Estimation and selection procedures in regression: An L1 approach

The authors consider the problem of estimating a regression function go involving several variables by the closest functional element of a prescribed class _G that is closest to it in the L₁ norm. They propose a new estimator ? based on independent observations and give explicit finite sample bounds for the L₁distance between ?g and go. They apply their estimation procedure to the problem of selecting the smoothing parameter in nonparametric regression.     

Materializing Strategy in Mundane Tools: the Key to Coupling Global Strategy and Local Strategy Practice?

While much of the literature on strategy and strategy as practice (SaP) focuses on traditional strategic tools, technologies and discursive practices of managers, this paper extends the understanding of strategic change implementation by proposing that mundane material tools, understood as text, translate global strategic discourse in ways that make sense to workers and orchestrate successful global strategy implementation at the local level. Based on a rich case study within one branch of a national bank, this paper demonstrates how a middle manager's materializing practices developed local strategy practice while simultaneously transforming work and producing strategic figures or indicators that satisfied senior management's global strategic change objectives. The contributions of this paper are threefold: (i) it advances the understanding of the multimodality of materiality by identifying the influence of three types of mundane tools produced locally by a middle manager as he performed his sense of the senior managers’ strategic discourse; (ii) it reveals how these three types of physical texts materialized the manager's sense of this discourse, facilitating frontline workers’ engagement and coupling materiality and orality in a coherent way that allowed workers to embody the company's global strategy in their ‘sayings and doings’; and (iii) it highlights the importance of managers’ ability to materialize a strategic discourse.     

Weather and Smiling Contagion: A Quasi Experiment with the Smiling Sunshine

Studies have shown that pleasant weather conditions (namely, sunshine) favor positive social relationships and improve moods. However, the effect of sunshine on one nonverbal expression that facilitates social relationships (namely, smiling) has never been studied. In a field experiment, men and women walking alone in the street were passed by a male or a female confederate who displayed a smile to the passersby. The contagion effect of smiling was measured. The study was carried out on days that were evaluated as being either sunny or cloudy, but precaution was taken to control the temperature and not to solicit participants when it rained. It was found that the display of a smile results in a smile more often on sunny days. The positive mood induced by the sun may explain such results.     

Cues of Men's Parental Investment and Attractiveness for Women: A Field Experiment

An experiment was carried out in which a male confederate, seated at a pavement area of a bar, happened to meet his “sister” (a female confederate) and her baby. In one case, the confederate interacted with the baby, whereas in the other case he paid no attention to him. A few minutes later, while the confederate was alone, he solicited a young woman who was seated near his table and asked her for her phone number. Results showed that when the confederate interacted with the baby, he received more positive responses from women than when he paid no attention to the baby.     

The Future Composition of the Canadian Labor Force: A Microsimulation Projection

This article charts the future transformations of the Canadian labor force population using a microsimulation projection model. The model takes into account differentials in demographic behavior and labor force participation of individuals according to their ethnocultural and educational characteristics. As a result of a rapid fall in fertility, the Canadian population is expected to age rapidly as baby boomers start to retire from the labor market in large numbers. In response to declining fertility, Canada raised its immigration intake at the end of the 1980s, and immigration is now the main driver of Canadian population growth. At the same time, immigrants to Canada are becoming more culturally diversified. Over the last half century, the main source regions have shifted from Europe to Asia. Results of the microsimulation show that Canada's labor force population will continue to increase, but at a slower rate than in the recent past. By 2031, almost one third of the country's total labor force could be foreign‐born, and almost all its future increase is expected to be among university graduates, while the less‐educated labor force is projected to decline.     

Emotional labour profiles: Associations with key predictors and outcomes

ABSTRACT

The present study examines how three emotional labour strategies (hiding feelings, faking emotions, and deep acting) combine within different profiles of workers among two samples characterised by different types and intensity of customer contact. In addition, this research investigates the role of perceived workload as well as perceived organisational support, supervisor support, and colleagues support in the prediction of profile membership. Finally, this research also documents the relation between emotional labour profiles and adaptive and maladaptive work outcomes (job satisfaction, work performance, emotional exhaustion, sleeping problems, psychological detachment, and counterproductive work behaviours). Latent profile analysis revealed three similar emotional labour profiles in both samples. Results also showed the most desirable levels on all outcomes to be associated with Profile 3 (Low Emotional Labor/Low Surface Acting and Moderate Deep Acting), followed by Profile 2 (Moderate Emotional Labor/Moderate Surface Acting and High Deep Acting) and Profile 1 (High Emotional Labor), with most comparisons being statistically significant in both samples. In contrast, a more diversified pattern of findings was observed in the prediction of profile membership. For instance, perceived colleagues support did not predict membership into any of the profiles, while supervisor support predicted an increased likelihood of membership into Profile 3 relative to Profiles 1 and 2.     

Structural learning with time-varying components: tracking the cross-section of financial time series

Summary.  When modelling multivariate financial data, the problem of structural learning is compounded by the fact that the covariance structure changes with time. Previous work has focused on modelling those changes by using multivariate stochastic volatility models. We present an alternative to these models that focuses instead on the latent graphical structure that is related to the precision matrix. We develop a graphical model for sequences of Gaussian random vectors when changes in the underlying graph occur at random times, and a new block of data is created with the addition or deletion of an edge. We show how a Bayesian hierarchical model incorporates both the uncertainty about that graph and the time variation thereof.     

Truthful Equilibria in Dynamic Bayesian Games

This paper characterizes an equilibrium payoff subset for dynamic Bayesian games as discounting vanishes. Monitoring is imperfect, transitions may depend on actions, types may be correlated, and values may be interdependent. The focus is on equilibria in which players report truthfully. The characterization generalizes that for repeated games, reducing the analysis to static Bayesian games with transfers. With independent private values, the restriction to truthful equilibria is without loss, except for the punishment level: if players withhold their information during punishment‐like phases, a folk theorem obtains.