The challenge of program evaluation: When increasing program participation decreases the relative well-being of participants

Two goals of food assistance programs are to improve well-being and to increase participation among those in need. Progress in meeting the first goal can be measured by the difference in well-being between participants and eligible non-participants. This gap in well-being though can be affected by progress made toward the second goal of increasing participation rates. In particular, if those with the lowest levels of well-being disproportionately enter the program, the gap can increase. To examine whether this tension between goals exists empirically, we consider the case of the Food Stamp Program and its effect on food insecurity in the United States, using data from the Survey of Income and Program Participation (SIPP). In particular, we use variation in State policies (the change in administrative error rates and the combined value of Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) and food stamp benefits) to analyze whether increasing participation rates leads to increases in the difference in food insecurity rates. Controlling for other factors, we find evidence of the tension between these two program goals insofar as States with policies which encourage participation have higher differences in the food insecurity rates of participants and non-participants.     

人口普查中遗漏人口数的估计

研究目标:用完整遗漏估计量替代目前使用的未匹配遗漏估计量、逆记录检查遗漏估计量和平衡推算遗漏估计量。研究方法:采取文献解读、成果借鉴和移植及实地调查相结合的方法,研究完整遗漏估计量及其方差估计。研究发现:人口普查遗漏估计不只是要提供遗漏估计值,还要揭示遗漏的原因及其遗漏者的特征;构造普查遗漏估计量,既要包括登记在事后计数调查人口名单而未登记在普查名单的单重遗漏人口,还要包括同时遗漏于这两项调查名单的双重遗漏人口。研究创新:提出完整遗漏估计量。研究价值:完整遗漏估计量有望应用于中国2030年普查遗漏估计,开创世界人口普查遗漏估计应用完整遗漏估计量的先河。     

需求多样化下非会计专业本科会计学教学改革探索

本文从对学生和社会本科会计学教学需求的调查中发现,社会与学生对本科会计学教学的需求具有多样性。这种多样性导致了严格的教学学时限制与教学内容丰富性要求的矛盾,难以简单地以增加授课内容的方式来满足。教学实践表明,在主要传授会计学基础内容的前提下,适当引导学生进行形式多样、内容丰富的自主学习,是解决这一矛盾的有效方式。     

An Investigation of Justice in supply chain relationships and their performance impact

Justice is important in improving performance of supply chain relationships. However, the role of justice in improving performance in supply chain relationships is an under-investigated subject in the literature. In studying the joint impact of justice dimensions, the traditional assumption is that the three forms of justice interact with each other in a multiplicative manner. However, this assumption creates a managerial problem as discussed in this paper. We outline a different view of how the justice dimensions interact with one another utilizing the constraining factor model (CFM). We show that the CFM resolves some of the problems arising from the choice of multiplicative interaction of justice measures on performance. Specifically, we demonstrate that an increase in procedural, distributive or interactional justice results in a significant and positive improvement in performance only if the specific justice dimension is the constraining factor in the relationship. Overall, our analysis suggests that all three dimensions are important and a high level of one of the justice elements will not compensate for a low level of another, a view that is put forward by a number of past research studies in justice. We discuss the theoretical and managerial implications of our findings.     

中国生态城建设的现状特征与发展态势——中国百个生态城调查分析

我国近些年生态城建设呈现出数量多、规模大、发展速度快的特征,目前全国已出现一百多个大小不等的新建生态城项目.但这些生态城是否都是真正意义上的生态城受到学者和公众的质疑,因此迫切需要全面了解当前我国生态城建设的基本情况和特点,总结其发展态势.本研究针对我国生态城市建设实践,分析其类型、分布特征、产业特征和存在的问题,以期为制定生态城市发展政策提供依据.     

The Role of Behavioral Survey Methodologists in National Statistical

The expertise of behavioral survey methodologists is needed in national statistical agencies because of the necessity of using theory and research from the social sciences to reduce survey error. In this paper various social science based explanations for measurement error and nonresponse error are described in order to illustrate the conceptual foundations of such error reduction efforts. Three roles for behavioral survey methodologists in national statistical agencies are then discussed. They include: 1) bring an error reduction perspective to bear in an influential way for all aspects of designing and implementing agency surveys; 2) bring theoretical efficiency and effectiveness to experimental tests of alternative questionnaire designs and implementation procedures through the use of theories, concepts and pretests and findings of past behavioral science research; and 3) contribute to the expanding science of survey methodology.     

跨文化管理中的文化测量研究综述

跨国经营的企业经历着不同的文化背景,能否克服文化差异带来的文化冲突。实行有效的跨文化管理,是其能否取得跨国经营成功的关键。跨文化管理必须关注文化差异,对不同国家的文化进行比较研究,这是跨文化管理研究的基点。文化测量有助于客观地比较和评价跨国经营中的企业文化。在跨文化管理中,选择合适的切入点,把企业文化分解成不同的维度,在测量对象和测量工具方面建立规范的参照系,建构一个合适的可操作化的测量量表是进行文化测量的难点。     

Structural measurement errors in nonseparable models

This paper considers measurement error from a new perspective. In surveys, response errors are often caused by the fact that respondents recall past events and quantities imperfectly. We explore the consequences of limited recall for the identification of marginal effects. Our identification approach is entirely nonparametric, using Matzkin-type nonseparable models that nest a large class of potential structural models. We show that measurement error due to limited recall will generally exhibit nonstandard behavior, in particular be nonclassical and differential, even for left-hand side variables in linear models. We establish that information reduction by individuals is the critical issue for the severity of recall measurement error. In order to detect information reduction, we propose a nonparametric test statistic. Finally, we propose bounds to address identification problems resulting from recall errors. We illustrate our theoretical findings using real-world data on food consumption.     

What do professional forecasters actually predict?

This paper studies what professional forecasters predict. We use spectral analysis and state space modeling to decompose economic time series into trend, business cycle, and irregular components. We examine which components are captured by professional forecasters by regressing their forecasts on the estimated components extracted from both the spectral analysis and the state space model. For both decomposition methods, we find that, in the short run, the Survey of Professional Forecasters can predict almost all of the variation in the time series due to the trend and the business cycle, but that the forecasts contain little or no significant information about the variation in the irregular component.     

Demand system estimation in the absence of price data: an application of Stone-Lewbel price indices

This article evaluates the feasibility of estimating a system of demand equations in the absence of price information using the approach developed by Lewbel (1989). Stone-Lewbel (SL) price indices for commodity groups are constructed using information on the budget shares and the Consumer Price Indices (CPIs) of the goods comprising the commodity groups, which allows for household-level prices to be recovered. This study evaluates how susceptible are elasticities and marginal effects estimates from traditional parametric demand systems to the CPI used in the construction of the SL prices. To do this, three alternative regional CPIs are considered for the construction of the SL prices: monthly, quarterly and a constant (unity) price index. Elasticities and marginal effect estimates are computed for eight food commodity groups using the Exact Affine Stone Index (EASI) model as the parametric demand system and data from the United States Consumer Expenditure Survey. The estimates proved to be robust to the alternative regional CPIs considered in the construction of SL price indices, even to the absence of one. Hence, the results suggest that it is possible to accurately estimate a demand system even in the absence of price information.