How much reliable are the integrated ‘live’ data? A validation strategy proposal for the non-parametric micro statistical matching

The integration of different data sources is a widely discussed topic among both the researchers and the Official Statistics. Integrating data helps to contain costs and time required by new data collections. The non-parametric micro Statistical Matching (SM) allows to integrate ‘live’ data resorting only to the observed information, potentially avoiding the misspecification bias and speeding the computational effort. Despite these pros, the assessment of the integration goodness when we use this method is not robust. Moreover, several applications comply with some commonly accepted practices which recommend e.g. to use the biggest data set as donor. We propose a validation strategy to assess the integration goodness. We apply it to investigate these practices and to explore how different combinations of the SM techniques and distance functions perform in terms of the reliability of the synthetic (complete) data set generated. The validation strategy takes advantage of the relation existing among the variables pre-and-post the integration. The results show that ‘the biggest, the best’ rule must not be considered mandatory anymore. Indeed, the integration goodness increases in relation to the variability of the matching variables rather than with respect to the dimensionality ratio between the recipient and the donor data set.     

Business Performance Analytics: exploring the potential for Performance Management Systems

Business Performance Analytics (BPA) entails the systematic use of data and analytical methods (mathematical, econometric and statistical) for performance measurement and management. Although potentially overcoming some traditional diagnostic issues related to Performance Management Systems (PMS), such as information overload, absence of cause-effect relationships, lack of a holistic view of the organisation, research in the field is still in its infancy. A comprehensive model for operationalising analytics for diagnostic and interactive PMS is still lacking. Adopting an action research approach, this paper addresses this gap and develops a five-step framework applied to a company operating in the construction industry. The results show that in addition to encouraging dialogue, BPA can contribute to identifying critical performance variables, potential sources of risk and related interdependencies. A number of critical issues in implementing data-based approaches are also highlighted, including data quality, organisational competences and cultural shifts.     

A Structural Equation Model Estimation of the Role of Social Vulnerability as a Predictor of People’s Feelings of Unsafety

Social Indicators Research - People’s perception of insecurity is linked to a wide range of factors and up-to-date sources stress the impact of socially constructed concerns on feelings of...     

Security-voting structure and equity financing in the banking sector: ‘one head-one vote’ versus ‘one share-one vote’

Using a unique dataset including all rights issues of new shares and other equity-like securities announced by Italian listed banks between 1989 and 2014, and exploiting the ideal setting provided by the Italian Banking Law, which allows for listed co-operative banks, we test if the ‘one head-one vote’ principle of co-operative banks and the ‘one share-one vote’ voting system of joint stock banks imply different costs of equity. Our empirical results, obtained using an event-study methodology, regressions and matching estimators, support our research hypothesis that the one head-one vote principle makes it more difficult raising new capital compared to one share-one vote principle, and contribute to the literature on demutualization and cooperative hybrids.

     

Anonymizing binary and small tables is hard to approximate

The problem of publishing personal data without giving up privacy is becoming increasingly important. An interesting formalization recently proposed is the k-anonymity. This approach requires that the rows in a table are clustered in sets of size at least k and that all the rows in a cluster become the same tuple, after the suppression of some records. The natural optimization problem, where the goal is to minimize the number of suppressed entries, is known to be NP-hard when the values are over a ternary alphabet, k=3 and the rows length is unbounded. In this paper we give a lower bound on the approximation factor that any polynomial-time algorithm can achieve on two restrictions of the problem, namely (i) when the records values are over a binary alphabet and k=3, and (ii) when the records have length at most 8 and k=4, showing that these restrictions of the problem are APX-hard.     

Workers remittances and the real exchange rate

Workers' remittances represent a sizeable component of international trade flows in goods and services. The paper tries to assess to what extent workers remittances are responsive to key macroeconomic variables. We first develop a simple model of altruistic transfers and show that the real exchange rate may play a crucial role in affecting the remittance behaviour of migrants. Econometric estimation of a remittance equation for a sample of five Mediterranean countries indicates that the real exchange rate is indeed a significant determinant of remittances. Further support in this respect comes from an analysis of remittance behaviour by foreign workers in Germany. We also find strong evidence to support the claim that remittances are altruistically motivated, as indicated by the systematically negative coefficient associated with recipients' income.I am grateful to Luigi Guiso, Oded Stark for helpful discussions, to Werner Smolny and two anonymous referees for stimulating comments and to Fabrizio Perri and Fabiano Schivardi for superb research assistance. The responsibility for any remaining errors is mine.     

A geostatistical approach to define guidelines for radon prone area identification

Radon is a natural radioactive gas known to be the main contributor to natural background radiation exposure and the major leading cause of lung cancer second to smoking. Indoor radon concentration levels of 200 and 400 Bq/m³ are reference values suggested by the 90/143/Euratom recommendation, above which mitigation measures should be taken in new and old buildings, respectively, to reduce exposure to radon. Despite this international recommendation, Italy still does not have mandatory regulations or guidelines to deal with radon in dwellings. Monitoring surveys have been undertaken in a number of western European countries in order to assess the exposure of people to this radioactive gas and to identify radon prone areas. However, such campaigns provide concentration values in each single dwelling included in the sample, while it is often necessary to provide measures of the pollutant concentration which refer to sub-areas of the region under study. This requires a realignment of the spatial data from the level at which they are collected (points) to the level at which they are necessary (areas). This is known as change of support problem.In this paper, we propose a methodology based on geostatistical simulations in order to solve this problem and to identify radon prone areas which may be suggested for national guidelines.     

I AM IMMORTAL

I suggest a model to forecast life expectancy based on the electrocardiogram signal. I show how the heart electrical activity can be decomposed in the state‐space and that the suggested model has superior out‐of‐sample properties compared to a set of alternatives. When the model is used to forecast my own electrocardiogram, a striking result arises: the n‐step ahead forecast remains bounded and positive even after one googol period. Therefore, my life expectancy tends to infinity implying that I am immortal. (JEL I10, I19)     

Do women directors contribute to R&D? The role of critical mass and expert power

Journal of Management and Governance - The paper provides insights into the implications for innovation input of having women on company boards. It sheds light on the effects of critical mass and...