Application of Different Techniques of Factor Analysis to Develop Neighborhood Social Capital Rating Scale

Composite indicators are widely used to determine the ranking of countries, organizations or individuals in terms of overall performance on multiple criteria. Their calculation requires standardization of the individual statistical criteria and aggregation of the standardized indicators. These operations introduce a potential propagation effect of extreme values on the calculation of the composite indicator of all entities. In this paper, we propose robust composite indicators for which this propagation effect is limited. The approach uses winsorization based on a robust estimate of the distribution of the sub-indicators. It is designed such that the winsorization affects only the composite indicator rank but has no effect on the entities ranking in each sub-indicator. The simulation study documents the benefits of distribution-based winsorization in the presence of outliers. It leads to a ranking that is closer to the clean data ranking when compared to the ranking obtained using either no winsorization or the traditional winsorization based on empirical quantiles. In the empirical application, we illustrate the use of winsorization for ranking countries based on the United Nations Industrial Development Organization’s Competitive Industrial Performance index. We show that even though the sub-indicator ranking does not change, the robust winsorization approach has a material impact on the ranking of the composite indicator for countries with large discrepancies in the scores of the sub-indicators.

     

Explaining Unequal Levels of Social Capital in Tehran

Social capital may act as an asset to serve people in various situations. However, people do not equally enjoy the same level of social capital and there is inequality in distribution of this asset in societies. There is few research within the wider literature exploring the determinants of inequality in social capital. This study measured and decomposed inequality in the distribution of social capital in Tehran using a concentration index approach. Data was gathered through a survey in 2008, the sample included 2484 of over 18-year old residents. Social Capital Integrated Questionnaire was used to measure social capital status, its dimensions (networking, trust, and cooperation) and outcomes (cohesion and political action). Most of social capital dimensions/outcomes were unequally distributed in Tehran, favouring the rich. However, in terms of political action, the poor were more politically active than the rich in Tehran. Decomposition showed that economic status and education had the highest contributions to the observed inequalities. In efforts to move towards a more just society, these findings can inform future policies in Iran to tackle the observed inequalities in social capital.     

Small-sample properties of covariance-adjusted survivorship data tests for treatment effect

Monte Carlo methods are used to examine the small-sample properties of 11 test statistics that can be used for comparing several treatments with respect to their mortality experiences while adjusting for covariables. The test statistics are investigated from three distinct models: the parametric, semiparametric and rank analysis of covariance (Quade, 1967) models. Four tests (likelihood ratio, Wald, conditional and unconditional score tests) from each of the first two models and three tests (based on rank scores) from the last model are discussed. The empirical size and power of the tests are investigated under a proportional hazards model in three situations: (1) the baseline hazard is correctly assumed to be Exponential, (2) the baseline hazard is incorrectly assumed to be Exponential, and (3) a treatment-covariate interaction is omitted from the analysis.     

Fisher Information in Record Values and Their Concomitants: A Comparison of Two Sampling Schemes

Two sampling designs via inverse sampling for generating record data and their concomitants are considered: single sample and multisample. The purpose here is to compare the Fisher information in these two sampling schemes. It is shown that the comparison criterion depends on the underlying distribution. Several general results are established for some parametric families and their well known subclasses such as location-scale and shape families, exponential family and proportional (reversed) hazard model. Farlie-Gumbel-Morgenstern (FGM) family, bivariate normal distribution, and some other common bivariate distributions are considered as examples for illustrations and are classified according to this criterion.     

Using orthogonal array for constructing three-level search designs

We consider the problem of constructing search designs for 3^m factorial designs. By using projection properties of some three-level orthogonal arrays, some search designs are obtained for 3 ? m ? 11. The new obtained orthogonal search designs are capable of searching and identifying up to four two-factor interactions and estimating them along with the general mean and main effects. The resulted designs have very high searching probabilities; it means that besides the well-known orthogonal structure, they have high ability in searching the true effects.     

Estimation of the exponential Pareto II distribution parameters

In this article, we estimate the parameters of exponential Pareto II distribution by two new methods. The first one is based on the principle of maximum entropy (POME) and the second is by Kullback–Leibler divergence of survival function (KLS). Monte Carlo simulated data are used to evaluate these methods and compare them with the maximum likelihood method. Finally, we fit this distribution to a set of real data by estimation procedures.     

Evaluating the potential contribution of urban ecosystem service to climate change mitigation

Urban Ecosystems - Promoting urban greenery through tree planting strategies has been considered as a measure to mitigate climate change. While it is essential to understand the temporal dynamics...     

The effect of violent crime on female decision-making within the household: evidence from the Mexican war on drugs

Review of Economics of the Household - This paper uses the surge in drug-related violence in Mexico to study the effect of violent crime on married women’s decision-making. Using a...     

Cultural adaptations in psychosocial interventions for post-traumatic stress disorder among refugees: A systematic review

ABSTRACT

The aim of this study was to systematically review randomized controlled trials on non-pharmaceutical interventions for post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) among adult refugees with a focus on identifying common cultural adaptations and reviewing possible effects of such adaptations on outcomes. The conducted systematic search yielded 11 studies. The strongest support was for eye movement desensitization and reprocessing (EMDR). Commonly used cultural adaptations in the reviewed studies included modifications in personnel and setting context, changes in content, and translation or adaptation of evaluation tools.