The administrative costs of non-profit health insurers

Interest in the efficiency or inefficiency of non-profit firms has spawned research on the administrative costs of Blue Cross and Blue Shield plans. Relying on plausible implications of the property rights theory of the firm, both Blair, Ginsburg, and Vogel (1975) and Vogel (1977) noted some evidence of inefficiency in these firms. Our analysis, however, utilizing their models and more recent data, reveals little convincing evidence for the view that Blue Shield plans are inefficient.     

Federal statistics in a complex environment: the case of the 1980 census

A discussion of the 1980 U.S. census is presented. The authors suggest that the taking of a national census is not just a statistical exercise, but an exercise involving ethics, epistemology, law, and politics. They contend that conducting a national census can be defined as an ill-structured problem in which the various complexities imposed by multidisciplinarity cannot be separated. "The 1980 census is discussed as an ill-structured problem, and a method for treating such problems is presented, within which statistical information is only one component."     

Ethnicity,immigration process and short-term occupational mobility

The relationship between the ethnic characteristics of immigrants to the United States and their occupational mobility in the short term is explored. The data concern the period 1965-1970 and are taken from the 1970 census. The results indicate that race and sociocultural distance have important effects on occupational mobility. The study also shows that if educational status is controlled, the performance of Asian immigrants is more similar to that of blacks or Hispanics than it is to that of whites. (summary in FRE, SPA)     

Pipage Rounding: A New Method of Constructing Algorithms with Proven Performance Guarantee

The paper presents a general method of designing constant-factor approximation algorithms for some discrete optimization problems with assignment-type constraints. The core of the method is a simple deterministic procedure of rounding of linear relaxations (referred to as pipage rounding). With the help of the method we design approximation algorithms with better performance guarantees for some well-known problems including MAXIMUM COVERAGE, MAX CUT with given sizes of parts and some of their generalizations.     

南充市城区已婚育龄妇女二孩生育意愿研究

2018年4—5月在四川省南充市城区采用便利抽样,以已婚且未育或已育一个小孩的育龄妇女为研究对象,采用自制匿名问卷,以面对面的形式收集资料,了解实施全面二孩政策后南充市育龄妇女的生育意愿,为南充市的人口研究提供参考依据。在213名调查对象中,56人(26.3%)有二孩生育意愿,140人(65.7%)无二孩生育意愿,17人(8.0%)不确定是否生育二孩。南充市被调查者的理想子女个数均值为1.46,意愿子女个数均值为1.27。不同文化程度(χ2=7.512)、配偶月收入(χ2=12.641)、理想子女数(χ2=66.401)、一孩性别(χ2=5.441)的育龄妇女间二孩生育意愿差异有统计学意义(P<0.05)。Logistic回归分析显示,第一个孩子性别为女孩(OR=2.641,P=0.021)、丈夫月收入越高(OR=1.761,P=0.028)、理想子女数多于1个(OR=29.040,P<0.001)的育龄妇女更有意愿生育二孩。南充市城区二孩生育意愿处于较低水平,经济收入、理想子女数、一孩性别会影响育龄妇女的二孩生育意愿。全面二孩政策对于促进育龄妇女生育二孩的效应有限,应当建立相关的配套政策,以促进全面二孩政策的实施。