Divergence-based tests of homogeneity for spatial data

The problem of testing homogeneity in contingency tables when the data are spatially correlated is considered. We derive statistics defined as divergences between unrestricted and restricted estimated joint cell probabilities and we show that they are asymptotically distributed as linear combinations of chi-square random variables under the null hypothesis of homogeneity. Monte Carlo simulation experiments are carried out to investigate the behavior of the new divergence test statistics and to make comparisons with the statistics that do not take into account the spatial correlation. We show that some of the introduced divergence test statistics have a significantly better behavior than the classical chi-square test for the problem under consideration when we compare them on the basis of the simulated sizes and powers.     

Cross-Sectional Dependence in Panel Data Analysis

This article provides an overview of the existing literature on panel data models with error cross-sectional dependence (CSD). We distinguish between weak and strong CSD and link these concepts to the spatial and factor structure approaches. We consider estimation under strong and weak exogeneity of the regressors for both T fixed and T large cases. Available tests for CSD and methods for determining the number of factors are discussed in detail. The finite-sample properties of some estimators and statistics are investigated using Monte Carlo experiments.     

On Augmented Franses Tests for Seasonal Unit Roots

This article extends the results reported in del Barrio Castro, Osborn and Taylor (2012 del Barrio Castro, T., Osborn, D.R., Taylor, A. M.R. (2012). On augmented HEGY tests for seasonal unit roots. Econometric Theor. 18:1121–1143.[Crossref], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar]) to the approach followed by Franses (1991a Franses, P. H. (1991a). Model selection and seasonality in time series. Tibergen Institute Series, 18. [Google Scholar],b Franses, P.H. (1991b). Seasonality, non-stationarity and the forecasting of monthly time series. Int. J. Forecast. 7:199–208.[Crossref], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar]) to test for seasonal unit roots, providing the asymptotic representation to the seasonal unit roots tests proposed by Franses for a general number of seasons S.     

On the E-optimality of blocked main effects plans when n ≡ 1(mod4)

ABSTRACT

In this article, we consider experimental situations in which m two-lever factors are to be studied using a two-level main effects plan involving n runs which are partitioned into b blocks of size k =?n/b. For the casen ≡ 1(mod?4) and b???k, we derive some new methods of constructing E-optimal designs which tend to be highly efficient under other optimality criteria as well.     

Compassionate Values and Presidential Politics: Mortality Salience, Compassionate Values, and Support for Barack Obama and John McCain in the 2008 Presidential Election

In line with terror management theory, this research demonstrates that mortality salience motivated increased support for John McCain in the absence of reminders of compassionate values. However, polls had indicated that Barack Obama was generally perceived as the more compassionate of the two candidates. Thus, when compassionate values were made salient, death reminders motivated participants to uphold these values by significantly increasing their support for the more compassionate Barack Obama instead. The implications of these findings for terror management theory, the 2008 presidential election, and political endorsements are discussed .     

Measuring open source software success

Since the mid-1990s, there has been a surge of interest among academics and practitioners in open source software (OSS). While there is an abundance of literature on OSS, most studies on OSS success are either qualitative or exploratory in nature. To identify the factors that influence OSS success and establish generalizability, an empirical study measuring OSS success would enable OSS developers and users to improve OSS usage. In this study, we develop an OSS success model from a previous Information Systems success model incorporating the characteristics of OSS. Using the proposed model, we identify five determinants for OSS success as well as a number of significant relationships among these determinants. Our findings demonstrate that software quality and community service quality have significant effects on user satisfaction. Software quality and user satisfaction, in turn, have significant effects on OSS use. Additionally, OSS use and user satisfaction have significant effects on individual net benefits. This research contributes towards advancing theoretical understanding of OSS success as well as offering OSS practitioners for enhancing OSS success.     

Are Social Innovation Paradigms Incommensurable?

This paper calls attention to the problematic use of the concept of social innovation which remains undefined despite its proliferation throughout academic and policy discourses. Extant research has thus far failed to capture the socio-political contentions which surround social innovation. This paper therefore draws upon the work of Thomas Kuhn and conducts a paradigmatic analysis of the field of social innovation which identifies two emerging schools: one technocratic, the other democratic. The paper identifies some of the key thinkers in each paradigm and explains how the struggle between these two paradigms reveals itself to be part of a broader conflict between neoliberalism and it opponents and concludes by arguing that future research focused upon local contextualised struggles will reveal which paradigm is in the ascendancy.     

Student union ‘political anti-politics’ in post-conflict Nepal

In contrast to rhizomatic youth movements that inspired the ‘Arab spring’ uprisings and the ‘Occupy’ movements, youth political activism in Nepal was orchestrated by hierarchical political parties in part through political student unions. The ability of parties to deploy youth into the streets to enforce general strikes and force election participation has been critical to their success, but focus groups conducted with Nepali students in the spring of 2013 suggest that many youth are withdrawing from party activism. Youth disengagement in Nepal is the product of years of political instability and conflict that has impeded peace and development, rather than a globalizing individualism that is fragmenting traditional institutions. In this paper, I argue that the ability of political parties to mobilize youth in post-conflict Nepal is being challenged by two related conditions. First, the demands of political parties on students for personal sacrifice are weighed by students against their own personal aspirations and, secondly, the inability of the party hierarchies to sacrifice their priorities for greater political stability, development and peace – exemplified by the repeated failure to resolve constitutional issues – made this commitment to personal sacrifice harder to justify.     

Reconciling the needs and wants of respondents in two rural Ethiopian communities

This paper uses the Quality of Life research carried out by the Wellbeing in Developing Countries (WeD) Research Group to examine the importance respondents have attributed to a variety of goals in two rural communities in Ethiopia. The results are analysed at the community, household and individual levels to expose the contestation involved in expressions of goal preference at different levels, and the power relations that underlie and contribute to the formation of these goal preferences. In this way, taking communities or households as homogenous units is shown to be inaccurate and potentially misleading. Analysis of individual case studies also provides insight into the complex decision-making process where people with access to limited resources are forced to give certain goals priority depending on current exigencies. The fact that the ordering of priorities can change with time highlights the dangers of any one-off measure being considered as a time-independent picture of individuals’ goals. By relating the results of the research to Doyal and Gough’s Theory of Human Need, the paper considers to what extent ‘universal’ human needs correspond to the most important goals as expressed by respondents in the Ethiopian research. Whilst considerable support is found for needs such as health, food and shelter, several respondents in the two research sites consider needs such as education to be unnecessary. This incongruence between the priority of people’s goals and theories of need leads us to question what the aim of development should be: to assist beneficiaries in the pursuit of what they want, or provide the things that they are thought to need.