The True Cost-of-Living Index With Changing Preferences

This article investigates the theoretical and empirical properties of a true cost-of-living index under conditions of changing preferences. A family of true indexes is defined based on the notion of the current utility function. A particular index, based on the previous period's utility level, is then defined. Given this definition, a true cost-of-living index is computed based on a quadratic expenditure system estimated with quarterly data from 1960–1981. For empirical purposes, changes in preferences are represented by the linear habit formation hypothesis. This index is then compared with Paasche and Laspeyres indexes. The true cost-of-living index grows somewhat faster than either the Paasche or Laspeyres index. It also displays considerably more variability.     

Models of Management System Standards: A Review of the Integration Issues

The subject of Integrated Management Systems in terms of quality, environmental and occupational health and safety management has become of increasing interest to researchers and business alike during the last 3 years or so. This paper focuses on a review of the various models of integration found in the academic literature and also those advocated by the standards bodies, such as the British Standards Institution and the International Organization for Standardization. A number of writers advocate alignment of ISO 9001 and ISO 14001 and present models to facilitate this; however, integration into a single standard is, in general, not favoured. Various models have been developed to overcome these difficulties, but the authors believe that none is completely satisfactory. It is considered that a model of integration based on the EFQM Model for Business Excellence will allow the limitation of the standards to be overcome and the total systems approach to integration to be facilitated.     

Societal Response to Hurricane Mitch and Intra‐ versus Intergenerational Equity Issues: Whose Norms Should Apply?

Late in the 1998 hurricane season, Central America was slammed by a devastating hurricane. Honduras, Nicaragua, El Salvador, Guatemala, and Belize were greatly impacted by Hurricane Mitch, one of the deadliest storms to affect the region in the past 200 years. The economies of each of these countries were badly affected. In the case of Honduras — at the time the fourth‐poorest country in Latin America — its president suggested that 50 years of progress had been wiped out by the floods and mudslides associated with this relatively short‐lived storm system. Humanitarian assistance poured into the region in the first months following the disaster. As of mid‐2000, various national, bilateral, international, and nongovernmental programs were in progress or on the drawing board for recovery, reconstruction, and renewed development of the worst affected countries. Using Honduras as a case study, some of the ethical issues that abound in the decisions of whom to help, when, and how to help them in the wake of such an extreme climate‐related human tragedy are examined. Should development assistance be focused on those who have been directly and adversely affected by this storm, or should the emphasis be on reducing the risk of exposure by future generations to such disasters? Is there yet another approach that seeks to protect future generations from similar harm while at the same time assisting present‐day victims to get through their hardships?     

What's green about the 1996 award-winning school districts: A comparison of Indiana's districts containing Blue Ribbon winners with 30 randomly selected Indiana school districts

The relationship between spending on education and equal opportunity has been a subject of debate for several decades. This study aims to shed light on this debate by examining correlations between the distribution of Blue Ribbon awards to Indiana middle and high schools and per pupil expenditure. Based on criteria that include curricula, instruction, school climate, leadership, community support, goal setting and attainment, success with all students, skill development, and character education, Blue Ribbon School awards are a recognition of outstanding achievement given by the federal government. Using total federal, state, and local expenditures as the basis for comparison, we found that the federal government did not select more wealthy schools than poor schools for the Indiana Blue Ribbon School awards. However, there was a large difference in the expenditures per pupil in the Indiana districts with Blue Ribbon schools vs. the 30 randomly selected Indiana districts without Blue Ribbon schools. Total local sources were significantly greater in Blue Ribbon school districts than in non-Blue Ribbon school districts. A discussion of items related to the power, prestige, and wealth of the award-winning schools is included.     

RELIGION AND ROLE-IDENTITY:

This article presents a reconceptualization of individual religiosity based largely on a structural variant of symbolic interactionism and incorporating "religious salience," the importance of religion to an individual. The reconceptualization links the Glock-Stark multidimensional conceptualization of religiosity to the concept of role-identity as used by Stryker and other identity theorists. Two components of religiosity are proposed: (1) religious norm adherence , the quality of one's religious role performance (the focus of the Glock-Stark model); and (2) religious identity salience , the importance of a person's religious identity relative to that person's other identities. Procedures for measuring religious identity salience are considered. It is proposed, based on structural symbolic interactionism and cognitive behaviorism, that the degree and dimensional structure of norm adherence are strongly influenced by identity salience, contingent on costs and rewards associated with each normative behavior.     

Improving Cancer Dose–Response Characterization by Using Physiologically Based Pharmacokinetic Modeling: An Analysis of Pooled Data for Acrylonitrile-Induced Brain Tumors to Assess Cancer Potency in the Rat

Historically, U.S. regulators have derived cancer slope factors by using applied dose and tumor response data from a single key bioassay or by averaging the cancer slope factors of several key bioassays. Recent changes in U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) guidelines for cancer risk assessment have acknowledged the value of better use of mechanistic data and better dose–response characterization. However, agency guidelines may benefit from additional considerations presented in this paper. An exploratory study was conducted by using rat brain tumor data for acrylonitrile (AN) to investigate the use of physiologically based pharmacokinetic (PBPK) modeling along with pooling of dose–response data across routes of exposure as a means for improving carcinogen risk assessment methods. In this study, two contrasting assessments were conducted for AN-induced brain tumors in the rat on the basis of (1) the EPA's approach, the dose–response relationship was characterized by using administered dose/concentration for each of the key studies assessed individually; and (2) an analysis of the pooled data, the dose–response relationship was characterized by using PBPK-derived internal dose measures for a combined database of ten bioassays. The cancer potencies predicted for AN by the contrasting assessments are remarkably different (i.e., risk-specific doses differ by as much as two to four orders of magnitude), with the pooled data assessments yielding lower values. This result suggests that current carcinogen risk assessment practices overestimate AN cancer potency. This methodology should be equally applicable to other data-rich chemicals in identifying (1) a useful dose measure, (2) an appropriate dose–response model, (3) an acceptable point of departure, and (4) an appropriate method of extrapolation from the range of observation to the range of prediction when a chemical's mode of action remains uncertain.     

A multiple model discrimination procedure

The case of selecting between a set of fixed models is considered. The true model is assumed to be contained in the set of proposed models and errors are taken to be normally distributed. A sequential procedure which yeilds probabilities of incorrect selections is proposed. The procedure is shown to have optimal properties and is extended to the estimated model case by a bootstrap procedure.