Cultural Connection Predicts Perceptions of Financial Security for Māori

This paper examines the impact of relative income on income satisfaction with given absolute income. We conducted an experiment in China where participants earned three different levels of income according to their relative performance in a task. While the treatment group was informed about their relative income, the control group only knew their own absolute income. We found that while controlling for absolute income and other factors, information about relative income increases the satisfaction of the high-income group and reduces the satisfaction of the low-income group. Relative income may interact with individual characteristics, such as gender, to affect income satisfaction. We also found that relative income treatment significantly increases income satisfaction inequality, primarily by causing social comparisons among different income groups, which has some welfare implications.     

中国农村最低生活保障标准研究

随着经济的发展,国家扶贫力度的加大,中国贫困人口分布呈现出分散分布的格局。新时期扶贫的思路转变为将农村贫困人口纳入最低生活保障制度范畴。东部沿海经济发展较好的城市已逐步在建立农村最低生活保障制度。农村最低生活保障制度的建立为缓解农村贫困提供了美好的蓝图,但有许多问题需要解决。其中,最低生活保障的标准怎么制定是一个关键问题,也是国际社会比较关注的焦点。本文拟就在新世纪提高农村扶贫标准政策下制定农村最低生活保障标准的相关问题进行探讨。     

Multicriterion linear programming problems : (Analytical survey)

An analytical survey of man-machine interactive procedures is presented. A decision maker's capabilities to carry out some information processing operations are discussed. A list of a decision maker's elementary operations used in different interactive procedures is given and their estimations from a psychological point of view are suggested. Three main criteria for estimation of man-machine procedures are proposed: reliability of information elicitation from decision maker, insignificant sensitivity to random decision maker's errors, and good speed of convergence to solution. Some procedures are evaluated in terms of these criteria.     

Methods for spatial and temporal land use and land cover assessment for urban ecosystems and application in the greater Baltimore-Chesapeake region

Understanding contemporary urban landscapes requires multiple sets of spatially and temporally compatible data that can integrate historical land use patterns and disturbances to land cover. This paper presents three principal methods: (1) core analysis; (2) historic mapping; and (3) gradient analysis, to link spatial and temporal data for urban ecosystems and applies their use in the Baltimore-Chesapeake region. Paleoecological evidence derived from the geochronology of sediment cores provides data on long-term as well as recent changes in vegetative land cover. This information, combined with contemporary vegetation maps, provides a baseline for conducting trend analyses to evaluate urbanization of the landscape. A 200-year historical land use database created from historical maps, census data, and remotely sensed data provides a spatial framework for investigating human impacts on the region. A geographic information system (GIS) integrates core analyses with historic data on land use change to yield a comprehensive land use and land cover framework and rates of change. These data resources establish the regional foundation for investigating the ecological components of an urban ecosystem. Urban-rural gradient analyses and patch analyses are proposed as the most appropriate methods for studying the urban ecosystem as they link ecological and social patterns and processes for varying degrees of urbanization.     

A STRATEGY FOR INTEGRATING QUANTITATIVE TECHNIQUES INTO THE BUSINESS CURRICULUM*

Quantitative methods courses play an increasingly significant role in the programs of Schools of Business. However, maximum utilization of the concepts can occur only when these quantitative techniques have been integrated into the various functional areas via a faculty knowledgeable with such techniques and their applications. Lacking sufficient stimuli, this integrative process is observed to be one of an evolutionary nature. This article presents a strategy for stimulation of this process.     

A METHOD FOR SOLVING LINEAR PROGRAMS WITH VARIABLE RESOURCES

This paper is concerned with the solution of linear and linear goal programming problems in which the values of the right-hand side parameters are not fixed constants. Specifically, we are concerned with linear optimization problems in which the right-hand sides of the constraining equations are free to vary subject to a set of linear constraining equations. By formulating a relaxed linear program wherein the right-hand sides are treated as variables, we show how it is possible to solve one larger linear program that yields as a solution not only the optimal values for the decision variables, but also the optimal values for the right-hand sides.