A Five-Decision Testing Procedure to Infer the Value of a Unidimensional Parameter

ABSTRACT

A statistical test can be seen as a procedure to produce a decision based on observed data, where some decisions consist of rejecting a hypothesis (yielding a significant result) and some do not, and where one controls the probability to make a wrong rejection at some prespecified significance level. Whereas traditional hypothesis testing involves only two possible decisions (to reject or not a null hypothesis), Kaiser’s directional two-sided test as well as the more recently introduced testing procedure of Jones and Tukey, each equivalent to running two one-sided tests, involve three possible decisions to infer the value of a unidimensional parameter. The latter procedure assumes that a point null hypothesis is impossible (e.g., that two treatments cannot have exactly the same effect), allowing a gain of statistical power. There are, however, situations where a point hypothesis is indeed plausible, for example, when considering hypotheses derived from Einstein’s theories. In this article, we introduce a five-decision rule testing procedure, equivalent to running a traditional two-sided test in addition to two one-sided tests, which combines the advantages of the testing procedures of Kaiser (no assumption on a point hypothesis being impossible) and Jones and Tukey (higher power), allowing for a nonnegligible (typically 20%) reduction of the sample size needed to reach a given statistical power to get a significant result, compared to the traditional approach.     

Social network and family business: Uncovering hybrid family firms

What does it mean for a private enterprise in China to be embedded in a family? Our purpose here is twofold: (1) use social network analysis to describe what it means for a firm to be embedded in a family, (2) reveal from the application a new kind of firm, not family, yet akin to family. Armed with data on a large probability sample of private enterprises — a third of which meet ownership and employment criteria of being family businesses — we uncover a category of “hybrid family firms” that look modern in the style of firms that exclude family, but operate socially in ways similar to family firms. Our conclusion from summary statistics on the sample is that there are no differences in average performance level or network advantage for the three categories of businesses: family firms, hybrid family firms, and family-excluded firms. The fact that CEOs of family firms and hybrid family firms more often turn to family as key business contacts is a fact about network composition that raises no question about network mechanisms. Whether the CEO turns to more or fewer family contacts, government help is more likely with stronger political connections, and business success and survival are more likely with a large, open network. That said, the look-modern, act-traditional hybrid family firms stand alone in prospering with a CEO embedded in a closed business network. Recognition of hybrid family firms adds to the literature’s illustrations of social network analysis used to distinguish types of businesses and business people, and extends the population of organizations within which governance and strategy are likely to be better understood when viewed through a family logic.     

农业社会学:经典命题及其延续

作为一门新兴学科,农业社会学近年来在中国呈现出良好的发展势头。一门学科的发展,需要通过不断的知识积累和经验研究进行一砖一瓦的建设,其中理论建设尤其重要。同其他社会科学一样,经典文本在农业社会学的理论建设中具有核心位置。 本专题选取了三个(对)农业社会学中的经典命题:农业的生产时间与劳动时间、农业技术变迁中的占取主义与替代主义,以及技术采用中的“农业跑步机理论冶。按照时代背景、原典阐释、学术延续以及启发意义的思路撰写,尝试为农业社会学的入门者提供一种理论梳理的路径。     

Business reform outcomes: Why so different?

Post-crisis policy making increasingly focuses on doing business reforms. We argue that the effects of those reforms will be different across countries. To understand the reasons for the reform outcome divergence, we advance a novel firm-size distribution (FSDs) argument. At the center of the argument is the fact that FSDs are different across countries and stable over time. Then, if a given doing business reform induces firms of different size to grow differently, this will produce a variety of reform outcomes across countries. To advance the argument, we set up a tractable general equilibrium (GE) model and study how firms of different size grow after a doing business reform. The model predicts that larger firms will grow faster than smaller firms after the reform. The model predictions are tested on the Enterprise Surveys (ES) data, merged with the Doing Business indicators. We confirm that firms of different size grow differently after a Doing Business reform. Thus, based on the notable differences of firm size distributions across countries, identical reforms to start, operate and close a business will produce a variety of reform outcomes across countries.     

黄国雄教授商品流通理论研究回顾

黄国雄教授是中国现代商品流通理论的奠基人.文章通过文献梳理和实际观察,对黄国雄教授的商品流通理论研究进行了回顾.黄国雄教授的商品流通理论主要包括三个方面:在内容方面,聚焦于商品流通理论的研究;在方法方面,多使用经验主义范式;在主要贡献方面,奠定了现代商学理论的根基,具体包括提出了“商业创造价值论”“流通产业基础论”和“商道即人道论”等三大理论,以及建立了现代商学的学科体系.     

外语课堂教学多模态语料库MCCT的创建

教育信息化2.0时代，利用多模态语料库语言学方法，通过语料库建设及其数据挖掘进行教学音视频流反思，已成为课堂教学和教师发展研究的重要手段。在遵循语料库建设基本原则基础上，聚焦“教师自身发展”专门用途外语课堂教学多模态语料库MCCT的创建，强调建库目的。与此同时，介绍建库过程，概述文字转写、语料切分与标注等具体做法，总结深加工后MCCT特点及其应用开发。目的是为高校教师利用多模态语料库方法进行教学、科研和自身发展提供理念思路、技术参考和典型样例。     

试论《贵妇的画像》中伊莎贝尔的成长

《贵妇的画像》是19世纪末美国著名小说家亨利·詹姆斯的杰作之一,同时也是其创作早期代表作,是美国现代小说的一个里程碑式的作品,具有较强的可读性。这部作品结构严谨、内涵丰富,以精巧的笔触对女性的心理进行了细致入微的刻画。本文通过《贵妇的画像》这本小说,对主人伊莎贝尔·阿切尔的成长进行了深入探讨。     

关于水书易文化之记忆与思考

水书即是易,是华夏易经的重要组成部分。由于历史的原因,水书,水书易被当成鬼书禁书等来损毁它禁绝它,历史的加减乘除的结果,水书、水书易无可奈何地濒临自然灭绝、自然消亡的状态。史籍称:华夏有"三易":"一曰‘连山’,二曰‘归臧’,三曰‘周易’,水书易是否就是所谓的"连山易",这就是我们所要研究的。水书易命名名正言顺恰如其分。水书易的名称具有特异性不可替代性和唯一性,同时还具有通用性。水书易的发现是贵州引以为傲的惊天大喜事已经引起海内外的广泛关注以及党和政府的高度重视,水书易名称正日益被广泛使用着,不但能够代表贵州的声音,同时还可树立贵州的形象,突显贵州传统民族文化优势和特色。水书易完全可以作为贵州易经文化的品牌和名片。     

企业推进消费文明的路径探索

应对＂消费—生态＂悖论,缓解生态危机,促进消费文明走向生态文明,企业应提高企业家和员工的生态道德素质,加强企业伦理建设,从而牢固树立生态消费理念,践行＂合度＂、＂合宜＂、＂合道＂的客观要求,实现经济合理性、生态合理性、伦理合理性的价值诉求,遵循环境友好,可持续发展,以人为本等基本原则,实施绿色、低碳的生态化模式,推进消费文明的发展。