Characterization of an optimal matrix estimator under convex loss function

Characterization of an optimal vector estimator and an optimal matrix estimator are obtained. In each case appropriate convex loss functions are considered. The results are illustrated through the problems of simultaneous unbiased estimation, simultaneous equivariant estimation and simultaneous unbiased prediction. Further an optimality criterion is proposed for matrix unbiased estimation and it is shown that the matrix unbiased estimation of a matrix parametric function and the minimum variance unbiased estimation of its components are equivalent.     

Attitude towards a redistribution of income

This article reports on some data from a pilot study which surveyed the attitude of the active male Flemish population towards a redistribution of income. A simple linear regression model based upon the average ratings of actual and fair incomes of twelve occupations is presented. The model allows to calculate for each subject how much redistribution he favors, the extent to which he wants to alter the income structure, and the reference point he uses to determine which incomes have to moderate and which have not to. Some results are presented and discussed. Subjects tend to favor some degree of income leveling, however without affecting the income structure.     

Is the future of unionism in cyberspace?

V. Conclusions Cyber technology has been proposed as the panacea for the troubled Old Unionism, the expansion of the New Unionism, and to promote the political power of the Labor Movement. In furtherance of those objectives, the AFL-CIO created a web site on December 1, 2000, workingfamilies.com. The site is intended to provide 17 million union members and retirees access to the Internet; the Federation also offers them computers at low cost. The AFL-CIO’s web is intended to link the union’s members to each other, offer discussion forums, chat rooms, and e-mail networks which will allow workers to talk to each other regularly and mobilize their workplaces and communities for causes endorsed by the Federation (World Future Society, February, 2000). The new service is an extension of the Union Privilege Benefit Programs set up by the Federation during the 1980s as a way of reversing the unions’ faltering membership. Those programs include reduced attorney fees, lower cost life and accident insurance, participation in a motor-club, car-repair, and travel-club services, a Walt Disney World Hotel Discount, a parents’ college advisor, reduced cost for educational books and software, mortgage and real estate advice, and a dental program. The original package was offered to nonmembers for a small fee who become "associate members." It was hoped that the associate participants would become full members. A number of affiliated unions adopted similar programs. In 1995, the Federation added a credit card issued by Household International and for which it received $75 million each year for five years ending in 2000. The card has no annual fee and low monthly interest charges. How the Federation spent these sums is unknown.     

The Challenge of Political and Economic Change in Poland and Central and Eastern Europe

This article discusses political and economic changes in Poland, Central and Eastern Europe emerging since the demise of the ‘closed system’ in 1989. The presentation explores the range of change, the method and the sequence of change. General lessons in economic transition as identified by Polish Finance Minister Lezak Balcerowicz are discussed. The challenges involved in macroeconomic stabilization, radical liberalization, currency convertibility, subsidy reduction and conversion of state-owned enterprises are reviewed. Despite their complexity, economic and political reforms proved necessary and inevitable. This revised version was published online in July 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

Developing technological initiatives for youth participation and local community engagement

Recent advances in technology are transforming our lives, but in many cases they are also limiting the way children are exposed to local communities and physical spaces. Technology can help young people actively connect with their neighborhoods, but doing that requires different methods and tools from the ones typically available in schools, homes, and youth centers. This article introduces a theoretical framework describing the technical and nontechnical elements that must be considered in the implementation of technology initiatives for youth participation and local community engagement. The article then describes the application of the framework in two multiyear initiatives.     

Asymptotic Confidence Intervals for a New Inequality Measure

This work aims at assessing, by simulation methods, the performance of asymptotic confidence intervals for Zenga's new inequality measure. The results are compared with those obtained on Gini's measure, perhaps the most widely used index for measuring inequality in income and wealth distributions. Our findings show that the coverage accuracy and the size of the confidence intervals for the two measures are very similar in samples from economic size distributions.     

Residential redistribution of socioeconomic strata in metropolitan areas

This paper is a preliminary report on an ecological analysis of recent changes in the spatial distribution of socioeconomic strata within 363 Standard Metropolitan Statistical Areas (or substituted units) in the United States. The central hypothesis guiding the study is that certain population subgroups in and around the larger urban areas are shifting their residential locations in predictable directions. Changes in the distribution of educational classes between the central city (or cities) and their surrounding rings from 1950 to 1960 are traced by using census data. A special feature of the analysis is the inclusion of 163 "lquasi-metropolitan areas" centered on cities that had 25,000-50,000 inhabitants in 1960.The initial results indicate that residential redistribution according to "social class" is occurring in all these metropolitan areas and that the pattern of change varies systematically. Regional differences are pronounced, and, as prior research has suggested, age of the city and population size appear to be important factors. The percent of adults in the high school and college categories in the rings of older and larger metropolitan areas generally increased disproportionately compared to the central cities. A variety of patterns of change, however, occurred among the younger and smaller metropolitan areas.Subsequent analyses will include (a) alternative methods of controlling color and regional location, (b) other measures of the independent and dependent variables used here, and (c) a multivariate approach to the problem of identifying and assessing the explanatory power of additional independent variables (including population growth, the over-all rate of decentralization, annexation history, economic base, and the character of the ring). The extent as well as the direction of change will also be investigated. Finally, the feasibility of quantifying an "evolutionary sequence" in the distribution of social classes will also receive attention.     

Measuring Advances in Equality of Opportunity: The Changing Gender Gap in Educational Attainment in Canada in the Last Half Century

The notion of Equality of Opportunity (EO) has pervaded much of economic and social justice policy over the last half century in conveying a sense of liberation from the circumstances that constrain an individual’s ability to achieve it, and it has been a cornerstone of many gender equality programs. However unequivocal pursuit of the so called “Luck Egalitarianism” imperative has met with many critics who question why individuals who are blessed with good circumstances would wish to be “liberated” from them. This has led to a more qualified pursuit of Equal Opportunity which adds an additional proviso—that no circumstance group should be made worse off by such a policy or decentralized private initiative. Indeed observed practices, by focusing on the opportunities of the poorly endowed in circumstance, do accord with such a qualified Equal Opportunity mandate. Here it is contended that, because of the asymmetric nature of such a policy or initiative, existing empirical techniques will not fully capture the progress made toward an EO goal. Hence a new technique is introduced and employed in examining progress toward such a Qualified Equal Opportunity (QEO) Objective in the context of the educational attainments of Canadian males and females born between the 1920s and the 1970s (In the early part of that century, females did not perform as well as males educationally, and were much more constrained by their parental educational circumstance). A QEO goal is generally found to cohere with the data with females becoming less attached to their parental educational circumstance, and indeed surpassing males in their educational attainments.