Testing for a break in persistence under long-range dependencies and mean shifts

We show that the CUSUM-squared based test for a change in persistence by Leybourne et al. (J Time Ser Anal 28:408–433, 2007) is not robust against shifts in the mean. A mean shift leads to serious size distortions. Therefore, adjusted critical values are needed when it is known that the data generating process has a mean shift. These are given for the case of one mean break. Response curves for the critical values are derived and a Monte Carlo study showing the size and power properties under this general de-trending is given.     

Choice uncertainty and the endowment effect

Journal of Risk and Uncertainty - We experimentally test for the role of choice uncertainty in generating “endowment effects” - the robust empirical finding that endowing participants...     

Sorting and Decentralized Price Competition

We investigate the role of search frictions in markets with price competition and how it leads to sorting of heterogeneous agents. There are two aspects of value creation: the match value when two agents actually trade and the probability of trading governed by the search technology. We show that positive assortative matching obtains when complementarities in the former outweigh complementarities in the latter. This happens if and only if the match‐value function is root‐supermodular, that is, its nth root is supermodular, where n reflects the elasticity of substitution of the search technology. This condition is weaker than the condition required for positive assortative matching in markets with random search.     

A new approach to the measurement of polarization for grouped data

In this paper we develop a measure of polarization for discrete distributions of non-negative grouped data. The measure takes into account the relative sizes and homogeneities of individual groups as well as the heterogeneities between all pairs of groups. It is based on the assumption that the total polarization within the distribution can be understood as a function of the polarizations between all pairs of groups. The measure allows information on existing groups within a population to be used directly to determine the degree of polarization. Thus the impact of various classifications on the degree of polarization can be analysed. The treatment of the distribution’s total polarization as a function of pairwise polarizations allows statements concerning the effect of an individual pair or an individual group on the total polarization.     

Health Effects Caused by Primary Fine Particulate Matter (PM2.5) Emitted from Buses in the Helsinki Metropolitan Area, Finland

Fine particle (PM(2.5)) emissions from traffic have been associated with premature mortality. The current work compares PM(2.5)-induced mortality in alternative public bus transportation strategies as being considered by the Helsinki Metropolitan Area Council, Finland. The current bus fleet and transportation volume is compared to four alternative hypothetical bus fleet strategies for the year 2020: (1) the current bus fleet for 2020 traffic volume, (2) modern diesel buses without particle traps, (3) diesel buses with particle traps, and (4) buses using natural gas engines. The average population PM(2.5) exposure level attributable to the bus emissions was determined for the 1996-1997 situation using PM(2.5) exposure measurements including elemental composition from the EXPOLIS-Helsinki study and similar element-based source apportionment of ambient PM(2.5) concentrations observed in the ULTRA study. Average population exposure to particles originating from the bus traffic in the year 2020 is assumed to be proportional to the bus emissions in each strategy. Associated mortality was calculated using dose-response relationships from two large cohort studies on PM(2.5) mortality from the United States. Estimated number of deaths per year (90% confidence intervals in parenthesis) associated with primary PM(2.5) emissions from buses in Helsinki Metropolitan Area in 2020 were 18 (0-55), 9 (0-27), 4 (0-14), and 3 (0-8) for the strategies 1-4, respectively. The relative differences in the associated mortalities for the alternative strategies are substantial, but the number of deaths in the lowest alternative, the gas buses, is only marginally lower than what would be achieved by diesel engines equipped with particle trap technology. The dose-response relationship and the emission factors were identified as the main sources of uncertainty in the model.     

A New Social Service Professionalism? The Development of Social Work Theory in Germany

This paper examines the developments in German social work theory from the 1970s to the 1990s. It starts with an analysis of socio-economic relations which have given rise to a division of society as well as a consumerist approach of "service orientation" for the social services which presents a challenge both for social work theory and professional practice.
Against this background, major themes in the development of social work theory are identified. The authors observe a trend towards a greater recognition of the individual and her or his life-world. Although presented in the ideological context of neoliberalism, they argue that the core of the consumerist approach of "service orientation"– the privileging of the consumer – provides a basis for a paradigm shift in social work theory which will be an adequate response to "reflexive modernization" of society if taken out of the consumerist context and reformulated for the public services.
In the final section of the paper the authors present an outline of a theory of ldquo;social work as service" as a professional mode of action in the public sector of social service provision. It starts from a conceptual analysis of the service relation, examines the structural elements of the service context and discusses the necessary societal conditions. It is the thesis of the paper that the dialectical relationship of professional and service user represented in the conceptualization of social work as service will be the foundation for a new professionalism.