Canadian state-owned enterprises: a framework for analyzing the evolving Crowns

Despite the privatization of many state-owned enterprises (SOEs), Canadian governments continue to own and operate numerous Crown corporations in a host of different sectors. Drawing its conclusions from the evolution of six Canadian Crowns, this article will explain both why these firms continue to exist in the public sphere as well as examine how their governance and organizational condition(s) have changed. With one exception, these firms have drastically modernized all aspects of their operations such that they are able to meet the needs of their citizen customers, various stakeholders and, most critically, their single shareholders. Historically imposed institutional variables, the political and policy needs of their respective owners and constraints on the decision-making powers of Canadian governments are key factors for understanding the continued public ownership and institutional development of these SOEs. Canada's limited adoption of New Public Management concepts and neoliberalism, more generally, is an additional pertinent factor that helps to explain their continued presence in the economy as well as the relatively late implementation of modernization programs. Some final thoughts on the value of SOEs and state intervention more generally round out the article.     

Extending chipman's marl estimator to cases of ignorance in one or more parameter dimensions

In this note we examine the sense in which Chipman's (1964) minimum average risk linear (MARL) estimator can be extended to cases where a prior probability distribution on B in the linear model Y = XB + E is proper only on a set of linear combinations of having a smaller dimension than the dimension of the B parameter space. We define the estimator that can be considered MARL in the class of estimators for which the average risk matrix is defined. The MARL-type estimator then becomes operational in cases where there is ignorance about one or more dimensions of the parameter space.     

The Scottish spoiled ballot: where was statistics?

In May 2007, Scotland went to the polls to elect both local constituency and regional members to the Scottish Parliament. Astonishingly, 100000 votes were rejected as spoiled. Voters had misunderstood the new form of ballot paper—3% had marked a single cross despite having two votes. Parties contesting the election described it as a debacle, a shambles, totally unsatisfactory. One American called it more flawed than Florida's notorious hanging chad ballot that gave the 2000 Presidential election to George Bush. What went wrong? Sheila Bird looks into the Scottish ballot paper.     

Analysis of the bovine spongiform encephalopathy maternal cohort study, revisited

The bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE) maternal cohort study provided robust evidence of an enhanced risk of developing BSE for offspring of BSE-affected dams. We present for the first time, but in retrospect, an interim analysis of the BSE maternal cohort study and set it in historical context, some of which has only been revealed through the BSE inquiry. We also consider the implications for design of extending the BSE maternal cohort study once an enhanced risk to exposed calves had been established, to assess the risk to calves born further from the clinical onset of BSE in the dam than those in the original study. We demonstrate that, if a data monitoring committee had been established, conclusions similar to those based on the final results could have been drawn several years before the completion of the BSE maternal cohort study. Further, we conclude that an extension of the cohort study is unlikely to have been commissioned because of the substantial financial investment required, yet low power, and practical difficulties associated with implementation of any worthwhile extension.     

An Empirical Test of the Strategic-Grid Model of Information Systems Planning*

Contingency models of information systems planning predict that no single planning approach will suit all organizations' needs. Little empirical research has been undertaken, however, to evaluate this prediction. Accordingly, we used McFarlan, McKenney, and Pyburn's (1983) strategic-grid model to study the information systems planning problems encountered by 49 governmental agencies. Twenty-seven agencies were required to follow a planning approach best suited to organizations that had a high level of dependence on both their existing and proposed systems. We predicted that agencies not having these characteristics would encounter the most problems with the approach. The remaining 22 agencies could choose their own planning approach. We studied this latter group to determine whether the problems encountered by the first group could be attributed to the mandated approach. Overall, the empirical results obtained were equivocal. Some results indicated that more planning problems were encountered by agencies in which the mandated approach was not appropriate to their position in the strategic grid. Other results were not supportive of this proposition. More work needs to be undertaken, therefore, to evaluate the predictive and explanatory power of contingency models of information systems planning. In addition, our research indicates a need to develop more rigorous theories of information systems planning behaviors, to improve the instruments needed to measure these behaviors, to explore the relationship between information systems planning behaviours and organizational effectiveness, to investigate how organizational learning impacts planning behaviors, and to determine the types of information systems planning problems that diffuse through organizations and those that remain localized.     

An Explanation of the Occupational Structure of Sectors of Industry

Abstract. This study has been carried out by the Research Centre for Education and Labour Market (ROA) as part of a long-range research project commissioned by the Ministry of Education and Sciences. The objective of the project is to develop an education/labour-market information system to help secondary and university students choose the right type of school and/or occupation (ROA 1988). The study reported on here sets out to disclose the factors underlying the development of the occupational pattern. The shares of occupational classes in each economic sector are taken as points of departure. The explanatory variables are technological progress and cyclical and structural sectoral developments. For each occupational class, an estimation is made with the help of a linear model, the estimation method being that of Weighted Least Squares. To permit several variables to be included in the equation, the data have been pooled over sectors and time. In two fifths of all cases, a model with explanatory variables has been chosen; in the remaining instances a sector-dummy model was found to suffice.