An exponential (matching based) neighborhood for the vehicle routing problem

We introduce an exponential neighborhood for the Vehicle Routing Problem (vrp) with unit customers’ demands, and we show that it can be explored efficiently in polynomial time by reducing its exploration to a particular case of the Restricted Complete Matching (rcm) problem that we prove to be polynomial time solvable using flow techniques. Furthermore, we show that in the general case with non-unit customers’ demands the exploration of the neighborhood becomes an -hard problem.     

THE PRIVATE AND FISCAL RETURNS TO SCHOOLING IN THE EUROPEAN UNION

We present estimates of the private and fiscal returns to schooling in 14 European Union countries. Estimates of the private returns to post‐compulsory formal education take into account the effects of schooling on wages and employment probabilities and allow for academic failure rates, the direct and opportunity costs of education, and the impact of personal taxes, social security contributions, and unemployment and pension benefits on lifetime earnings. Estimates of fiscal returns capture the long‐term effects of a marginal increase in average educational attainment on public finances under conditions that approximate general equilibrium. (JEL: I20, J31, H60).     

Adolescent Filial Piety as a Moderator between Perceived Maternal Control and Mother–Adolescent Relationship Quality in Hong Kong

This study examined the perceived parental styles of maternal warmth and control, as well as adolescent filial piety, in relation to parent–child relationship quality, in 308 Hong Kong Chinese adolescents. The three mother–child relationship qualities measured were perceived maternal support, conflicts, and relationship depth. Adolescents' attitudes toward filial piety explained unique variance in all three of these parent–child relational qualities, over the constructs of maternal warmth and control. In addition, the interaction of filial piety with maternal control explained unique variance in perceived maternal support and mother–child conflicts, but not relationship depth. Results established the potential unique importance of adolescent filial piety and confirmed our hypothesis that the more adolescents emphasize filial piety, the more parental control exerts a positive effect on mother–child relationship quality in Hong Kong families.     

Neighborhood disorder, psychophysiological distress, and health

How do neighborhoods affect the health of residents? We propose that the impact of neighborhood disorder on self-reported health is mediated by psychological and physiological distress. We hypothesize a stress process in which chronic stressors in the environment give rise to a psychological and physiological stress response that ultimately affects health. The exogenous variable of interest is the neighborhood where disadvantaged persons live, which may expose them to chronic stressors in the form of crime, trouble, harassment, and other potentially distressing signs of disorder and decay. The mediator is the stress response that occurs in the body and brain. Of interest here is a psychological stress response in the form of fearful anxiety and depression, and a physiological stress response in the form of signs and symptoms of autonomic arousal, such as dizziness, chest pains, trouble breathing, nausea, upset stomach, and weakness. The outcome is poor health. This model is supported using data from the Welfare, Children, and Families project, a sample of 2,402 disadvantaged women in disadvantaged neighborhoods in Chicago, Boston, and San Antonio.     

The Catalonia survey: Personality and intelligence structure in a sample of compulsive gamblers

A sample of fifty-seven pathological gamblers and one hundred and fifteen controls (two per pathological gambler, matched as regards age and sex) was investigated. This sample received a complex battery of psychometric tests designed to evaluate two different axes: psychopathology and intelligence. The results obtained show that pathological gamblers have an unstable family and work background, that pathological gambling correlates with other addictions (alcohol, illness prone behavior, absenteeism, risk working, living alone and bereavement), that all the general and specific psychopathology vectors were significant in the addicts, and that the pathological gamblers' intelligence has characteristic factors.We thank Ricardo Cayuela (Line Staff, Barcelona) for his help in collecting the sample; Jordi Daura for data processing work; Mercedes Lemonier, psychologist, for her help in administering and correcting the tests; Consol Marina and Teresa Ruiz for their secretarial assistance and contact with the 172 study subjects.     

Research records and the resolution of misconduct allegations at research universities

Accurate record keeping is an important part of the responsible conduct of research. However, there is very little empirical research on scientific record keeping. No one knows the incidence of serious problems with research records, the types of problems that occur, nor their consequences. In this study, we examined the role of research records in the resolution of misconduct allegations as a useful barometer for the incidence and types of problems that occur with records. We interviewed Research Integrity Officers (RIOs) at 90 major research universities and conducted focus groups with active research faculty. RIOs reported problems with research records in 38% of the 553 investigations they conducted. Severe problems with research records often prevented completion of investigations while problems that are more typical lengthened them by 2 to 3 weeks. Five types of poor record keeping practices accounted for 75 % of the problems with incomplete/inadequate records being the most common (30%). The focus groups concurred with the findings from the interviews with RIOs, stressed the importance of the research group leader in setting and maintaining record practices, and offered additional insights. While university officials and faculty members have suspected for many years that there are serious problems with research record keeping, our study provides empirical evidence for this belief. By documenting some of the problems with record keeping in university-based research, the results of our study provide information that will be useful for policy development at academic institutions.     

HUMAN CAPITAL IN GROWTH REGRESSIONS: HOW MUCH DIFFERENCE DOES DATA QUALITY MAKE?

We construct estimates of educational attainment for a sample of 21 OECD countries. Our series incorporate previously unexploited information and remove sharp breaks in the data that can only reflect changes in classification criteria. We then construct indicators of the information content of our estimates and a number of previously available data sets and examine their performance in several growth specifications. We find a clear positive correlation between data quality and the size and significance of human capital coefficients in growth regressions. Using an extension of the classical errors in variables model to correct for measurement error bias, we construct a set of meta‐estimates of the coefficient of years of schooling in an aggregate Cobb‐Douglas production function. Our results suggest that the value of this parameter is likely to be above 0.60. (JEL: O40, I20, O30, C19)     

Tests of stochastic dominance with repeated measurements data

AStA Advances in Statistical Analysis - The paper explores a testing problem which involves four hypotheses, that is, based on observations of two random variables X and Y, we wish to discriminate...     

A Dynamic Equilibrium Model of International Portfolio Holdings

This paper develops a continuous‐time equilibrium model of a two‐country exchange economy with heterogeneous agents and nontraded goods. Nontraded goods play the role of state variables that shift the marginal utility of traded goods. This affects prices and generates dynamic hedging demands that explain the well documented home bias puzzle in international equity portfolios. When calibrated to both consumption and production data, the model is able to generate significative home bias in equity portfolios. A new methodology, based on Malliavin calculus, is presented to solve for the portfolio policies along the equilibrium path. This methodology allows one to reduce the determination of equilibrium portfolio holdings to the solution of a linear algebraic system, rather than a partial differential equation.