New calibration estimator in stratified sampling

This paper develops the theory of calibration estimation and proposes calibration approach alternative to existing calibration estimators for estimating population mean of the study variable using auxiliary variable in stratified sampling. The theory of new calibration estimation is given and optimum weights are derived. A simulation study is carried out to performance of the proposed calibration estimator with other existing calibration estimators. The results reveal that the proposed calibration estimators are more efficient than Tracy et al., Singh et al., Singh calibration estimators of the population mean.     

Fingerprinting and Biopolitical Police Surveillance in Turkey

This paper problematises the 2007 amendments to Article 5 of the Police Powers and Duties Law (PPDL) in Turkey that categorises all citizens as ‘potential suspects’ through fingerprinting technology. The amended article requires everyone to submit fingerprint samples when applying for certain official documents such as driver's licences, passports, and ID cards. Consequently, the result has been dramatic: the police have so far proactively recorded more than 60 million people's fingerprints in the process of issuing these documents. Yet, there has been no research into this phenomenon. This paper suggests that this sort of biometric police surveillance is not a recent development, rather part of a long tradition within policing ‘Turkish’ national interests. Following Foucault's genealogical methodology, the paper argues that the governability of a large heterogeneous population across a vast territory has always demanded biometric policing technologies, addressing biopolitical proximity between the capacity building of modern security apparatus and identifying the unknown masses. Studying the historical data comparatively reveals that fingerprinting first started with recording exceptional groups such as criminals and convicts in Europe, while from the late Ottoman Empire to modern Turkey, large sections of the population have always persistently been targeted by police regulations.     

Gender as Symbolic Capital and Violence: The Case of Corporate Elites in Turkey

Based on a Bourdieusian approach, drawing on qualitative analyses of 63 life interviews, our study demonstrates that gender is performed as both symbolic capital and violence by corporate elites within the dominant ideologies of patriarchy and family in Turkey. Our analysis reveals that, in the male‐dominated context of Turkey, female elites appear to favour male alliances as a tactical move in order to acquire and maintain status in their organizations, whereas male elites appear to remain blind to the privileges and constraints of their own gendered experience of symbolic capital and violence. Our study also illustrates that gender order is still preserved, despite beliefs to the contrary that equality in education, skills, experience and job performance may liberate women and men from gender‐based outcomes at work.     

Scenario aggregation in single-resource production planning models with uncertain demand

In this paper we present an application of the scenario aggregation approach proposed by Rockafellar and Wets to a simple standard multi-product multi-period production planning problem with uncertain demand and setup cost modelled by logical zero-one variables. The uncertainty in demand is expressed by a number of demand scenarios. As compared with more traditional approaches that require distributional assumptions and/or estimates of parameters from historical demand data, the scenario approach offers greater flexibility and makes it possible to take subjective information into account. The scenario aggregation principle and the corresponding progressive hedging algorithm offer a theoretically sound basis for generating consistent solutions for production planning models with uncertain demand. Since the production planning problem studied in this paper is of mixed-integer type the original scenario aggregation approach cannot be applied directly. However, since the integer variables in the production planning model are indirectly coupled to the continuous production decisions an alternative method in which only the production quantities are used to couple the different realizations can be used. This paper is a first attempt to perform this form of coupling. We illustrate the ideas on a small example and use this example to demonstrate how the solution can be evaluated in terms of flexibility measures.     

Income Inequality and Economic Convergence in Turkey

Even though the convergence of regional per capita incomes has been a highly debated issue internationally, empirical evidence regarding Turkey is both limited and contradictory. This paper is an attempt to investigate regional income inequality and convergence dynamics in Turkish gross domestic product. First, the Theil coefficient of concentration index has been employed in order to analyze the dispersion aspects of the convergence process which shows a procyclical character. Then, we investigate the convergence dynamics, taking regional interdependencies into account. Empirical results indicate that there is convergence at the national level. Moreover, the spatial error model is preferred by the model selection criteria, indicating that the typical least-squares regional convergence model is misspecified.     

Thermal,viscoelastic and mechanical properties' optimization of polyphenylene sulfide via optimal processing parameters using the Taguchi method

Thermal, viscoelastic and mechanical properties of polyphenylene sulfide (PPS) were optimized as a function of extrusion and injection molding parameters. For this purpose, design of experiments approach utilizing Taguchi's L₂₇ (3⁷) orthogonal arrays was used. Effect of the parameters on desired properties was determined using the analysis of variance. Differential scanning calorimeter (DSC) tests were performed for the analysis of thermal properties such as melting temperature (T_m) and melting enthalpy (ΔH_M). Dynamic mechanical analysis (DMA) tests were performed for the analysis of viscoelastic properties such as damping factor (tan?δ) and glass transition temperature (T_g). Tensile tests were performed for the analysis of mechanical properties such as tensile strength and modulus. With optimized process parameters, verification DSC, DMA and tensile tests were performed for thermal, viscoelastic and mechanical properties, respectively. The Taguchi method showed that ‘barrel temperature’ and its level of ‘340°C’ were seen to be the most effective parameter and its level; respectively. It was suggested that PPS can be reinforced for further improvement after optimized thermal, viscoelastic and mechanical properties.     

SERVICES OUTSOURCING AND INNOVATION: AN EMPIRICAL INVESTIGATION

We provide a comprehensive empirical analysis of the links between international services outsourcing, domestic outsourcing, profits, and innovation using plant‐level data. We find a positive effect of international outsourcing of services on innovative activity at the plant level. Such a positive effect can also be observed for domestic outsourcing, but the magnitude is smaller. We also find that international services outsourcing has a positive effect on profitability, as predicted by theory, whereas this is not true for domestic sourcing. The results are robust to various specifications and an instrumental variables analysis. (JEL F19, O31)     

An empirical investigation of advanced manufacturing technology investment patterns: Evidence from a developing country

Advanced manufacturing technology (AMT) investment patterns in developing countries is in need of further investigation, particularly in the light of the conflicting evidence from the literature. This paper provides new evidence on AMT investment patterns from the Turkish automotive industry and develops a taxonomy by exploring the relationships between AMT investment patterns, ownership structure, firm size and performance. Analysis of industry survey data suggests the existence of three groups with different AMT investment strategies. Results suggest that AMT investment patterns are not only significantly correlated with firm performance or ownership, but also reveals significant differences in manufacturing performance across investment patterns.