Clinical experiences with testosterone therapy: prostate safety

Due to a decrease in Leydig cell function, a considerable proportion of men over 50 years of age will develop hypogonadism. Consequently, loss of libido and several other testosterone-dependent symptoms may become evident. When decreased levels of biologically available testosterone are found, and corresponding symptoms are present, these men could be eligible for testosterone substitution therapy. Testosterone treatment in testosterone-deprived men has been shown to improve general well-being, osteoporosis, muscle atrophy, libido and - if present - anemia. Despite these positive effects, testosterone treatment has to be performed with caution. Although it has not been proven that elevation of the serum testosterone level to the normal range results in a greater risk of developing prostate cancer, the effects of testosterone on a prostate cancer already present are well established. Several studies have demonstrated that testosterone treatment does not result in a significant increase in serum levels of prostate-specific antigen (PSA) or prostate volume. The long-term effects, however, are currently unknown. For these reasons, testosterone treatment should be performed only when the presence of prostate cancer is unlikely; i.e. when PSA levels are within normal limits and digital rectal examination does not reveal any suspicious findings. These examinations may still miss some small prostate cancers that could be promoted by testosterone treatment. The determination of PSA levels under testosterone treatment is necessary every 3 months, at least for the first year. Steadily rising PSA levels require immediate cessation of testosterone administration and the initiation of further diagnostic procedures (prostate biopsy), to rule out prostate cancer.     

The relationship between individual and household measures of WTP and WTA

The article defines measures of individual and household willingness to pay (and to accept) in a general and flexible framework. It completely clarifies the relationship between the household measures and the sum of the individual welfare measures (the aggregate measures) which are in general different. The aggregate measures form only an upper bound for the corresponding household measures. The bounds (based on the information about individual measures) can be tightened by introducing additional assumptions about the decision process within the household. The results derived prove helpful for the theoretical analysis of household behavior, for the evaluation of nonmarket goods in environmental and public economics and for contingent valuation.     

Moment characterization of higher-order risk preferences

This article presents a characterization of higher-order risk preferences such as prudence or temperance in terms of statistical moments. Our results, which are generalizations of Roger (Theory Decis, 70(1):27–44, 2011) and Ekern (Econ Lett, 6(4), 329–333, 1980), give a better understanding of how higher-order risk preferences relate to skewness preference and kurtosis aversion. While they are not based on expected utility theory, an implication within that theory is that all commonly used utility functions exhibit skewness preference and kurtosis aversion.     

Measurement of inequality: An attempt at unification and generalization

This paper reviews and extends the theory of ethical inequality indices. It presents a novel axiom (strict separability of social welfare orderings in rank-ordered subspaces). This axiom allows to provide joint characterizations of the most important inequality measures (Atkinson family, Kolm-Pollak family and Generalized Ginis) and of some new more general classes of indices. The whole derivation is based on weak assumptions. In an ordinal framework only continuity of the underlying ordering is required and no cardinal properties are employed.I thank two anonymous referees for helpful comments and suggestions.     

Rawls and Bentham reconciled

The paper deals with the characterization of a class of social welfare orderings. The social evaluation functions which represent these orderings are separable in the components of the ordered utility vector. The characterization is based on the Strong Pareto Property, Co-cardinality, Continuity and a new Independence Property. Since this class encompasses the utilitarian rule and since there are members of this family which almost coincide with the rules of rank dictatorship this family bridges the gap between pure utilitarianism and rank dictatorship.     

Taking empirical studies seriously: the principle of concentration and the measurement of welfare and inequality

The paper investigates the implications of empirical studies by Amiel and Cowell (J Public Econ 47:3–26, 1992) of the public’s attitude towards inequality. It demonstrates that the value judgments concerning the redistribution of income which have been revealed in these studies can be represented by the principle of concentration. A concentration is a redistribution of income which reduces the distance between each income and the average income in the same proportion. Imposing this principle and some other basic properties the paper characterizes several families of social welfare orderings which imply generalized Atkinson inequality measures. They do not necessarily satisfy the principle of progressive transfers. I thank two anonymous referees for helpful comments.     

Maximum Likelihood Estimation of a Poisson Parameter in a Model of Equioverlapping Samples:A Simulation Study

In a model of equioverlapping samples maximum likelihood estimation of a Poisson parameter is examined and compared with two linear unbiased estimations by mean squared error. Since a likelihood estimator is not explicitly available in general, a simulation study has been performed and the results are illustrated     

Asymptotic Equivalence of Seat Bias Models

Apportionment methods round vote proportions to integer numbers of seats in a parliament. An important issue is whether a given apportionment method treats larger and smaller parties equally or gives rise to seat biases. In this paper two models of quantifying seat biases of popular apportionment methods are compared to each other. The models are found to result in the same asymptotic behaviour when the number of seats available for apportionment grows large.     

Enhancing the entertainment experience of blind and low‐vision theatregoers through touch tours

In this paper we demonstrate how universal design theory and the research available on museum‐based touch tours can be used to develop a touch tour for blind and low‐vision theatregoers. We discuss these theoretical and practical approaches with reference to data collected and experience gained from the creation and execution of a touch tour for Hart House Theatre’s production of Hamlet at the University of Toronto. Finally, we offer up the possibility of using universal design theory to create a touch tour that would be attractive to all theatregoers.     

A note on willingness to pay and willingness to accept

In a recent paper Loehman (1991) derives some relationships between measures of benefit for nonmarket goods. This note presents some remarks on Loehman's methodology, several results, if the good considered is normal, and an extension to the case of pollution, i.e. public bads.I would like to thank an unknown referee for helpful comments.