Assessing a minimum pension guarantee for the voluntary IPS in Turkey

The returns from individual account pension plans are subject to fluctuations in capital markets. This increases income uncertainty for the beneficiary and exposes individuals to the risk of fluctuations in the economy in general and the stock market in particular. A minimum pension guarantee is a way to avoid this pitfall by providing a minimum annuity regardless of the actual investment performance of individual accounts. In this article, we present a cost analysis of a minimum benefit guarantee mechanism for the voluntary Individual Pension System in Turkey. We examine the cost estimates and the probability of providing guaranteed payments under various economic and demographic assumptions.     

Effectiveness of Social Welfare Programmes in East Asia: A Case Study of Taiwan

Using the 2008 Family Income and Expenditure Survey, this study examined the effectiveness of social welfare programmes in Taiwan. The empirical evidence shows that most types of social welfare spending were limited in 2008. However, the social welfare programmes that were in place substantially reduced income inequality in Taiwan. Using the Organisation for Economic Co‐operation and Development (OECD) poverty threshold, the results reveal that 14 per cent of the sample's families were poor in terms of market income, but this figure decreased to 7 per cent after government intervention. Income inequality in Taiwan was similar to that of other East Asian countries such as Japan and South Korea, but Taiwan spent much less money on social welfare programmes than OECD countries, and therefore Taiwan's reduction of poverty was much lower as well.     

生态文明视域下欠发达地区低碳经济发展探析

欠发达地区是区域生态文明建设的难点,当前,国际社会的低碳发展转型趋势为欠发达地区的跨越式发展和生态文明建设带来了新的契机,发展低碳经济成为欠发达地区生态文明建设的突破口。但目前欠发达地区的低碳发展道路仍面临着诸多障碍:对脱贫路径的认识误区带来的观念障碍、后发性导致的选择障碍、创新能力不足构成的技术障碍、财政困难和市场需求惨淡招致的资金障碍、落后技术和低端产业造成的锁定障碍。及早采取措施和行动突破上述障碍,顺应低碳发展的潮流和趋势,走适合区域实际的低碳发展之路,是欠发达地区生态文明建设的有效路径,也是欠发达地区提升竞争力,加快发展和更好发展的有效路径。     

Competency‐based Education: Evidence from Social Work Postgraduates from Five Universities in China

Social work education in China has undergone rapid development during last two decades. However, methods to define, measure, and evaluate social work students' competency remain largely unexplored. In this study, we evaluated competency in graduate social work students in China and examined factors that impacted competency, based on learning theory. Findings indicated that knowledge and skills learned in class, field placement, and social context all have effects on competency. How students think about individual development and the social work profession has the most significant effect. These findings carry implications for social work education in the Chinese context. The rapid development of social work education in China requires the effective measurement and evaluation of students' core competencies.     

考虑技术投资的供应链网络下可交易污染排放许可均衡问题

构建了包含多污染物、多污染接收点的供应链网络,考虑了生产技术和减排技术投资,对可交易的污染排放许可下的供应链网络进行了均衡分析,给出了变分不等式框架,建立了均衡模型。模型明确地处理了空间差异,同时保证了通过初始污染排放许可分配就可达到指定的环境标准。提出了模型的求解算法,最后利用提出的模型及算法对算例进行了计算,得到利润最大化下供应链网络中各工厂的产品生产量、排放量、污染排放许可的均衡分配额和污染排放许可的交易价格、技术最优投资额,并分析了成本函数参数以及工厂数量的变化对生产技术投资和减排技术投资的影响。     

Likelihood estimation for longitudinal zero-inflated power series regression models

In this paper, a zero-inflated power series regression model for longitudinal count data with excess zeros is presented. We demonstrate how to calculate the likelihood for such data when it is assumed that the increment in the cumulative total follows a discrete distribution with a location parameter that depends on a linear function of explanatory variables. Simulation studies indicate that this method can provide improvements in obtaining standard errors of the estimates. We also calculate the dispersion index for this model. The influence of a small perturbation of the dispersion index of the zero-inflated model on likelihood displacement is also studied. The zero-inflated negative binomial regression model is illustrated on data regarding joint damage in psoriatic arthritis.     

Marginal methods for clustered longitudinal binary data with incomplete covariates

Many analyses for incomplete longitudinal data are directed to examining the impact of covariates on the marginal mean responses. We consider the setting in which longitudinal responses are collected from individuals nested within clusters. We discuss methods for assessing covariate effects on the mean and association parameters when covariates are incompletely observed. Weighted first and second order estimating equations are constructed to obtain consistent estimates of mean and association parameters when covariates are missing at random. Empirical studies demonstrate that estimators from the proposed method have negligible finite sample biases in moderate samples. An application to the National Alzheimer's Coordinating Center (NACC) Uniform Data Set (UDS) demonstrates the utility of the proposed method.     

An Empirical Analysis of Strike Durations in Ghana from 1980 to 2004

Abstract. This paper provides a seminal analysis of strike activity for an African country in investigating the determinants of strike durations in Ghana over the period 1980–2004. The empirical approach uses a set of well‐known parametric accelerated failure time strike duration models. There is a broad consensus among the different empirical models about the role exerted on average strike duration by strike size, the rate of inflation, enterprise ownership, and political governance. However, evidence on the relationship between strike durations and business cycle activity in Ghana is less clear‐cut.     

Motivations for self-assembling into project teams

This study investigates the self-assembly mechanisms of ad hoc project teams using a bipartite network perspective. Individuals and projects are modeled as two types of nodes and team membership as relations between them. This approach enables us to investigate factors that impact voluntary team assembly at the individual, dyadic, and team levels simultaneously. Using Exponential Random Graph Models (ERGM/p*), we study players’ combat teams in a Massively Multiplayer Online Role-Playing Game (MMORPG) as a case of self-assembled project teams. Empirical results show that individuals are motivated to join ad hoc teams to complete difficult projects but not projects with long durations. We also found that individuals tend to collaborate with specific teammates who have complementary skills, those who have similar age or skill level, and those who are affiliated with the same organizational entity.