A new form of energy poverty is the hallmark of liberalised electricity sectors

The restructuring of electricity sectors has resulted in households paying significantly higher prices. Some European prices rose by more than 100 per cent between 2000 and 2010. NSW households experienced an 80 per cent increase during the period 2007 to 2012. Growing numbers of low‐income and vulnerable households are spending higher proportions of disposable income on energy bills and, we contend, suffer deprivation and social exclusion as a result. This phenomenon, we posit, is a new form of energy poverty driven by rapidly rising electricity prices which are directly related to electricity sector restructuring. The energy‐impoverished population is estimated at 150 million in Europe, and growing. Policy responses are ineffective and poorly targeted, while Australian policy makers rely on measures which significantly understate electricity price changes. This article explores the prevalence and consequences of the problem of energy poverty and outlines the extent of its occurrence in Australia, the country hailed as an exemplar of electricity sector liberalisation.     

Integrated Approaches for the Public Health Prioritization of Foodborne and Zoonotic Pathogens

To address the persistent problems of foodborne and zoonotic disease, public health officials worldwide face difficult choices about how to best allocate limited resources and target interventions to reduce morbidity and mortality. Data‐driven approaches to informing these decisions have been developed in a number of countries. Integrated comparative frameworks generally share three methodological components: estimating incidence of acute illnesses, chronic sequelae, and mortality; attributing pathogen‐specific illnesses to foods; and calculating integrated measures of disease burden such as cost of illness, willingness to pay, and health‐adjusted life years (HALYs). To discuss the similarities and differences in these approaches, to seek consensus on principles, and to improve international collaboration, the E.U. MED‐VET‐NET and the U.S.‐based Food Safety Research Consortium organized an international conference convened in Berlin, Germany, on July 19–21, 2006. This article draws in part on the deliberations of the conference and discusses general principles, data needs, methodological issues and challenges, and future research needs pertinent to objective data‐driven analyses and their potential use for priority setting of foodborne and zoonotic pathogens in public health policy.     

Estimation in the generalized linear empirical bayes model using the extended quasi-likelihood

A generalized linear empirical Bayes model is developed for empirical Bayes analysis of several means in natural exponential families. A unified approach is presented for all natural exponential families with quadratic variance functions (the Normal, Poisson, Binomial, Gamma, and two others.) The hyperparameters are estimated using the extended quasi-likelihood of Nelder and Pregibon (1987), which is easily implemented via the GLIM package. The accuracy of these estimates is developed by asymptotic approximation of the variance. Two data examples are illustrated.     

News and Comment

Abstract

L61 Years in the Schoolroom. By Lawrence Hurst. Boston : Meador Publishing Company, 1952. Pp. 255. $2.50. Reviewed by Walter H. Mohr.

Calling All Citizens. By Robert Rienow with the editorial assistance of Howard R. Anderson. New York: Houghton Mifflin Company, 1952. Pp. xxxiii, 690. $3.10. Reviewed by Ira Kreider.

Social Psychology: An Analysis of Human Behavior. By Leonard W. Doob. New York: Henry Holt and Company, 1952. Pp. xix, 583. $5.00. Reviewed by Jerry A. Neprash.

Social Psychology. By Robert E. L. Faris. New York: The Ronald Press Company, 1952. Pp. vii, 419. $5.00. Reviewed by Jerry A. Neprash.

Race Relations in Ancient Egypt - Greek. Egyptian, Hebrew, Roman. By S. Davis. Philosophical Library, 1952. Pp. xiii, 176. $4.50. Reviewed by J. F. Santee.

Social Treatment in Probation and Delinquency. Second Edition, By Pauline V. Young. New York: McGraw-Hill Book Co., Inc, 1952. Pp. xxvi, 536. $7.00. Reviewed by Wayne C. Neely.     

Choosing Between the Sample-Selection Model and the Multi-Part Model

Hay and Olsen (1984) incorrectly argue that a multi-part model, the two-part model used in Duan et al. (1982,1983), is nested within the sample-selection model. Their proof relies on an unmentioned restrictive assumption that cannot be satisfied. We provide a counterexample to show that the propensity to use medical care and the level of expense can be positively associated in the two-part model, contrary to their assertion. The conditional specification in the multi-part model is preferable to the unconditional specification in the selection model for modeling actual (v. potential) outcomes. The selection model also has poor statistical and numerical properties and relies on untestable assumptions. Empirically the multi-part estimators perform as well as or better than the sample selection estimator for the data set analyzed in Duan et al. (1982, 1983).     

Physical activity in the life of a woman with cerebral palsy: physiotherapy,social exclusion,competence, and intimacy

Although physical activity can have substantial mental and physical health benefits, people with cerebral palsy usually lead sedentary lives. To understand, at an individual level, this inactivity, we interviewed a 29-year-old minimally active woman with cerebral palsy (Alana) about the meanings and experiences of physical activity throughout her life. Using a case-study approach, we found that Alana had adverse childhood experiences with physical activity, including: having to perform difficult, and sometimes painful, physiotherapy; wearing callipers to assist her walking; demonstrating limited competence at physical activity; being excluded from physical education and other organised physical activity at school; and feeling socially isolated from her classmates. These experiences seemed to contribute to feelings of difference/inferiority and the subsequent avoidance of physical activity, which, in turn, might have contributed to premature functional decline. Physical activity levels in people with cerebral palsy might be increased through focusing on enhancing childhood experiences.     

Relative Distribution Methods

We present an outline of relative distribution methods, with an application to recent changes in the U.S. wage distribution. Relative distribution methods are a nonparametric statistical framework for analyzing data in a fully distributional context. The framework combines the graphical tools of exploratory data analysis with statistical summaries, decomposition, and inference. The relative distribution is similar to a density ratio. It is technically defined as the random variable obtained by transforming a variable from a comparison group by the cumulative distribution function (CDF) of that variable for a reference group. This transformation produces a set of observations, the relative data, that represent the rank of the original comparison value in terms of the reference group's CDF. The density and CDF of the relative data can therefore be used to fully represent and analyze distributional differences. Analysis can move beyond comparisons of means and variances to tap the detailed information inherent in distributions. The analytic framework is general and flexible, as the relative density is decomposable into the effect of location and shape differences, and into effects that represent both compositional changes in covariates, and changes in the covariate-outcome variable relationship.     

Letters to the Editor

Letters to the editor will be confined to discussions of papers that have appeared in The American Statistician and of important issues facing the statistical community. Letters discussing papers in The American Statistician must be received within two months of publication of the paper; the author of the paper will then be given an opportunity to reply, and the letters and reply will be published together. All letters to the editor will be refereed. Corrections of errors that have been noted in papers published in The American Statistician will be listed as corrections at the end of this section.