香港对新移民的管理和安置

与复杂的跨国网络与跨界互动相比,公民身份却划分了清晰的边界.香港回归中国主权后,对其公民身份的类别划分带来了极大的挑战.依照香港基本法中对居留权的定义,很大一部分--近一百六十七万人--可以享有这个权利,反映出香港与内地的跨界社会关系有着复杂历史.尽管香港与内地的社会和经济高度统一,但其边界仍然严格限制了人口从内地向香港流动.这种既统一又分离的状况导致了一种复杂的对立,部分地反映在关于居留权的争论.即使那些已经成功移民香港的内地居民也面临着各种挑战,其中最严峻的是怎样在香港这样一个住房价格最高的城市中获得可以负担的住所.因为新移民无法申请公营房屋,但这些房屋却占香港房屋总数的一半.而其私人住房的价格又是世界上最贵的.     

Do fertility transitions influence infant mortality declines? Evidence from early modern Germany

The timing and sequencing of fertility transitions and early-life mortality declines in historical Western societies indicate that reductions in sibship (number of siblings) may have contributed to improvements in infant health. Surprisingly, however, this demographic relationship has received little attention in empirical research. We outline the difficulties associated with establishing the effect of sibship on infant mortality and discuss the inherent bias associated with conventional empirical approaches. We offer a solution that permits an empirical test of this relationship while accounting for reverse causality and potential omitted variable bias. Our approach is illustrated by evaluating the causal impact of family size on infant mortality using genealogical data from 13 German parishes spanning the sixteenth, seventeenth, eighteenth, and nineteenth centuries. Overall, our findings do not support the hypothesis that declining fertility led to increased infant survival probabilities in historical populations.     

Book Reviews

Statistics: Learning in the Presence of Variation Robert L. Wardrop. Dubuque, IA: Wm. C. Brown Publishers, 1995. xxiv + 662 pp. $63.80. Reviewed by Allan J. Rossman

Modeling Experimental and Observational Data Clifford E. Lunneborg. Belmont, CA: Duxbury Press, 1994. xv + 506 pp. $40.95. Reviewed by Mark S. Handcock

Probability and Statistics for Engineers Richard Scheaffer and James T. McClave. Belmont, CA: Duxbury Press, 1995. xiv + 745 pp. $66.00. Reviewed by Gary D. Herrin     

Some Uses for Distribution-Fitting Software in Teaching Statistics

Statistics courses now make extensive use of menu-driven, interactive computer software. This article presents some insight as to how a new class of PC-based statistical software, called “distribution-fitting” software, can be used in teaching various courses in statistics.     

On an Integral Related to the Burr XII Distribution

This article considers an integral which arises in the consideration of the Fisher Information for Pareto, Burr, and related distributions, and which has also been considered by Brazauskas (2003 Brazauskas , V. ( 2003 ). Information matrix for Pareto (IV), Burr, and related distributions . Commun. Statist. Theor. Meth. 32 : 315 – 325 .[Taylor & Francis Online], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar]). The approach here is, arguably, simpler, and the methods involved in establishing it here are capable of generalization.     

A coefficient of multiple association based on ranks

A generalization of Kendall's tau is formulated for describing the association between a dependent variable and a collection of independent variables. The coefficient may be defined in terms of the proportional reduction in prediction errors obtained by predicting the ordering of pairs of observations on the dependent variable based on orderings of the pairs on the independent variables. The coefficient is formulated both for continuous and discrete variables. Approximate large-sample distributions are considered for both cases. Some of the properties of this coefficient are discussed and compared with those of other multiple measures of association based on ranks.     

Item reliability based on a paucity of item failures

When item reliability is high, lot acceptance sampling is likely to uncover no defective units. Nevertheless, the reliability lower confidence limits are often disappointing. The use of a Bayesian procedure with certain beta priors produces tighter confidence limits. The case where one observed defective is permitted in accepting a lot is also examined. Numerical results for both cases are presented. In addition, the impact of item misclassification is addressed.