paper outlines a strategy to validate multiple imputation methods. Rubin's criteria for proper multiple imputation are the point of departure. We describe a simulation method that yields insight into various aspects of bias and efficiency of the imputation process. We propose a new method for creating incomplete data under a general Missing At Random (MAR) mechanism. Software implementing the validation strategy is available as a SAS/IML module. The method is applied to investigate the behavior of polytomous regression imputation for categorical data.     

book reviews

WOMEN FOR HIRE, A STUDY OF THE FEMALE OFFICE WORKER London School of Economics and Political Science A HANDBOOK OF INDUSTRIAL RELATIONS PRACTICE Personnel Director British Aluminium VOTES, VIRTUES AND VICES: TRADE UNION POWER THE TROJAN HORSE: UNION POWER IN BRITISH POLITICS School of Industrial & Business Studies University of Warwick WHITE COLLAR UNIONISM: THE REBELLIOUS SALARIAT Manchester Business School THE INTERNATIONAL YEARBOOK OF ORGANIZATION STUDIES Centre for European Industrial Studies University of Bath     

Assignment Games Satisfy the CoMa-Property

A balanced game satisfies the CoMa-property if and only if the extreme points of its core are marginal vectors. In this note we prove that assignment games satisfy the CoMa-property. Journal of Economic Literature Classification Numbers: C71, C78.     

A political economy model of road pricing

In this paper, we use a simple majority voting model to study the introduction of urban congestion tolls. The model allows for different types of uncertainty and considers different uses of the toll revenues. The following results are obtained. First, we show that individual uncertainty with respect to modal substitution costs may imply that a majority votes against road pricing ex ante, although a majority would have been in favor after its introduction ex post. Moreover, if a majority is against road pricing ex ante, there will also be no majority for organizing an experiment that would take away the individual uncertainty. Second, political uncertainty with respect to the use of the revenues corroborates the finding that ex ante more voters will be against the introduction of tolls. Third, both types of uncertainty suggest that fewer voters are against road pricing when toll revenues are used to subsidize public transport than when they are redistributed to all voters. Importantly, the results of this paper are consistent with a number of recent empirical observations on efforts to introduce road pricing, including the systematic rejection of road pricing in referenda, the more favorable attitudes towards road pricing after than before its introduction, and tying the toll revenues to support public transport.     

Predictive mean matching imputation of semicontinuous variables

Multiple imputation methods properly account for the uncertainty of missing data. One of those methods for creating multiple imputations is predictive mean matching (PMM), a general purpose method. Little is known about the performance of PMM in imputing non‐normal semicontinuous data (skewed data with a point mass at a certain value and otherwise continuously distributed). We investigate the performance of PMM as well as dedicated methods for imputing semicontinuous data by performing simulation studies under univariate and multivariate missingness mechanisms. We also investigate the performance on real‐life datasets. We conclude that PMM performance is at least as good as the investigated dedicated methods for imputing semicontinuous data and, in contrast to other methods, is the only method that yields plausible imputations and preserves the original data distributions.     

The Bankruptcy Prediction Power of New Entrants

Abstract

This study aims to determine if the number of new entrants provides a useful tool for forecasting the probability of a firm’s liquidation. We assess how the formation of new firms in a firm’s geographical location influences the likelihood of liquidation. Using a sample of 825 non-listed French industrial firms located in small cities, our estimates show that an increase in the number of new industrial firms in a firm’s location has a positive and significant impact on the probability of a firm being liquidated. The emergence of new firms seems to have stronger power in predicting bankruptcy than other financial variables such as leverage or the rate of exports.     

On the optimal number of scale points in graded paired comparisons

In market research, it is common practice to measure individuals’ brand or product preference through graded paired comparisons (GPCs). One important decision concerns the (odd) number of scale points (e.g., five, seven, nine, or eleven) that has to be assigned to either brands or products in each pair. Using data from an experiment with 122 students, we assessed the extent to which GPCs with a higher number of scale points (requiring more cognitive effort) really outperform GPCs with a smaller number of scale points (requiring less cognitive effort). Our data analyses have shown that one may reduce the (odd) number of scale points from eleven to nine or seven, depending on what minor compromises one is willing to make. The detailed psychometric results presented in this paper are useful to applied researchers as they help them in making well-informed decisions on the number of scale points in a GPC task.