Public corruption: A study across regions in Italy

This work explores the determinants of public corruption using a regional panel dataset on crimes perpetrated in Italy by public officials against the public administration in combination with a set of demographic and socio-economic variables. The results suggest that both the size and the composition of public spending at the local level explain corruption. We also find that regions where social capital is higher are more likely to face a lower incidence of corruption crimes. Moreover, regions which have historically placed less importance on rooting out corruption may be stuck in a vicious circle of higher levels of corruption.     

Designing flavors for mass consumption

Abstract

In the increasingly competitive market for processed foods after the Second World War, flavor assumed new importance in product design and development as companies struggled to gain advantage and entice repeat buyers. This paper examines the flavor profile, a novel sensory evaluation method developed by chemists at Arthur D. Little, Inc. (ADL), the storied Cambridge, MA consulting firm. Introduced in 1949, the flavor profile claimed to offer a reliable way of measuring and describing the subjective sensory qualities of products. Drawing extensively on archival material, I document the circumstances surrounding the development of the flavor profile at ADL, examine its uses, and consider the conditions that led to its widespread adoption by the food industry. By considering the flavor profile as both a scientific instrument for flavor measurement, and a practical tool for flavor design and development, I hope to illuminate a dark corner in the history of food industrialization: the values, ideologies, and contingencies that shaped how foods were made to taste in the postwar period.     

Robust multivariate control charts based on Birnbaum–Saunders distributions

Multivariate control charts are powerful and simple visual tools for monitoring the quality of a process. This multivariate monitoring is carried out by considering simultaneously several correlated quality characteristics and by determining whether these characteristics are in control or out of control. In this paper, we propose a robust methodology using multivariate quality control charts for subgroups based on generalized Birnbaum–Saunders distributions and an adapted Hotelling statistic. This methodology is constructed for Phases I and II of control charts. We estimate the corresponding parameters with the maximum likelihood method and use parametric bootstrapping to obtain the distribution of the adapted Hotelling statistic. In addition, we consider the Mahalanobis distance to detect multivariate outliers and use it to assess the adequacy of the distributional assumption. A Monte Carlo simulation study is conducted to evaluate the proposed methodology and to compare it with a standard methodology. This study reports the good performance of our methodology. An illustration with real-world air quality data of Santiago, Chile, is provided. This illustration shows that the methodology is useful for alerting early episodes of extreme air pollution, thus preventing adverse effects on human health.     

A two-sample test for mean functions with increasing number of projections

We propose a test for equality of two means when data are functions and obtain the asymptotic properties of the test statistic as data dimension increases with the sample size. We also derive the asymptotic power of the test under some local alternatives and show that the test statistic is root-n consistent. A simulation study is conducted to evaluate the performance of the test numerically and to compare the proposed test with other existing four popular tests.     

政府产业政策对企业创新的影响——文献综述与逻辑框架

文章系统整理了包括产业政策激励在内的政府政策与企业研发投资的相关文献,旨在为学术界相关研究提供文献基础性概要分析,也为产业政策与企业创新行为的研究提供一个有益的导向性视野,内容涵盖了政府政策激励(包括产业政策)与企业研发投资、对政府激励政策(包括产业政策)与企业研发投资的研究评述、产业政策与企业研发投资的研究框架探索、产业政策激励与企业研发投资后续的研究方向。尤其是试图将产业政策、研发投资与创新绩效等纳入一个理论框架,并为产业政策对企业创新活动的激励效果给予某种程度上的理论解释,以弥补现有文献在研究系统性上的不足。     

一种低采样率的UWB信号接收技术

针对目前UWB信号接收机对高采样率A/D器件的依赖给出了一种低采样率的UWB信号接收机结构。简要分析了该接收机的接收原理,以及加性白高斯信道中的接收性能,并以4路并行滤波为例,对该接收机的接收性能进行了计算机仿真。计算机仿真的误比特率结果表明,仿真结果与分析结果相近。     

Informant accuracy in social network data IV: a comparison of clique-level structure in behavioral and cognitive network data

This paper examines whether clique-structure in cognitive data (i.e. recall of who one talks to) may be used as a proxy for clique-structure in behavioral data (i.e. who one actually talks to). The answer to this question is crucial to much of sociometric and social net-theoretic studies of social structure.We analysed the clique structures of the communication patterns of four naturally occurring groups of sizes 34 to 58, whose actual communications could easily be monitored, together with the groups' perceptions of their communications. The groups used were: radio hams, a college fraternity, a group of office workers, and an academic department. The analysis used clique-finding, block-modelling, and factor-analytic techniques, all employed in such a way as to maximize the accuracy of the cognitive data.After defining a way to compare clique structures between behavioral and cognitive data, we found that there was no useful relationship between the two, and furthermore there was no significant difference in performance between any of the structure-finding algorithms.We conclude that cognitive data may not be used for drawing any conclusions about behavioral social structure.     

Class locations,consumption locations,and the geography of voting in England

Much ecological analysis of voting patterns in England has been concerned to show (a) the importance of occupational class as a determinant of electoral behavior, and (b) that deviations from a predicted pattern based on class variables are consistent with the neighborhood effect hypothesis. Recently, Dunleavy has criticized both these orientations, replacing them with the concept of consumption locations. The present paper shows, using a new procedure to estimate voting at the constituency level, that there still remain spatial variations to be accounted for.