Redistributing Income and Relative Efficiency

This article considers the relative efficiency of marginally redistributing income from high- to low-income households. Additional spending on a negative income tax is compared with spending on an earnings or a wage subsidy. One set of reforms imposes the same burden on the nonpoor, and another set redistributes the same net benefit to the working poor. Additional spending on a negative income tax is more efficient than spending a similar amount on an earnings subsidy (the Earned Income Tax Credit), for some reforms and parameters. The wage subsidy is the most efficient, independent of parameters or type of reform.     

Testing retrospective hypotheses

This paper develops a conditional approach to testing hypotheses set up after viewing the data. For example, suppose X_i are estimates of location parameters θ_i, i = 1,…n. We show how to compute p-values for testing whether θ₁ is one of the three largest θ_i after observing that X₁ is one of the three largest X_i, or for testing whether θ₁ > θ₂ > … > θ_n after observing X₁ >X₂> … >X_n.     

Urban Form,Heart Disease,and Geography: A Case Study in Composite Index Formation and Bayesian Spatial Modeling

Recent studies indicate a relationship between measures of urban form as applied to urban and suburban areas, and obesity, a risk factor for heart disease. Measures of urban form for exurban and rural areas are considerably scarce; such measures could prove useful in measuring relationships between urban form and both mortality and morbidity in such areas. In modeling area-level mortality, geographic relationships between counties warrant consideration because geographically adjacent areas tend to have more in common than areas farther from each other. We modify county-level indices of urban form found in the literature so that they can be applied to exurban and rural counties. We then use these indices in a Bayesian spatial model that accounts for spatial autocorrelation to determine if there is a relationship between such measures and cardiovascular disease mortality for white males age 35 and older for the time period 1999–2001. Issues related to the formation and usefulness of the indices, and issues related to the spatial model, are discussed. Maps of observed and expected relative risk of mortality are presented. Jimmie Givens retired from his service.     

Why Do Pacific People with Multiple Ethnic Affiliations Have Poorer Subjective Wellbeing? Negative Ingroup Affect Mediates the Identity Tension Effect

We argue that multi-ethnic affiliation as a member of both the Pacific and majority (European) group creates tension in psychological wellbeing for Pacific peoples of mixed ancestry. Study 1 showed that multi-ethnic Pacific/non-Pacific people were lower in Pacific Familial Wellbeing relative to mono-ethnic Pacific and multi-ethnic Pacific/Pacific people (n = 586). Study 2 replicated this effect in a New Zealand (NZ) national probability sample using a measure of self-esteem (n = 276). Study 2 also modelled the mechanism driving the identity tension effect, and showed that group differences in negative affect toward Pacific peoples fully mediated the effect of ethnic mixed or mono-ethnic group affiliation on self-esteem. This currently affects the one-third of Pacific people who identify as Pacific/non-Pacific in NZ and occurs because multi-ethnic identification promotes the endorsement of negative societal attitudes toward Pacific peoples. Our model indicates that endorsement of such attitudes produces a more negative self-evaluation and generally corrodes subjective wellbeing and family integration. Population projections indicate that this potentially at-risk Pacific/non-Pacific group may increase dramatically in subsequent generations (upwards of 3.3 % of the population by 2026). Implications for the study of Pacific wellbeing, and avenues for applied research targeting this newly-identified emerging social problem are discussed.     

Increases in Arousal are More Long‐Lasting than Decreases in Arousal: On Homeostatic Failures During Emotion Regulation in Infancy

In emotion regulation, negative or undesired emotions are downregulated, but there are also opponent processes to emotion regulation—in which undesired emotions are exacerbated dynamically over time by processes that have an amplifying or upregulating impact. Evidence for such processes has been shown in adults, but little previous work has examined whether infants show similar patterns. To examine this, we measured physiological arousal in 57 typical 12 month olds while presenting a 20‐min mixed viewing battery. Fluctuations in autonomic arousal were measured via heart rate, electrodermal activity, and movement. We reasoned that if transitions in autonomic arousal are random (stochastic), then (1) arousal would be normally distributed across the session, and (2) episodes where arousal exceeded a certain threshold above the mean should be as long‐lived as those where arousal exceeded the same threshold below the mean. In fact we found that (1) heart rate and movement (but not electrodermal activity) were positively skewed, and (2) that increases in arousal have a lower extinction probability than decreases in arousal. Our findings may suggest that increases in arousal are self‐sustaining. These patterns are the opposite of the homeostatic mechanisms predicted by naïve approaches to emotion regulation.     

Technology-Enhanced Active Learning Classrooms: New Directions for Social Work Education

Social work educators are increasingly exploring how to effectively use technology in their classrooms. The purpose of this study was to explore how a technology-enhanced active learning classroom influenced social work students’ engagement and overall learning experiences. An online survey was conducted with 125 social work students from micro and macro courses. When compared to macro courses, students from micro social work courses more positively reported active participation, effective teaching, and technical skills as benefits of the classroom. Furthermore, the dynamic learning environment and instructors’ effective teaching significantly affected students’ positive learning experience. Social work programs should develop various teaching methods for active learning classrooms to develop students’ practice skills that can be transferred to the real world.     

Analysis of Local Acceptance of a Radioactive Waste Disposal Facility

Like many other countries in the world, Korea has struggled to site a facility for radioactive waste for almost 30 years because of the strong opposition from local residents. Finally, in 2005, Gyeongju was established as the first Korean site for a radioactive waste facility. The objectives of this research are to verify Gyeongju citizens' average level of risk perception of a radioactive waste disposal facility as compared to other risks, and to explore the best model for predicting respondents' acceptance level using variables related to cost-benefit, risk perception, and political process. For this purpose, a survey is conducted among Gyeongju residents, the results of which are as follows. First, the local residents' risk perception of an accident in a radioactive waste disposal facility is ranked seventh among a total of 13 risks, which implies that nuclear-related risk is not perceived very highly by Gyeongju residents; however, its characteristics are still somewhat negative. Second, the comparative regression analyses show that the cost-benefit and political process models are more suitable for explaining the respondents' level of acceptance than the risk perception model. This may be the result of the current economic depression in Gyeongju, residents' familiarity with the nuclear industry, or cultural characteristics of risk tolerance.     

Size performance of some tests in one-way anova

Tsui and Weerahandi (1989) introduced the notion of generalized p-values and since then this idea is used to solve many statistical testing problems. Heteroskedasticity is one of the major practical problems encountered in ANOVA problems. To compare the means of several groups under heteroskedasticity approximate tests are used in the literature. Weerahandi (1995a) introduced a test using the notion of generalized p-values for comparing the means of several populations when the variances are not equal. This test is referred to as a generalized F-test.

In this paper we compare the size performance of the Generalized F-test and four other widely used procedures: the Classical F-test for ANOVA, the F-test obtained by the weighted least-squares to adjust for heteroskedasticity, the Brown-Forsythe-test, and the Welch-test. The comparison is based on a simulation study of size performance of tests applied to the balanced one-way model. The intended level of the tests is set at 0.05. While the Generalized F-test was found to have size not exceeding the intended level, as heteroskedasticity becomes severe the other tests were found to have poor size performance. With mild heteroskedasticity the Welch-test and the classical ANOVA F-test have the intended levels, and the Welch-test was found to perform better than the latter. Widely used (due to computational convenience) weighted F-test was found to have very serious size problems. The size advantage of the generalized F-test was also found to be robust even under severe deviations from the assumption of normality.     

Monte Carlo Methods for Bayesian Inference on the Linear Hazard Rate Distribution

The Bayesian estimation and prediction problems for the linear hazard rate distribution under general progressively Type-II censored samples are considered in this article. The conventional Bayesian framework as well as the Markov Chain Monte Carlo (MCMC) method to generate the Bayesian conditional probabilities of interest are discussed. Sensitivity of the prior for the model is also examined. The flood data on Fox River, Wisconsin, from 1918 to 1950, are used to illustrate all the methods of inference discussed in this article.