Does Good Governance Enhance Happiness: A Cross Nation Study

The purpose of this paper is to analyze the efficiency of the countries over the period of 10 years by applying data envelopment analysis (DEA). Based on rational and factual parameters such as freedom of press, freedom of religion, percentage of export in Gross Domestic Product (GDP), index of globalization, life expectancy at birth, gender ratio etc., this paper attempts to measure the efficiency of happiness. A combination of social and economic factors has been used to measure technical efficiency. The contribution of this paper is twofold. First, it measures the relative efficiency of all the countries included in the study. The nations have been ranked as per their relative efficiency and the peer group has been formed. Second a comparison between the rich and the poor countries have been done to test empirically whether the economic growth enhances the happiness among people. Presently, more than 3,000 studies have been published on happiness and Veenhoven in 2004 created a database called World Database of Happiness. The World Database of Happiness has attempted to present the available research findings on happiness. Part of the findings on happiness in nations is available in ‘States of nations’. For the research purpose, States of Nations and the data published by have been considered. Although happiness has been quantified and the existing literature has sufficient empirical evidences of the same, in the present context, the relative efficiency has been calculated for the countries on basis of objective and subjective happiness parameters. As per the literature, happiness has two aspects (1) objective and (2) subjective. Objective parameters are external to the individuals and covers material living parameters viz. GDP growth, income, nutrition, mortality rate, literacy etc. However, Subjective indicators measure the quality of life of the individuals. These are summarized as ‘‘subjective well-being’’. The various parameters considered in the study capture different aspects of happiness. The result shows how the government can increase the happiness of the people by analyzing the behavior and expectations. People express their preference explicitly about political parties, religion believes, law and order situation, trust in official institutions etc. Although, the behavior of people largely depends upon availability of goods and services in the market, the government can make budgets according to priority or preferences of people. Another way to increase happiness can be done by analyzing the peer group, which is an outcome of DEA. This shows the nations which are similar in terms of their economic and social conditions. The government can compare the prevailing conditions in different countries that improve the condition in their respective country. This could be an effective method as some of the parameters can be replicable in order to make people happier. The limitation of this study is lack of availability of data for many countries. As the number of countries increases, a change in the relative efficiency can be observed. Therefore, a future study can be conducted where the relevant data can be collected and a more global result can be obtained.     

The Allocation of Blacks in Large Firms and Establishments and Black-White Wage Inequality in the U.S. Economy

Using data from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth (NLSY) for 1988, this study analyzes the allocation of African Americans in large firms and establishments and the effects of the allocation process on Black-White wage inequality. The results show that Blacks are disproportionately employed in large establishments while being under-represented in supervisory positions. The Black-White wage differential, however, remains significant only in the large establishments, despite this study's use of detailed controls for worker quality.     

About the Effect of Changes in Age-specific Mortality on Life Expectancy

About the Effect of Changes in Age-Specific Mortality on Life Expectancy     

On Das Gupta's ‘Birth function in a two-sex model’

I have read with great interest Das Gupta's¹ critique of my approach² towards the development of a two sex-model. To set the records straight, I must state that his criticisms are not well founded due to the following reasons:     

Icon-ising national identity: France and India in comparative perspective

The article embeds the arguments of cultural theory and art history in a political science framework, in order to explain the construction of national identities. In comparing the French national allegory Marianne and her Indian counterpart Bharat Mata, the authors set out to trace the conceptual development of the icons, the psycho-history underlying their ongoing formative processes and their strategic function as signifiers that reinforce national identity. The conceptual prism of icon-ising, as one learns from this comparative analysis is what makes the study of processes of cultural negotiation, and an exploration of their impact on identity-formation possible.     

The Pattern of Age-Specific fertility rates

A study of the pattern of age-specific fertility rates by five-year age-groups has revealed the possibility of using the Pearsonian type I curve as a graduating equation. Such distinctions have been examined for fifty countries having high, medium, and low fertility rates. Results have been found to be quite satisfactory, even when, for purposes of simplicity, the parameters have been restricted to depend on the first two moments, instead of the first four. The number of independent parameters has thus been reduced to only three, and method shave been suggested for their estimates, using ancillary information which is usually provided in the census reports. The findings seem to be particularly useful for countries lacking effective registration systems of vital events such as births related, as they are, to the age of the mother.In short, the determination of a series of age-specific fertility rates depends primarily on the modal fertile age (a1) and on one of the two exponents (m, or m2) of the type I distribution. It has been shown that the proportions of women married in the age groups 20-24 years and 25-29 years can be used for approximate evaluations of both of these parameters. While estimates of a, and m, are sufficient to generate a relative distribution of age-specific fertility rates, actual values can be obtained if, in addition, the annual number of births is either known or can be estimated from census age distributions of children.Modal distributions of relative values of age-specific fertility rates (such that the sum of these rates adds up to 100.0) have also been obtained for different combinations of al and m1, but are not shown here for lack of space. Once the estimates of al and m, have been made, the modal tables can always be referred to for the corresponding distributions of age-specific fertility rates.     

Immigration,below-replacement fertility,and long-term national population trends

The long-term demographic effects of immigration on a population experiencing below-replacement fertility are studied by assuming that the size and age composition of the immigrant population do not change over time. The size of the first-generation immigrant population becomes stationary within a time period not greater than the human life span. Thereafter, the number dying equals the number entering over any given time interval. The stationarity of the native population, among which deaths exceed births, is maintained by the compensating number of births to the immigrant population. The limiting age distribution of the country's population, although stationary, may not decline monotonically with age and may look like a camel's back, with one or two humps.     

Nonparametric Phase-II monitoring for detecting monotone trend based on inverse sampling

Recently, Mukherjee and Bandyopadhyay (J Stat Plan Inference, 2011, doi:10.1016/j.jspi.2011.02.017) introduced some partially sequential tests for detecting liner trend among the incoming series of observations when a training sample is available a-priori. Their work is very useful in econometric or environmental monitoring under certain situations. The present work is intended for generalization of their tests for any monotone trend. We develop two nonparametric tests for the identity of some unknown univariate continuous distribution functions against monotone or unidirectional trend in location. One of these two tests is based on usual ranks and the other is based on sequential ranks. These are typical nonparametric tests for monitoring structural changes. Performance of the two tests are compared using asymptotic studies as well as through some numerical results based on Monte-Carlo simulations. An illustration is offered using a real data on monthly production of certain beverage.     

Analysis of a two-echelon inventory system with returns

Product take-back and recovery activities have grown in recent times as a consequence of stringent government regulations and increased customer awareness of environmental pollution. Inventory management in the context of product returns has drawn the attention of many researchers. However, the inherent complexity of the system with uncertain returns makes the analysis of the system extremely difficult. So far, the literature on this type of system is mostly limited to single echelons. The few papers available in literature on multi-echelon systems with returns base their analyses on simplified assumptions such as non-existence or non-relevance of set-up and holding costs at different levels. In this paper, we relax these assumptions and consider a two-echelon system with returns under more generalized conditions. We develop a deterministic model as well as a stochastic model under continuous review for the system, and provide numerical examples for illustration.     

Pearsonian Type I curve and its fertility projection potentials

New procedures are developed in this article for estimating parameters of the Pearsonian Type I curve which are particularly adaptive to factors influencing the pattern of age-specific fertility rates. It is shown that with this model the number of parameters required for the graduation and simulation of these rates can be reduced to only three—total fertility rate, mean and modal ages of fertility. The reduction in the number of fertility parameters offers considerable operational and analytical advantages, and makes the Pearsonian Type I curve particularly appropriate for the construction of a parametric model for fertility projections. In light of the results of empirical tests based on fertility data for Canada, the model’s potential for birth projections appears quite promising.