When policy advisors cannot reach a consensus

In this paper advisors are selected by two ministers with conflicting interests in order to (1) acquire information, and (2) obtain political legitimacy concerning a project. In the end, parliament decides whether or not the project, of which the consequences are uncertain, is implemented. In principle a minister wants to appoint an advisor whose preferences are similar. However, since the advisor needs to convince the decisive player in the model, the minister may appoint an advisor whose preferences are closer to those of the agents to be persuaded. We also show when polarised advice occurs (the advisors have different preferences) and when consensual advice occurs (they have the same preferences). Received: 29 June 1998/Accepted: 26 May 1999     

Heterogeneity in the intergenerational transmission of educational attainment: evidence from Switzerland on natives and second-generation immigrants

This study applies rich data from the 2000 Swiss census to investigate the patterns of intergenerational education transmission for natives and second-generation immigrants. The level of secondary schooling attained by youth aged 17 is related to their parents’ educational outcomes based on data on the entire Swiss population. Extending economic theories of child educational attainment, we derive hypotheses regarding the patterns of intergenerational education transmission. The data yield substantial heterogeneity in intergenerational transmission across population groups. Only a small share of this heterogeneity is explained by the predictions of economic theory.

Drivers of private-label purchase behavior across quality tiers and product categories

Private labels hold a substantial share of consumers’ wallets and their popularity is still growing as they spread into various product categories and quality tiers. To determine the right branding strategy, in terms of offering uniform or different private-label brands across product categories, retailers have to know whether consumers use their private-label experience across product categories and private-label tiers. Therefore, we examine different determinants of consumers’ consideration sets. We apply proneness for certain private-label tiers, product categories purchased, purchase frequency, and variety seeking as internal determinants, which contribute to consumers’ knowledge and experience with private labels. Further, we use consumers’ price consciousness and promotion sensitivity as external determinants, which the retailer can use to influence consumers’ consideration sets in the short run. Our analyses are based on large-scale loyalty program data for a period of 24 months. In particular, we use the first 12 months to derive the determinants of consumers’ share of wallets regarding different private-label quality tiers in the second half of the sample. We conduct our analyses for 12 different product categories and aggregate the results by using meta-analytic techniques. Notably, some determinants show dissimilar effects across product categories (e.g., price consciousness and promotion sensitivity), while others (e.g., private-label proneness) are rather similar. We find that consumers’ general proneness for certain private-labels tiers leads to a propensity to purchase them in a specific category and in adjacent quality tiers. Further, we reveal that product category characteristics moderate the determinants of private-label share.     

Change-in-mean tests in long-memory time series: a review of recent developments

AStA Advances in Statistical Analysis - It is well known that standard tests for a mean shift are invalid in long-range dependent time series. Therefore, several long-memory robust extensions of...     

The effects of income on health: new evidence from the Earned Income Tax Credit

Review of Economics of the Household - This study examines the relationship between income and health by using an expansion of the Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC), which increased benefits to...     

Online network monitoring

Statistical Methods & Applications - An important problem in network analysis is the online detection of anomalous behaviour. In this paper, we introduce a network surveillance method bringing...     

Piecewise linear approximation of empirical distributions under a Wasserstein distance constraint

Big data applications and Monte Carlo simulation results can nowadays easily contain data sets in the size of millions of entries. We consider the situation when the information on a large univariate data set or sample needs to be preserved, stored or transferred. We suggest an algorithm to approximate a univariate empirical distribution through a piecewise linear distribution which requires significantly less memory to store. The approximation is chosen in a computationally efficient manner, such that it preserves the mean, and its Wasserstein distance to the empirical distribution is sufficiently small.     

Control charts for multivariate spatial autoregressive models

This paper deals with spatial detection of changes in model parameters of spatial autoregressive processes. The respective sequential testing problems are formulated. Moreover, we introduce characteristic quantities to monitor means or covariances of multivariate spatial autoregressive processes. Additionally, we also take into account the simultaneous surveillance of the mean vector and the covariance matrix. The aim is to apply control charts, important tools of sequential analysis, to these quantities. The considered control procedures are based on either cumulative sums or exponential smoothing. Further, we illustrate the methodology of statistical process control studying the spectrum of additive colors in a satellite photograph. Via simulation studies, the proposed control procedures are calibrated for a predefined average run length. In addition, we compare the performance of the control procedures considering the out-of-control situation. Eventually, the control charts are applied, and the signals of the different schemes are visualized. The final results are critically discussed.     

Evidenztriangulation in der Gesundheitsforschung

The contribution starts with weaknesses of a strict quantitative methodology in social research. Especially in health research variable connections are so complex that a broader understanding of research methods seems to be necessary. The dominance of quantitative-experimental ongoing in the sense of randomized controlled trials (RCT) at the top of the evidence hierarchy is criticized and a concept of evidence triangulation in the sense of mixed methods is proposed as alternative. An example study shows the logic of this research design. An institution of drug addicts counseling and therapy is analyzed in its effects through an evaluation study, using four different methodological approaches, an experimental pre-post design, qualitative interviews with the clients, and qualitative and document analysis using qualitative content analysis are combined. Each of them is developed in criticizing and supplementing the other approaches. The mixed methods procedure therefor follows a dialectical theory of science.