Confidence regions for Pareto parameters from a single and independent samples

[Abstract] Based on a single and on two independent samples, joint confidence regions for parameters of Pareto distributions are proposed with minimum volume properties and without assigning the confidence level to dimensions. In the one-sample case, comparisons are made to former simultaneous confidence sets for Pareto parameters by means of simulation and a real data set. The two-sample case is studied in various set-ups and comprises simultaneous confidence regions for the shape parameters, the scale parameters, and higher-dimensional vectors of these parameters, where common shape and common scale models are also considered.     

A statistical test for detecting discordance in rankings between k groups

In several research areas such as psychology, social science, and medicine, studies are conducted in which objects should be ranked by different judges/raters and the concordance of the different rankings is then analyzed. In such studies, it is also frequently of interest to compare the rankings between different groups of judges, e.g. female vs. male judges or judges from different professions. In the two-group case, the two-group concordance test of Schucany & Frawley can be employed for such a comparison. In this article, we propose an extension of this test enabling the comparison of rankings from more than two groups of judges. This test aims to detect disagreement in the average rankings of the objects between k groups with an at least moderate intra-group concordance. We evaluate this test in an extensive simulation study and in an application to data from an aesthetics study. This simulation study shows that the proposed test is able to detect differences between average rankings and performs well even in situations in which the disagreement is comparably small or the intra-group concordance is inhomogeneous.     

Harmful care. To what extent is terminology from medicine and clinical psychology applicable to out‐of‐home care?

Research concerning outcomes for children who have been placed in out‐of‐home care has indicated that the care may have unwanted consequences. However, there has been no coherent terminology for differentiating between different types of such unwanted consequences. In this article therefore, we attempt to disentangle different aspects of potentially harmful care for looked after children, as well as to discuss potential pathways to more systematically approach and report adverse events for this group. In this endeavour, we turn to two adjacent disciplines, medicine and psychology, where these issues have received more interest. The applicability of the concepts used in these fields is discussed, and it is concluded that although they provide some help in categorizing different aspects of harmful care, the complexity of out‐of‐home care makes existing models difficult to adopt without adjustments. This has consequences for the possibility of evaluating care in research, as well as for monitoring adverse events in practice. Importantly, the causality will often be unknown. We therefore suggest that it is essential to shed more light on how decisions should be made about when to intervene or not in out‐of‐home care, despite limited information.     

Government/Foundation Relations: A Conceptual Framework and Evidence from the U.S. Federal Government’s Partnership Efforts

VOLUNTAS: International Journal of Voluntary and Nonprofit Organizations - Interest in collaboration between government and private, grantmaking foundations has grown considerably in recent years...     

Applying the Housing First approach to single-site permanent supportive housing

This study explored how the U.S. Departments of Housing and Urban Development-Veterans Affairs Supportive Housing (HUD-VASH) program applies Housing First principles in the context of ten single-site programs. Focus group discussions with 64 HUD-VASH staff and community partners explored how the programs were influenced by Housing First principles and specific strategies to implement these principles in a single-site setting. Focus group respondents described resourceful ways that the principles of Housing First were implemented in their programs specifically related to (1) housing choice and structure, (2) separation of housing and services, (3) service philosophy, and (4) service array. Several of the Housing First domains cite the importance of integrated housing and the provision of services off-site; it was of particular interest to learn how single-site programs address these issues logistically. Lessons learned from this study include the importance of leveraging the independent yet overlapping tasks of case management and property management to ensure functional – if not geographic – separation of housing and services; maintaining staff on-site to address Veterans’ needs; working with community service organizations to complement the array of service available to residents; and housing single-site programs in mixed-use buildings.     

BANKING AND PUBLIC POLICY: TOO BIG TO FAIL

“Too big to fail” (TBTF) is a major policy issue in banking. Large bank failures may impose losses on depositors and creditors that may impose large collateral damage on other financial institutions and beyond. Regulators are frequently incentivized either to delay recognizing a bank's insolvency or fail the bank but protect its creditors against loss. This paper argues that, while there is wide agreement that the cost of protecting creditors in the resolution of large financial institutions is excessively high, it is difficult to prevent this practice for a number of reasons. Until these disagreements are settled, TBTF will survive. (JEL G01, G18, G28)     

Foundations and Their Institutional Context: Cross-Evaluating Evidence from Germany and the United States

According to the relevant literature, the relationship between government and the private foundation sector in Germany is marked by a paradigm of conflict very similar to the one that has often dominated the U.S. discussion of government/nonprofit relationships in the past. More specifically, scholars often hold that the development of foundations in Germany is largely hampered by an administrative and regulatory climate that weakens rather than strengthens the foundation community. Two main arguments are brought forth in this context: First, the expansion of the state bureaucracy into traditional activity fields of foundations crowds out the foundation sector; second, the structure of tax regulations is detrimental to a sound development of foundations. However, while these arguments figure prominently in the policy debate, they have neither empirically nor analytically been substantiated as of yet. Borrowing from organizational theory, this article critically evaluates the arguments in the light of available evidence in an effort to contribute to a better understanding of foundations in an international context.     

Physician/hospital business relationships. Sorting through the options

Providers recognize the critical role of physician/hospital partnerships in the newly emerging health care delivery system. However, the possibilities available for establishing such partnerships can be overwhelming. The authors provide a critical review of the options for physician/hospital business relationships. They emphasize the need to match physician/hospital strategies to local market characteristics, develop market-based business objectives, and structure physician/hospital relationships to support the achievement of business objectives.     

“How powerful is demography? The serendipity theorem revisited” comment on De la Croix et al. (2012)

Samuelson’s (Int Econ Rev 16(3):531-538, 1975) serendipity theorem states that the “goldenest golden rule” steady-state equilibrium can be obtained by a competitive two-period overlapping generation economy with capital accumulation, provided that the optimal growth rate prevails. De la Croix et al. (J Popul Econ 25:899-922, 2012) extended the scope of the theorem by showing that it also holds for risky lifetime. With this note, we introduce medical expenditure as a determinant of the probability of surviving to old age to prove the theorem. The original as well as all extended versions of the serendipity theorem, however, fail to prove that second-order conditions are satisfied in general. Still, unlike De la Croix et al. (J Popul Econ 25:899-922, 2012), we can exclude the existence of corner solutions where the probability of reaching old age is zero or one. The zero survival probability case becomes irrelevant if the option to randomize between death and life utility is taken into account. Survival with certainty is ruled out if the marginal cost of survival is increasing. Hence, the optimal survival probability represents an interior solution. Furthermore, we show for the optimal survival probability that the value of a statistical life is positive and equal to its marginal cost.