Evaluation: Stakeholder-focused Criteria

Identifying and selecting suitable criteria is an important consideration in evaluating the performance of public sector organizations. Which criteria are chosen, and how they are weighted, will depend largely on the perspective being taken; different stakeholders (for example, clients, providers or commissioners) are likely to emphasize different criteria. In this paper a number of criteria are identified and an argument is developed to indicate which criteria are likely to be valued by various stakeholders. Furthermore, a number of approaches and mechanisms for evaluation are identified and the links between these, the criteria appropriate to them and the various stakeholders are made explicit. Finally, the issue of politics and the distribution of power between the stakeholders is addressed with a call for greater explicitness in using and balancing criteria (for example, as between professionals and the intended beneficiaries of services). In this way, while recognizing the inherent political nature of performance evaluation, the planning and implementation of services may be improved by a more mutually informed approach to evaluation.     

陌生人:布迪厄的生活轨迹与学术性情的发生

法国学者布迪厄的外省中下层的社会出身,为对布迪厄本人的祛魅解读提供了一个极好的参照视点。布迪厄的自视为陌生人的反体制性情,一方面为其批判性的反思社会学提供了巨大能量,另一方面也限制了其认知视角,使其看不到改变现实的希望。     

Assessing and Improving the Performance of Nearly Efficient Unit Root Tests in Small Samples

Abstract

The development of unit root tests continues unabated, with many recent contributions using techniques such as generalized least squares (GLS) detrending and recursive detrending to improve the power of the test. In this article, the relation between the seemingly disparate tests is demonstrated by algebraically nesting all of them as ratios of quadratic forms in normal variables. By doing so, and using the exact sampling distribution of the ratio, it is straightforward to compute, examine, and compare the test' critical values and power functions. It is shown that use of GLS detrending parameters other than those recommended in the literature can lead to substantial power improvements. The open and important question regarding the nature of the first observation is addressed. Tests with high power are proposed irrespective of the distribution of the initial observation, which should be of great use in practical applications.     

杜文秀大理农民革命政权的历史贡献

杜文秀长期得不到公正评价的一个重要原因,即学界对其政权建立和建树缺乏了解。本文从九个方面,阐述了杜文秀起义原因和在政治、文化、民族团结及农工商各业取得的骄人成绩,以帮助读者加深对这一农民革命政权的了解。     

用于分散电压控制的规则库法

电力系统正常运行时,无功/电压控制目的是安全经济供电.而在紧急情况下,首要目标是运行的安全性,其次才是经济性.本文提出的局部网概念及其灵敏度矩阵,以及对电压违限严重性的分级和控制战略,使控制更为快速有效.此法更适用于当事故引起全系统运行数据不全时对局部网的电压控制.     

行政管理革新与法治政府建设——应以法治和发展的眼光审视当下的行政管理新举措

当下深化改革的进程中我国行政管理新举措层出不穷且争议甚多,可从几个方面加以观察和评价:一是诸多典型案(事)例暴露出严重的观念滞后问题,必须克服戴旧眼镜看新事物的现象;二是内容丰富的行政管理改革创新是在宏大复杂的背景下进行的,最主要的背景因素是经济和政治改革的深化和科技革命的影响;三是我国行政管理改革创新的动向,是以人为本前提下走向柔性管理、高效管理和方法创新,重点是行政管理方式方法的创新发展,相对而言这是成本低、风险小、效率高、成效稳健、易达共识的路径选择;四是行政管理改革创新应坚持法治原则和实践标准等基本界限,防止借创新之名行营私之实。当下关键在于我们要以法治和发展的眼光去看待、宽容和冷静的心态去对待这些行政管理改革的创新举措。     

宏观调控权纵向配置研究——以宏观调控法为视角

宏观调控权纵向配置的观点众多,主流观点多认为中央享有宏观调控权,但其中颇多疏漏。从理论结合实践的维度出发,因可得出宏观调控权的纵向配置应是中央和地方共享宏观调控权。在此基础之上,初步构建出中央与地方宏观调控权配置的体系。     

A revisit to test the equality of variances of several populations

We revisit the problem of testing homoscedasticity (or, equality of variances) of several normal populations which has applications in many statistical analyses, including design of experiments. The standard text books and widely used statistical packages propose a few popular tests including Bartlett's test, Levene's test and a few adjustments of the latter. Apparently, the popularity of these tests have been based on limited simulation study carried out a few decades ago. The traditional tests, including the classical likelihood ratio test (LRT), are asymptotic in nature, and hence do not perform well for small sample sizes. In this paper we propose a simple parametric bootstrap (PB) modification of the LRT, and compare it against the other popular tests as well as their PB versions in terms of size and power. Our comprehensive simulation study bursts some popularly held myths about the commonly used tests and sheds some new light on this important problem. Though most popular statistical software/packages suggest using Bartlette's test, Levene's test, or modified Levene's test among a few others, our extensive simulation study, carried out under both the normal model as well as several non-normal models clearly shows that a PB version of the modified Levene's test (which does not use the F-distribution cut-off point as its critical value), and Loh's exact test are the “best” performers in terms of overall size as well as power.