Substitution in statutory and voluntary support for relatives of older people

This study investigates the relationship between statutory and voluntary activity in the field of support to family carers of older people in Sweden. The relationship is considered in regard to substitution theory. A survey was conducted comprising 80 local authorities and 358 voluntary organisations. All the local authorities and about a third of the voluntary organisations arranged support activities. The number of activities varied substantially across the municipalities. However, correlation analysis found no significant relationship between local authority and voluntary activity, even though both sometimes arranged the same kinds of activities. In other words, this study finds no support for substitution theory. On the contrary, it shows that a higher level of voluntary activity is found in municipalities where the local authority cooperates with or supports voluntary organisations.     

A framework for progressively improving small area population estimates

Summary.  The paper presents a framework for small area population estimation that enables users to select a method that is fit for the purpose. The adjustments to input data that are needed before use are outlined, with emphasis on developing consistent time series of inputs. We show how geographical harmonization of small areas, which is crucial to comparisons over time, can be achieved. For two study regions, the East of England and Yorkshire and the Humber, the differences in output and consequences of adopting different methods are illustrated. The paper concludes with a discussion of how data, on stream since 1998, might be included in future small area estimates.     

Spanish Influenza Mortality of Ethnic Minorities in Norway 1918–1919

Previous studies into SpanishInfluenza mortality have reported thatindigenous populations were the prime victims.The explanations put forward in those studieswere not convincing, however, as no controlshad been made for possibly confounding factors.The multivariate analysis in this paper showsthat areas of Norway with high shares of theSami population (Laps) had high SpanishInfluenza mortality, net of such confoundingfactors as wealth, poverty, crowding, and occupationalstructure. The cause is probably a lack ofinherited and acquired immunity againstinfluenza among the Sami. Another ethnicminority, Kven (Finnish immigrants and theirdescendants), however, did not differsignificantly from the ethnic Norwegianmajority population with respect to SpanishInfluenza mortality. This is explained by arelatively high degree of economic and culturalassimilation of the Kven in the Norwegiansociety, as opposed to the Sami in the late1910s.     

Empirical likelihood tests for two‐sample problems via nonparametric density estimation

The authors study the problem of testing whether two populations have the same law by comparing kernel estimators of the two density functions. The proposed test statistic is based on a local empirical likelihood approach. They obtain the asymptotic distribution of the test statistic and propose a bootstrap approximation to calibrate the test. A simulation study is carried out in which the proposed method is compared with two competitors, and a procedure to select the bandwidth parameter is studied. The proposed test can be extended to more than two samples and to multivariate distributions.     

A NOTE ON SAMPLE QUANTILE PROCESSES OF FINITE POPULATIONS

A representation is established for sample quantile processes of simple random samples drawn without replacement from finite populations. The result is then used to obtain weak limits of properly normalized quantile processes and their linear functions.     

Bounds on deviations of estimates arising in finite population regression models

Bounds for the maximum deviation between parameters of a finite population and their corresponding sample estimates are found in the multiple regression model. The parameters considered are the vector of regression coefficients and the value ofthe regression function for given values of the independent variable (or variables). Applications are considered to several widely employed sampling methods.     

On sequentially rejective subset selection procedures

A technique for selection procedures, called sequential rejection, is investigated. It is shown that this technique is posssible to apply to certain selection goals of the "all or nothing" type, i.e. "selecting a subset containing all good populations" or "selecting a subset containing no bad population". The analogy with existing sequential techniques in the general theory of simultaneous statistical inference is pointed out.     

Asymptotic non-null distribution of a test connected with exponential populations

In this paper asymptotic expansions of the non-null distribution of the likelihood ratio criterion for testing the equality of several one parameter exponential distributions are obtained under local alternatives. These expansions are in terms of Chi-square distributions.