Can Benefits and Work Incentives Counseling be a Path to Future Economic Self-Sufficiency for Individuals with Disabilities?

In this paper, I estimate the relationship between benefit counseling and work incentive services and various labor market outcomes in the case of Supplemental Security Income /Social Security Disability Insurance beneficiaries who from 2003 to 2009 participated in the Vocational Rehabilitation programs in New York State. Using the propensity score matching approach, I find that counseling services can increase the probability of successful case closure by 5.2 percentage points. At the same time, these services can increase the earnings and working hours of beneficiaries by $42 and 3.3 h per week, respectively. Moreover, there is a $0.59 per hour increase in the wage rate for service recipients. From these results I conclude that providing benefit counseling and work incentive services helps beneficiaries who have strong employment goals achieve financial independence.     

Does inflation bias stabilize real growth? Evidence from Pakistan

The motive of a typical discretionary central banker to accommodate excess inflation (inflation bias) is either to stabilize real growth or to spur it beyond natural rate. To what extent inflation bias helps to materialize this intention warrants empirical investigation. A more direct empirical probe into this issue, however, requires observable inflation bias indicators, which we model through desirable and threshold inflation rates as well as their respective society’s preferences. While examining the effects of inflation bias for a typical case of the discretionary monetary policy strategy of Pakistan, we found that contrary to the desired boost/stabilization in real growth, the policy (via. inflation bias) produced counterproductive results. Inflation bias was not merely ineffective in inducing real growth but significantly destabilized it. Moreover, the results, which are robust to different inflation bias indicators and subsample analysis, indicate that the higher the inflation bias, the higher is the intensity (magnitude) of its destabilizing effect and vice versa. This suggests that a policy that would minimize/constrain inflation bias would be a better choice as it would not only help achieve low and stable inflation but also a sustainable real economic growth.     

New Estimates and Projections of Population Growth in Pakistan

Pakistan's population growth rate rose steadily from about 2.6 percent per annum in the early 1960s to a high of about 3.5 percent during the late 1980s. Since then it has declined to an estimated 2.1 percent for 2003. Growth rates calculated from the population censuses, which show a very different picture, are distorted by differential accuracy of enumeration. During the period of rising growth rates, fertility was constant at just under 7 children per woman while life expectancy at birth rose by nearly 20 years. Fertility decline began in the late 1980s, bringing the population growth rate down with it. Remarkably, there appears to have been little change in life expectancy over the past 15 years.     

Adapting Fertility Exposure Analysis to the Study of Fertility Change

Fertility exposure analysis was developed recently by Hobcraft and Little in order to evaluate the relative importance of the various proximate determinants upon levels of current fertility. In the present paper we extend the analysis to the study of changes in fertility between two cross-sectional surveys. We show how to express fertility change as a product of terms which represent changes in the proximate determinants. The model of change is adapted to a log-linear framework, in which the proximate determinants on the one hand, and socio-economic variables such as education, on the other, are considered together. A few simplifications of the method are also suggested so that fewer demands are made on data. The model and its possible interpretations are illustrated with pairs of surveys from Pakistan and Mexico. In each pair, one survey was part of the WFS programme and the other was very similar but conducted five years later.     

Non-binary neighbor balance circular designs for v=2n and λ=2

Neighbor balance designs were first introduced by Rees (1967) in circular blocks for the use in serological research. Subsequently several researchers have defined the neighbor designs in different ways. In this paper, neighbor balance circular designs for (k≤v) block size are constructed for even number of treatments i.e. v=2n. No such series of designs is known in literature. Two theorems are developed for circular designs. Theorem 1 gives the non-binary circular blocks, whereas Theorem 2 generates binary circular blocks when n≤4 and non-binary blocks for n>4. In suggested designs no treatment is ever a neighbor of itself. Blocks are constructed in such a way that each treatment is a right and left neighbor of every other treatment for a fixed number of times say λ. Sizes of initial circular blocks are not same. One main guiding principle for such designs is to ensure economy in material use.     

发展中加贸易的障碍--倾销与反倾销问题

倾销与反倾销摩擦已成为中国、加拿大贸易中的一个障碍。本文分析了摩擦产生的多方面原因 ,提出了解决问题的若干思路。     

Circular Strongly Balanced Repeated Measurements Designs

Magda (1980 Magda , C. G. ( 1980 ). Circular balanced repeated measurements designs . Commun. Statist. Theor. Meth. 9 : 1901 – 1918 .[Taylor & Francis Online], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar]) and Hedayat (1981 Hedayat , A. S. ( 1981 ). Repeated measurements designs-IV: recent advances (with discussion) . Bull. Int. Statist. Inst. 1 : 591 – 610 . [Google Scholar]) first considered the construction of circular strongly balanced repeated measurements designs. Sen and Mukerjee (1987 Sen , M. , Mukerjee , R. ( 1987 ). Optimal repeated measurements designs under interaction . J. Statist. Plann. Infer. 17 : 81 – 91 .[Crossref], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar]) and Roy (1988 Roy , B. K. ( 1988 ). Construction of strongly balanced uniform repeated measurements designs . J. Statist. Plann. Infer. 19 : 341 – 348 .[Crossref], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar]) considered the optimality and existence of circular strongly balanced repeated measurements designs based on the method of differences and Hamiltonian decomposition of lexicographic product of two graphs. In this article, we consider the construction of circular strongly balanced repeated measurements designs using the newly proposed method called cyclic shifts, and propose some new designs for p < v.     

Probabilistic Modeling of Flood Hazard and its Risk Assessment for Eastern Region of India

This article models flood occurrence probabilistically and its risk assessment. It incorporates atmospheric parameters to forecast rainfall in an area. This measure of precipitation, together with river and ground parameters, serve as parameters in the model to predict runoff and subsequently inundation depth of an area. The inundation depth acts as a guide for predicting flood proneness and associated hazard. The vulnerability owing to flood has been analyzed as social vulnerability $(V_S)$, vulnerability to property $(V_P)$, and vulnerability to the location in terms of awareness $(V_A)$. The associated risk has been estimated for each area. The distribution of risk values can be used to classify every area into one of the six risk zones—namely, very low risk, low risk, moderately low risk, medium risk, high risk, and very high risk. The prioritization regarding preparedness, evacuation planning, or distribution of relief items should be guided by the range on the risk scale within which the area under study falls. The flood risk assessment model framework has been tested on a real‐life case study. The flood risk indices for each of the municipalities in the area under study have been calculated. The risk indices and hence the flood risk zone under which a municipality is expected to lie would alter every day. The appropriate authorities can then plan ahead in terms of preparedness to combat the impending flood situation in the most critical and vulnerable areas.     

Study on lumbar kinematics and the risk of low back disorder in female university students by using shoes of different heel heights

The study was taken up to investigate the effects of heel heights on lumbar kinematics and the risk of Low Back Disorder (LBD) in females. Nineteen female university students (24.5 ± 3.36 yrs) volunteered in the study. Lumbar kinematics was measured by using Industrial Lumbar Motion Monitor (iLMM). The volunteers were asked to walk for a distance of 50 meters in 3 different given conditions i.e bare foot (Heel 0), with flat heels (Heel 1) and with high heels (Heel 2). Heights of Heel 1 and Heel 2 were 1.5 ± 0.84 cm and 5.5 ± 1.70 cm respectively. The Lumbar kinematic parameters studied were- Average Twisting Velocity (ATV), Maximum Sagital Flexion (MSF) and Maximum Lateral Velocity (MLV). It was observed that all the above mentioned Lumbar kinematics - ATV, MSF and MLV increases with increase of heel heights, which in turn increases the risk of LBD. As a result of increase in Lumbar kinematic values with increase in heel heights, LBD risk has also increased. Mean and SD of the LBD risk with Heel 0, Heel 1 and Heel 2 were 16.79 ± 6.04%, 19.00 ± 7.38% and 22.11 ± 6.98% respectively. Lower stature with high heels showed higher risk of LBD than the higher stature with high heels.     

Construction of neighbor designs of block size 4 for all values of v ≥ 5 by using the method of addition

In this article, a general method of construction of neighbor block designs is given. The designs are constructed using variation of a simple method which we refer to as the method of addition (renamed as the method of cyclic shifts). We give complete solution of neighbor balanced designs for k = 4 for any value of v. We also give many series of generalized neighbor designs (GNDs). In the last section, we have constructed GNDs in a sequential manner (as Did John 1981) for v ≤ 50 and r is multiple of k.