Comprehensive maternity support and shared care in Switzerland: Comparison of levels of satisfaction

Background

According to the woman-centred care model, continuous care by a midwife has a positive impact on satisfaction. Comprehensive support is a model of team midwifery care implemented in the large Geneva University Hospitals in Switzerland, which has organised shared care according to the biomedical model of practice. This model of care insures a follow up by a specific group of midwives, during perinatal period.

Single-index regression models with right-censored responses

In this article, we propose some new generalizations of M-estimation procedures for single-index regression models in presence of randomly right-censored responses. We derive consistency and asymptotic normality of our estimates. The results are proved in order to be adapted to a wide range of techniques used in a censored regression framework (e.g. synthetic data or weighted least squares). As in the uncensored case, the estimator of the single-index parameter is seen to have the same asymptotic behavior as in a fully parametric scheme. We compare these new estimators with those based on the average derivative technique of Lu and Burke [2005. Censored multiple regression by the method of average derivatives. J. Multivariate Anal. 95, 182–205] through a simulation study.     

A Note on Unit Root Tests and GARCH Errors: A Simulation Experiment

This article re-examines the Monte Carlo experiments in Seo (1999 Seo , B. ( 1999 ). Distribution theory for unit root tests with conditional heteroskedasticity . J. Econometrics 91 : 113 – 144 .[Crossref], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar]) for unit root tests with GARCH errors. We report a Monte Carlo study with data generated from various GARCH(1, 1) processes where 0.8 ≤ α + β < 1 and β > α. In this case, the Dickey–Fuller test works better than the Seo test.     

Nonparametric Estimation of the Multivariate Distribution Function in a Censored Regression Model with Applications

In a regression model with univariate censored responses, a new estimator of the joint distribution function of the covariates and response is proposed, under the assumption that the response and the censoring variable are independent conditionally to the covariates. This estimator is based on the conditional Kaplan–Meier estimator of Beran (1981 Beran , R. ( 1981 ). Nonparametric regression with randomly censored survival data. Technical Report, University of California, Berkeley, California . [Google Scholar]), and happens to be an extension of the multivariate empirical distribution function used in the uncensored case. We derive asymptotic i.i.d. representations for the integrals with respect to the measure defined by this estimated distribution function. These representations hold even in the case where the covariates are multidimensional under some additional assumption on the censoring. Applications to censored regression and to density estimation are considered.     

Calculating Bivariate Orthonormal Polynomials By Recurrence

Emerson gave recurrence formulae for the calculation of orthonormal polynomials for univariate discrete random variables. He claimed that as these were based on the Christoffel–Darboux recurrence relation they were more efficient than those based on the Gram–Schmidt method. This approach was generalised by Rayner and colleagues to arbitrary univariate random variables. The only constraint was that the expectations needed are well‐defined. Here the approach is extended to arbitrary bivariate random variables for which the expectations needed are well‐defined. The extension to multivariate random variables is clear.     

Continuous Implementation

In this paper, we introduce a notion of continuous implementation and characterize when a social choice function is continuously implementable. More specifically, we say that a social choice function is continuously (partially) implementable if it is (partially) implementable for types in the model under study and it continues to be (partially) implementable for types “close” to this initial model. Our results show that this notion is tightly connected to full implementation in rationalizable strategies.     

A formal framework for deliberated judgment

Theory and Decision - While the philosophical literature has extensively studied how decisions relate to arguments, reasons and justifications, decision theory almost entirely ignores the latter...     

Social Willingness to Pay,Mortality Risks and Contingent Valuation

The Willingness-to-Pay approach is the basic justification for the use of the Contingent Valuation method to evaluate public mortality risk reduction programs. However, aggregating unweighted willingness-to-pay is a valid method only when individuals have the same marginal value of money, an unrealistic assumption in the presence of heterogeneity. We show that heterogeneity on wealth and baseline risk (respectively on risk reduction) leads to systematically overestimate (respectively underestimate) the social value of a risk reduction program. Using a recently published Contingent Valuation analysis, we find this overestimation to be quite modest though, approximately 15% in an upper bound case.