Convergence criteria for interval-valued inequality indices

In this paper we introduce an interval-valued inequality index for random intervals based on a convex function. We show that if this function does not grow faster than x ^p , then the inequality index is continuous on the space of random intervals with finite p-th moment. A bound for the distance between the inequality indices of two random intervals is also constructed. An example is presented to motivate and illustrate the developments in this paper.     

Heteroskedasticity-Robust Inference in Linear Regressions

The assumption that all errors share the same variance (homoskedasticity) is commonly violated in empirical analyses carried out using the linear regression model. A widely adopted modeling strategy is to perform point estimation by ordinary least squares and then perform testing inference based on these point estimators and heteroskedasticity-consistent standard errors. These tests, however, tend to be size-distorted when the sample size is small and the data contain atypical observations. Furno (1996 Furno , M. ( 1996 ). Small sample behavior of a robust heteroskedasticity consistent covariance matrix estimator . Journal of Statistical Computation and Simulation 54 : 115 – 128 .[Taylor & Francis Online], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar]) suggested performing point estimation using a weighted least squares mechanism in order to attenuate the effect of leverage points on the associated inference. In this article, we follow up on her proposal and define heteroskedasticity-consistent covariance matrix estimators based on residuals obtained using robust estimation methods. We report Monte Carlo simulation results (size and power) on the finite sample performance of different heteroskedasticity-robust tests. Overall, the results favor inference based on HC0 tests constructed using robust residuals.     

Intrinsic Priors for Testing Two Normal Means with Intrinsic Bayes Factors

ABSTRACT

In this article we consider the problem of comparing two normal means with unknown common variance using a Bayesian approach. Conventional Bayes factors with improper non informative priors are not well defined. The intrinsic Bayes factors are used to overcome such a difficulty. We derive intrinsic priors whose Bayes factors are asymptotically equivalent to the corresponding intrinsic Bayes factors. We illustrate our results with numerical examples.     

Mr. and Mrs. president? The rise and fall of the co-presidency

In the post-World War II era, the influence of first ladies has grown along with the prominence of the institution to the point where both scholars and journalists speak of the existence of a “co-presidency.” However, the various political roles assumed by the presidential spouses present great risks for both the first lady and the president.     

Top Management Team Heterogeneity,Strategic Change and Operational Performance*

This study examines the role of top management team (TMT) heterogeneity in facilitating strategic change. Based on the upper echelons literature, we argue that heterogeneous management teams are better able to handle the simultaneous and conflicting demands of refocusing the organization strategically and keeping up operational performance. We expect this to be true only for teams that are heterogeneous with respect to factors directly related to job requirements, however. Data were collected from 92 full TMTs of hospitals in Spain that were confronted with institutional pressures that challenged their current strategies. In support of our hypotheses, the results show job‐related TMT heterogeneity moderates the relation between strategic change and operational performance. No moderating effect is found for non‐job‐related TMT heterogeneity.     

Reduced prizes and increased effort in contests

We study the general class of two-player public-policy contests and specify the asymmetry condition under which a more restrained government intervention that reduces the contestants’ prizes has the “perverse” effect of increasing their aggregate lobbying efforts.

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Youth development and afterschool time: policy and programming in large cities

This chapter reviews the issues associated with the growth of after-school programming and the impact on major urban centers.     

Political culture and monopoly price determination

In this paper we study the endogenous determination of monopoly price. Our proposed game of endogenous monopoly-price setting extends the literature on monopoly-price, monopoly rent-seeking contests and monopoly rent-seeking rent-avoidance contests by (i) determining the monopoly price such that it maximizes a composite utility function that depends on two components: expected social welfare and lobbying efforts. The welfare component has a positive or no effect on the utility while the lobbying efforts have a positive, negative or no effect on the utility (ii) introducing the political culture of the government and clarifying its role in the endogenous determination of monopoly price. In the proposed model the single parameter representing political culture is the weight assigned to the enhancement of social welfare. Our main concern is with the study of the relationship between this parameter and the proposed monopoly price and, in turn, the rent-seeking rent-avoidance efforts of the potential monopoly and the consumers and their aggregate expected benefit. We are grateful to the referees for their constructive and helpful comments.     

Estimating the expected value of fuzzy random variables in random samplings from finite populations

In this paper we consider the problem of estimating the expected value of a fuzzy-valued random element in random samplings from finite populations. To this purpose, we quantify the associated sampling error by means of a parameterized measure we have introduced in a previous paper. Keywords: Aumann's integral, expected value of a fuzzy random variable, fuzzy random variable, -mean squared dispersion, random samplings, random set.