Estimable functions in age-period-cohort models: a unified approach

Age-period-cohort (APC) models have an intriguing appeal because each of these factors may be independently associated with age-period-specific rates (or other values). Unfortunately, one can not uniquely estimate the effects that generated the outcome data because these effects are linearly dependent. It is possible, however, to estimate certain linear combinations of these effects that are themselves unique estimates of the data generating parameters. The author demonstrates that all of the least square solutions for the APC model lie on a line in multidimensional solution space. This characteristic of the solutions to the APC model allows for a unified approach to the derivation of estimable functions, which is then used to derive the most prominent estimable functions in the APC literature and can be used to discover new ones.     

Reasoning under uncertainty and multi-criteria decision making in data privacy

By means of an integration of decision theory and probabilistic models, we explore and develop methods for improving data privacy. Our work encompasses disclosure control tools in statistical databases and privacy requirements prioritization; in particular we propose a Bayesian approach for the on-line auditing in Statistical Databases and Pairwise Comparison Matrices for privacy requirements prioritization. The first approach is illustrated by means of examples in the context of statistical analysis on the census and medical data, where no salary (resp. no medical information), that could be related to a specific employee (resp. patient), must be released; the second approach is illustrated by means of examples, such as an e-voting system and an e-banking service that have to satisfy privacy requirements in addition to functional and security ones. Several fields in the social sciences, economics and engineering will benefit from the advances in this research area: e-voting, e-government, e-commerce, e-banking, e-health, cloud computing and risk management are a few examples of applications for the findings of this research.     

The dimensional assessment of personality in drug addicts: a mixed-effects Rasch model approach

Drug abuse results from a series of different factors, such as social and family issues. Subjects more vulnerable to develop an addiction are, for instance, people living in high-stress environments who may resort to addiction in order to cope with their circumstances, such as demanding jobs, family crisis or other situations or people living in low-income households where violence occurs, who may be triggered into addiction as a way to escape negative emotions or ignore any underlying problems or issues. Psychometric research in the field of drug dependence has focused on identifying certain personality characteristics. It is now generally agreed that personality may influence, precipitate or perpetuate substance abuse. The aim of this paper is to perform a dimensional assessment of personality in a sample of drug addicts. To better understand the complexity of addictive behaviours of substance-using individuals, the Cloninger’s temperament and character inventory test is employed while the item response data analysis is performed by mixed-effects Rasch models. These models combine the advantages both of Rasch measurement framework for latent variables and of models with hierarchical data. To evaluate the differences in dimensions of temperament and character inventory test in subjects with drug addiction, we fit and compare a sequence of mixed-effects Rasch models. Results from models fitting are compared and discussed for a data set of 84 participants.     

Who bribes in public contracting and why: worldwide evidence from firms

We study procurement bribery utilizing survey data from 11,000 enterprises in 125 countries. About one-third of managers report that firms like theirs bribe to secure a public contract, paying about 8 % of the contract value. Econometric estimations suggest that national governance factors, such as democratic accountability, press freedom, and rule of law, are associated with lower bribery. Larger and foreign-owned firms are less likely to bribe than smaller domestic ones. But among bribers, foreign and domestic firms pay similar amounts. Multinational firms appear sensitive to reputational risks in their home countries, but partially adapt to their host country environments.     

An empirical analysis of social media usage,political learning and participation among youth: a comparative study of Indonesia and Pakistan

Quality & Quantity - Youth participation in political matters has gained attention among people around the globe where youth involvement in certain political activities has been witnessed (of...     

财富对创业的异质性影响——基于三省农户的实证分析

文章从动态视角重新考察了财富与创业的关系,并基于中国农村固定观察点的调查数据进行了实证分析,研究发现财富对创业的影响并非简单的单调关系。当农户资产处于0-98.70分位数区间(0<资产<26.84万元)时,农户资产越多越倾向于创业,这与静态模型的预测相同;但当资产处于98.70分位数之后的区间(资产≥26.84万元)时,样本自选择偏差的存在使二者呈负相关关系,即资产越多,创业概率越低,支持了动态模型的理论预测。文章还使用人情收入作为资产的工具变量来解决模型中可能存在的内生性问题,发现此结论依然稳健。     

公司治理对上市公司审计师变更影响的实证分析

对审计师变更原因以及公司治理对审计师变更影响的国内外研究文献进行了梳理。以我国沪深A股上市公司为研究样本,综合运用统计检验和Logistic分析方法,实证检验了公司治理评价体系的6个维度、15个指标对上市公司审计师变更的影响。结果表明:公司治理对审计师变更的影响显著;其中,第一大股东持股比例、独立董事比例、董事会会议次数与审计师变更显著负相关,是否发生诉讼仲裁事项、信息披露是否充分与审计师变更显著正相关。     

政府规模、市场化与地区腐败

Using a panel data at the provincial level during the period of 1989–2004, this paper examines the effects of social and economic factors such as government scale, privatization, openness, and education on regional corruption. Applying a fixed-effect model and IV estimation, we find that government size positively affects the incidence rate of corruption, and the effect becomes larger with the increase in the size of the core department of the government. 1% increase in the core department of the government leads to a 0.68%–1% increase in the number of corruption cases. While the proportion of FDI is positively associated with the corruption of regional officials, the ratio of the import and export trade to GDP is negatively associated with corruption. The impact of privatization on corruption is ambiguous. We also identify the significant impacts of the size and structure of the government expenditure on corruption. __________ Translated from Jingji Yanjiu 经济研究 (Economic Research Journal), 2008, (11): 16–26     

How useful are signals? A micro-structure analysis

We analyze how the market processes a signaling event by studying a sample of self-tender offers, events often viewed as signals of firm value. By examining changes in the degree of informed trading, we find asymmetric information costs fall at announcement, remain low throughout the event, and increase at offer expiration. By one month following expiration, informed trading returns to a level not significantly different from that prior to the offer. Higher risk firms have significantly larger declines in information asymmetry during the offer. Increases in information asymmetry persist one month following expiration for firms with lower pre-offer informed trading. (JEL G14, G32)     

几种香辛料抑菌防腐作用的研究

本研究挑选八角、生姜、茴香、花椒和大蒜这几种日常烹饪中常用的香辛料作为材料,以水为溶剂,采用索氏提取法提取挥发油,纸片法检测抑菌情况,研究各种香辛料中的挥发油成分对易导致食品腐败的金色葡萄球菌(Staphylococcus aureus)、大肠杆菌(Escherichia coli)、酵母菌(Yeast)和变形杆菌(Proteus)的抑菌作用。结果表明,八角的挥发油提取率高,但抑菌作用不明显;生姜的挥发油虽然提取率不高,但抑菌作用明显。