A Tale of Two Counties: Natives’ Opinions Toward Immigration in North Carolina1

This article compares native residents’ opinions and perceptions regarding immigration using a representative survey from a pair of matched North Carolina counties – one that experienced recent growth of its foreign-born population and one that did not. Drawing from several theoretical perspectives, including group threat, contact theory, and symbolic politics, we formulate and empirically evaluate several hypotheses. Results provide limited evidence that competition and threat influence formation of opinions about immigration, with modest support for claims that parents with school-aged children harbor more negative views of immigration than their childless counterparts. Except for residents in precarious economic situations, these negative opinions appear unrelated to the immigrant composition of the community. Claims that the media promotes negative views of immigration receive limited support, but this relationship is unrelated to the volume of local immigration. Finally, sustained contacts with foreign-born residents outside work environments are associated with positive views of immigration, but superficial contacts appear to be conducive to anti-immigration sentiments. Political orientation, educational attainment, and indicators of respondents’ tolerance for diversity explain most of the difference between the two counties in overall support for immigration.     

Four tests of fit for the beta-binomial distribution

Tests based on the Anderson–Darling statistic, a third moment statistic and the classical Pearson–Fisher X ² statistic, along with its third-order component, are considered. A small critical value and power study are given. Some examples illustrate important applications.     

The problem of multiple causation in population analysis, with particular reference to the poplygamy-fertility hypothesis

The hypothesis that polygyny is associated with higher fertility than monogamy was evaluated. An assessment of previous studies and of the results of a 1966-1967 study comparing the fertility levels of polygynously and monogamously married women in a rural and an urban population in Nigeria lead to the conclusion that the hypothesis was useless. The hypothesis was judged to be useless because 1) fertility rates are the product of multiple influences; 2) it is too difficult to separate out these multiple influences, given the variability involved in polygynous practices and the inadequates of the data; and 3) the influence of polygyny on fertility is too slight to take into account. In the Nigerian study, the fertility of 2742 monogamously married women was compared with the fertility of 1261 polygynously married women. Preliminary analysis revealed that the fertility rate was higher for polygynously married women; however, when marriage duration was controlled, there was no significant differences between the fertility rates observed for the polygynously and monogamously married women living in rural areas nor those living in urban area.     

Constrained production lot-size model with trade-credit policy: 'A comparison geometric programming approach via Lagrange'

In this paper our main objective is to investigate a deterministic inventory production lot-size model with a permissible delay in payment under a restriction. We analyse our deterministic inventory model under a restriction which will be assumed as the average inventory level. In fact we use in our analysis two approaches: the geometric programming approach; and the Lagrange method. Then a comparison between these two approaches is performed, which is our aim. Finally we deduce some previously published works of other researchers as special cases.     

A family of bivariate binomial distributions generated by extreme bernoulli distributions

In this paper, bivariate binomial distributions generated by extreme bivariate Bernoulli distributions are obtained and studied. Representation of the bivariate binomial distribution generated by a convex combination of extreme bivariate Bernoulli distributions as a mixture of distributions in the class of bivariate binomial distribution generated by extreme bivariate Bernoulli distribution is obtained. A subfamily of bivariate binomial distributions exhibiting the property of positive and negative dependence is constructed. Some results on positive dependence notions as it relates to the bivariate binomial distribution generated by extreme bivariate Bernoulli distribution and a linear combination of such distributions are obtained.     

Shrinkage Structure of Partial Least Squares

Partial least squares regression (PLS) is one method to estimate parameters in a linear model when predictor variables are nearly collinear. One way to characterize PLS is in terms of the scaling (shrinkage or expansion) along each eigenvector of the predictor correlation matrix. This characterization is useful in providing a link between PLS and other shrinkage estimators, such as principal components regression (PCR) and ridge regression (RR), thus facilitating a direct comparison of PLS with these methods. This paper gives a detailed analysis of the shrinkage structure of PLS, and several new results are presented regarding the nature and extent of shrinkage.     

HOME COMPUTERS AND EDUCATIONAL OUTCOMES: EVIDENCE FROM THE NLSY97 and CPS*

Although computers are universal in the classroom, nearly 20 million children in the United States do not have computers in their homes. Surprisingly, only a few previous studies explore the role of home computers in the educational process. Home computers might be very useful for completing school assignments, but they might also represent a distraction for teenagers. We use several identification strategies and panel data from the two main U.S. data sets that include recent information on computer ownership among children—the 2000–2003 Current Population Survey (CPS) Computer and Internet Use Supplements matched to the CPS basic monthly files and the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth 1997 (NLSY97)—to explore the causal relationship between computer ownership and high school graduation and other educational outcomes. Teenagers who have access to home computers are 6–8 percentage points more likely to graduate from high school than teenagers who do not have home computers after controlling for individual, parental, and family characteristics. We generally find evidence of positive relationships between home computers and educational outcomes using several identification strategies, including controlling for typically unobservable home environment and extracurricular activities in the NLSY97, fixed effects models, instrumental variables, and including future computer ownership and falsification tests. Home computers may increase high school graduation by reducing nonproductive activities, such as truancy and crime, among children in addition to making it easier to complete school assignments (JEL I2).     

Reliability models for categorical data

As assumed hypothetical consensus category corresponding to a case being classified provides a basis for assessment of reliability of judges. Equivalent judges are characterised by the joint probability distribution of the judge assignment and the consensus category. Estimates of the conditional probabilities of judge assignment given consensus category and of consensus category given judge assignments are indices of reliability. All parameters can be estimated if data include classifications of a number of cases by 3 or more judges. Restrictive assumptions are imposed to obtain models for data from classifications by two judges. Maximum likelihood estimation is discussed and illustrated by example for the 3 or more judges case.     

Achievement in a Relational Context: Preferences and Influences in Female Adolescents

Friends' influence on achievement‐related choices in female adolescents was investigated using the Thematic Apperception Test (H. Murray, 1943), in the context of self‐in‐relation theory (J. V. Jordon, A. G. Kaplan, J. B. Miller, I. P. Stiver, & J. L. Surrey, 1991). Two hypotheses were tested: (1) Achievement‐related stimuli will elicit stories with more unfavorable and conflicted outcomes than will affiliation stimuli; (2) Thematic representation of achievement will be more homogeneous in more highly cohesive peer groups. A multivariate analysis of variance with repeated measures yielded significant results for Hypothesis 1. Thematic analysis of stories supported Hypothesis 2, showing peer group influence on achievement strivings in female adolescents.