Restructuring for growth in urban China: Transitional institutions,urban development,and spatial transformation

This research examines government policies and urban transformation in China through a study of Hangzhou City, which is undergoing dramatic growth and restructuring. As the southern center of the Yangtze River Delta, an emerging global city region of China, Hangzhou has been restlessly searching for strategies to promote economic growth and survive the competition with Shanghai. This paper analyzes Hangzhou’s development strategies, including globalization, tourism, industrial development, and urban development, in the context of shifting macro conditions and local responses. We hold that urban policies in China are situated in the broad economic restructuring and the gradual, experiential national reform and are therefore transitional. The paper suggests that China’s urban policies are state institution-directed, growth-oriented, and land-based, imposing unprecedented challenges to sustainability and livability. Land development and spatial restructuring are central to urban policies in China. Last, while Hangzhou’s development strategies and policies to some extent reflect policy convergence across cities in China, local/spatial contexts, including local settings, territorial rescaling and land conditions, are underlying the functioning of development/entrepreneurial states.     

Do disabilities in former TANF families hasten their returns to cash assistance?

This research examines the relationship between disabilities in families and returns to welfare. Past studies of welfare recidivism have long theorized that disabilities played a central role in returns to welfare among former recipients, but lacked data to test the hypothesis. Hypothesis tests support the theory that both child and maternal disabilities, which act as barriers to self-sufficiency, increase rates of TANF re-entry and SSI entry. We show that because past studies did not account for disabilities on the odds of returning to welfare, effects of work, number of children, and past receipt of TANF are somewhat overstated. Our findings add to the literature on welfare recidivism and have implications for welfare reforms that emphasize work and lifetime limits on benefits.     

The alcohol contexts of consent,wanted sex,sexual pleasure,and sexual assault: Results from a probability survey of undergraduate students

Objective: To examine, in a probability sample of undergraduate students, characteristics of students’ most recent sexual experiences (including alcohol use) as well as their experiences with nonconsensual sex. Participants: In January and February 2015, 22,046 students were invited to participate in an anonymous, cross-sectional, Internet-based survey; 7,032 surveys were completed (31.9%). Methods: Measures included background characteristics (age, gender, sexual orientation), most recent sexual event items (sexual pleasure, wantedness, alcohol use), and experiences with nonconsensual sex (since college and lifetime). Results: Respondents reporting sober consensual sex were more likely to report higher levels of sexual pleasure and wantedness. Nonconsensual oral, vaginal, or anal penetration occurring during college were reported by 15.8% of women and 7.7% of men. Students more often told friends, partners, or family members and rarely disclosed to university faculty or police. Conclusions: Implications for campus policy and health education are addressed.     

PERCEIVED GAME UNCERTAINTY,SUSPENSE AND THE DEMAND FOR SPORT

This study tries bridging between different behavioral economic explanations for the lack of support of the uncertainty of outcome hypothesis in spectator sports. We test a measure of perceived game uncertainty that is comparable to objective measures frequently tested in the literature. Econometric results suggest that fans do not perceive closeness of a game differently than how economists have tended to measure it. However, fans' perceptions of suspensefulness are distinct from their perceptions of game uncertainty. Moreover, the finding that fans' preferences for game uncertainty are dominated by loss aversion also emerges—independently of fanship status—in our stated‐preference setting. (JEL L83, D12, Z2)     

On Deriving a Complete Sufficient Statistic

A practical computer program is described for Fisher's randomization one-sample and two-sample tests of location. Two heuristics permit most of the permutations to be counted implicitly rather than explicitly. The heuristics, together with careful program organization, yield a very efficient program.     

A neural network approach to response surface methodology

Response Surface Methodology is concerned with estimating a surface to a typically small set of observations with the purpose of determining what levels of the independent variables maximize the response. This usually entails fitting a quadratic regression function to the available data and calculating the function's derivatives.

Artificial Neural Networks are information-processing paradigms inspired by the way the human brain processes information. They are known to be universal function approximators under certain general conditions. This ability to approximate functions to any desired degree of accuracy makes them an attractive tool for use in a Response Surface analysis. This paper presents Artificial Neural Networks as a tool for Response Surface Methodology and demonstrates their use empirically.     

Minimum anderson-darling estimation

The Anderson-Darling distance d(F_n ,F_0,) between the empirical distribution function F_n and the hypothesized model F₀ is minimized to produce estimators with good robustness and efficiency properties. In addition, the residual distance d_min = min₀d(F_n,F₀.) is availabe to assess model validity. The approximate distribution-free character of nd_min is studied using monte carlo methods.