Another twist on the equality of OLS and GLS

We give a neccessary and sufficient condition for the equality of theOLS andGLS estimator of a subset of the regression coefficients in a linear model.     

Images of Success: How Illinois Farmers Define the Successful Farmer1

Abstract Farmers' views of farming success help frame their responses to information about farming, including alternative agriculture. A Q-analysis of 68 commercial farmers' subjective images of the successful farmer and the relative importance they accord different personal values and characteristics revealed four “model” images of the successful farmer. The Steward recognizes a moral responsibility to sustain land resources; the Manager succeeds largely by virtue of analytical skill; the Conservative's main goal is long-term preservation of the farm business; and the Agrarian values the rural life style and community participation. Farmers holding the Steward image tended to be older and to farm fewer acres; those with the Manager image included a large proportion of less experienced farmers. Approximately 40 percent of the farmers' views of success did not fit any of the four “model” images. Analysis of the findings suggests that images of success may be associated with life stage or generational differences in farming goals and values.     

A universal meta bargaining implementation of the Nash solution

This paper follows van Damme (1986) in presenting a meta bargaining approach that justifies the Nash bargaining solution. But in contrast to van Damme's procedure our meta bargaining game is universal in the sense that all bargaining solutions are allowed as strategic choices in the meta bargaining game. Also our result holds true for any number n of players. Received: 31 July 2000/Accepted: 19 March 2001     

Robust likelihood functions in Bayesian inference

In order to deal with mild deviations from the assumed parametric model, we propose a procedure for accounting for model uncertainty in the Bayesian framework. In particular, in the derivation of posterior distributions, we discuss the use of robust pseudo-likelihoods, which offer the advantage of preventing the effects caused by model misspecifications, i.e. when the underlying distribution lies in a neighborhood of the assumed model. The influence functions of posterior summaries, such as the posterior mean, are investigated as well as the asymptotic properties of robust posterior distributions. Although the use of a pseudo-likelihood cannot be considered orthodox in the Bayesian perspective, it is shown that, also through some illustrative examples, how a robust pseudo-likelihood, with the same asymptotic properties of a genuine likelihood, can be useful in the inferential process in order to prevent the effects caused by model misspecifications.     

Perceptions of intergenerational conflict: The politics of young vs. old in Florida

Not long ago, syndicated columnist Richard Reeves pondered the portents in an aging America and found trouble. “There is a confrontation coming in the United States between the demands of old people and the needs of the whole society,” he declared (Reeves 1988). His premonition is widely shared. Many social prophets are convinced that the graying of America is the prelude to a new politics. It will be the young against the old, they suggest, a politics of age polarization characterized by political mobilization, confrontation and backlash between generations reaching from Congress to city hall. Florida, with the nation's highest proportion of aging and a steady inflow of new retirees, is where many expect such conflict to appear early and often. This article concerns whether Florida is, or soon may be, the arena for such a confrontation and, if so, how it has become manifest.     

Equitable insurance premium schemes

We analyze the equity properties of insurance premium schemes where agents are partitioned into groups with different average accident probabilities and each individual has to pay a premium according to the average probability of the group to which it belongs. In particular, we examine the question whether choosing finer partitions to define these groups generates more equitable situations than coarser groups. Though it turns out that partitioning the agents into finer groups can never be Lorenz dominated by the coarser partition, it cannot be guaranteed that finer partitions represent improvements over coarser ones except in very restrictive circumstances. Received: 27 March 2000/Accepted: 28 August 2000     

Woman A buse in Dating Relationships: The Contribution of Male Peer Support*

The relationship between male peer support and premarital woman abuse is evaluated by integrating three bodies of knowledge, namely, woman abuse, social support, and reference others. Using data from a convenience sample of male undergraduate students, this study tests four hypotheses derived from a male peer support model. The findings support the model relating male peer group dynamics and woman abuse in university dating relationships.