Local Linear Kernel Regression with Long-Range Dependent Errors

This paper considers the use of a local linear kernel regression method to test whether the mean function of a sequence of long-range dependent processes has discontinuities or change-points. It proposes a non-parametric estimation procedure and then establishes an asymptotic theory for the estimation procedure. Examples, simulated and real, illustrate the estimation procedure.     

Measurement and Determinants of Quality of Life of Older Adults in Ho Chi Minh City,Vietnam

Social Indicators Research - This study represents the first study using Vietnamese data that is based on the World Health Organization’s quality of life instrument—the older adults...     

Der Fragebogen Karls des Grossen

A document compiled by Charlemagne in the year 811 can be viewed as a precursor to the structured survey and thus as a part of the very beginnings of empirical social research. Charlemagne intended to use the list, which resembles a discussion guide employed in an intensive interview, to exert moral pressure on the secular and clerical leaders of his realm, who were gathered for a parliamentary assembly. At the same time, however, it is also evident that at least some of the questions were designed to gather information on the mood of the population throughout the empire. These questions were probably passed on to the sovereigns and clerics in the provinces. Another document from the year 811 would seem to indicate that answers to similar lists of questions did in fact arrive at the emperor’s court. Both documents attest to a means of gathering information that could be viewed as the first attempt to conduct at an opinion survey.     

The Effects of Unemployment on Non-monetary Job Quality in Europe: The Moderating Role of Economic Situation and Labor Market Policies

Social Indicators Research - Previous research has illustrated that unemployment not only has short-term, but also medium-term negative effects on workers’ careers. While most studies have...     

Performative policy studies: realizing “transition management”

The paper analyses the relations between policy studies and public policy. It traces how they are constitutively entangled. Conceptually, this builds on a notion of performativity that has been developed in science studies. The performativity of policy studies is explored in a case study of the innovation journey of “transition management” as a model for governing sociotechnical change. The paper shows how practices of knowledge production and policy-making take shape in interaction with the model and how a specialized research field coevolves with political alliances and policy programs. They interact in the process of realizing transition management, both by establishing the model as collective knowledge and by materially enacting it. In this interweaving with public policy, policy studies contribute to creating the reality that they describe. The conclusions discuss “realizing” as a mode of governance.     

Clustering probability distributions

This article presents some theoretical results on the maximum of several functions, and its use to define the joint distance of k probability densities, which, in turn, serves to derive new algorithms for clustering densities. Numerical examples are presented to illustrate the theory.     

Optimal Steiner trees under node and edge privacy conflicts

Journal of Combinatorial Optimization - In this work, we suggest concepts and solution methodologies for a series of strategic network design problems that find application in highly data-sensitive...