Which statistical technique should i use? a survey and marketing case study

Mini and microcomputers are putting an even larger number of powerful statistical analysis techniques at the disposal of the researcher. This paper uses a case study approach to show how to use the original objectives and purpose of a research project to design the study, organize the data collection and select the most appropriate multi-variate technique. Multiple regression, correlation analysis, principal component and factor analysis, discriminant analysis, causal link analysis, cluster analysis, analysis of variance including automatic interaction detection, and canonical correlation analysis are among the models and statistical techniques described in terms of their requirements, underlying hypotheses, limits, advantages. The use of these techniques is illustrated by the study of the “enjoyment” of the tourists who visited the province of Quebec in 1975.     

Fair division with no information

Summary. We consider a situation in which a central authority must allocate non-tradeable and non-marketable goods between a group of individuals in a fair way. There are exogenous divisibility constraints imposed on the goods to be allocated. The authority has absolutely no information on the preferences of the recipients; moreover, no interaction is allowed among recipients or between the authority and the recipients. Envy-freeness is the equity criterion adopted. Using a remarkable property of simplices (which we introduce and prove) we argue that assigning bundles of equal expected value (forming what is called in this paper the class of balanced allocations) is hardly fair unless extra effort is made to discriminate between these proposed allocations.Received: 7 April 2003, Revised: 9 October 2003JEL Classification Numbers: C65, D63, D89. Correspondence to: J. LerouxThe authors wish to thank Marc Fleurbaey, Alan Kirman, Serge-Christophe Kolm, Hervé Moulin and the late Louis-André Gérard-Varet for stimulating discussions, as well as an anonymous referee for comments on an earlier draft.     

Age- and health-related non-linear inheritance taxation

This paper studies the design of optimal non linear bequest taxation when individuals differ in wage, survival and probability to become dependent at the old age. Following the recent health and economic literature, we assume that agents with higher wage have higher survival chances and lower risks to become dependent. Agents make precautionary savings for their old age taking into account the uncertainty on their health. They exhibit joy of giving utility, so that they also set aside money for their heirs. In the absence of annuity and long-term care (LTC) insurance markets, heirs obtain different levels of bequests, depending on whether the donor died early or late in life and whether he was healthy at time of death. We assume that the government does not observe the decomposition of bequests between voluntary and involuntary ones. Instead, it observes the timing of death and the health condition at death of the donor. We show that, under asymmetric information, on top of marginal income taxation, the bequests left by low-income individuals in case of early death should be taxed at the margin. To the opposite, bequests obtained later in life need not be taxed or subsidized at the margin.     

An Overview of Public Consultation Mechanisms Developed to Address the Ethical and Social Issues Raised by Biotechnology

Biotechnology, whether applied to plants, animals, or humans is a rapidly expanding industry. Citizens, often organized in groups or organizations, wish to express their views and even to participate in the decision-making process that authorized to the marketing of new biotechnology derived products. In order to allow participation of the public in the debate on the ethical and social issues raised by biotechnology, it is important to select appropriate consultation mechanisms. Much may be learned from the experiences and mechanisms used in various countries.Part I of this report surveys various institutional models for public consultation activities. Part II then reviews various mechanisms used to address ethical and social issues with public participation and Part III highlights the strengths and weaknesses of these mechanisms in a Canadian context.     

Social Security and Family Support

This paper shows how the role of the market, the state and the family in providing old‐age support has evolved over time with changes in factors such as the reliability and the effectiveness of family support, the interest rate, the cost of public funds, and earning inequality. Agents with different productivity vote over the size of a Beveridgian pension system. When children assistance is certain, agents may rely exclusively on family and prefer no pension. However, when the size and the probability of family generosity decrease, social security is more likely to emerge.