Capacity constraints and the dynamics of underwriting profits

The presence of an underwriting profit cycle in property/liability insurance has become a stylized fact. Models of this'underwriting cycle'imply that the insurance market is governed by two regimes, as capacity is constrained or not. We apply the smooth transition regression model to insurance industry data for 1934–1993 to test for a regime shift. We find a rapid shift between two distinct regimes with different dynamics. When capacity is not restricted, we find no evidence of a cycle. The cycle is present in periods when capacity is restricted, immediately following World War II and after 1968. The underwriting cycle appears to be a recent phenomenon.     

Human Resource Department Power and Influence Through Symbolic Action

The present study integrates theory and researchon power, politics, and social constructionism toinvestigate how human resource (HR) departments inorganizations gain influence. Survey results from 242 organizations demonstrated that symbolicactions are stronger predictors of HR department powerthan unionization, HR performance, and top managementattitudes. Implications of the results are discussed as are directions for futureresearch.     

The effects of smoking laws on seating allocations of restaurants, bars, and taverns

Supporters of smoking laws often argue that they do not harm restaurants, bars, and taverns and may even raise their profits. Opponents argue that owners cater to customer preferences regarding smoking and that laws mandating specific smoking policies will therefore negatively impact profits of some firms. This article tests hypotheses regarding how smoking laws affect seating allocations, using data from a nationwide survey of restaurant and bar owners. The empirical evidence indicates that smoking laws exert no significant effect on seating allocations. Firms are shown to allocate greater shares of seating to nonsmoking use when customers exhibit stronger preferences for such seating.     

自动往返电动小汽车的设计原理与制作方法

本文介绍了采用脉冲主动采集、计数程序控制、虚拟脉冲复位、撞击转向的方式完成自动往返电动小汽车的构思、设计及制作的方法。     

To the barrios] The new course charted by the national population program

In order to reduce the Philippine birthrate to 2% by 1980, the number of rural women practicing contraception must be trebeled. To facilitate such an effort, a large-scale reorganization and reorientation in all areas of family planning activity--delivery, training, research, information, education, and communication--is proposed, shifting the delivery of family planning services from clinics to the 36,000 barrio bases. A goal of 16,000 extension workers in family planning is set for 1976; these workers will be the ones to make the initial contacts with potential acceptors. Then full-time family planning workers will try to make potential acceptors into bonefide ones, giving advice or prescribing the method and providing follow-up. Family planning workers will be supervised by nurses and midwives in health stations, who in turn will be supervised by the physician in the rural health unit. Acceptability among community residents is the most vital characteristic of a family planning worker, with the country's 27,000 hilots (birth attendents) seen as leading candidates. Attracting and training manpower in the field is a major challenge, as is lack of personnel in the area of research. Several possible avenues for the development of research interest and manpower for the population program are explored.     

Use of a case study in sequencing/scheduling research

This paper describes a study of an industrial sequencing/scheduling problem. The study contains the definition of the problem, data requirements and examination of solution technique. Definition of the problem is discussed from the aspect of uniqueness of the specific system. Discussion of data requirements includes availability and accuracy, while examination of solution technique considers limitation of time, computer capacity, etc., as well as the possibility of imbedding available algorithms into the solution procedure. Conclusions are presented relative to the use of the case study approach in sequencing/scheduling research.     

Adolescent fertility programs: responding to the needs of today's youth

The 1983 conference on Adolescent Fertility Management in Asia and the Pacific provided a forum for sharing information and experiences. The project was designed to stimulate interest in and strengthen existing programs on adolescent fertility in participating countries, i.e., Bangladesh, Fiji, India, Indonesia, Nepal, Philippines, Sri lanka, and Thailand. Specifically, the conference sought to identify adolescent fertility problems and share experiences in managing adolescent fertility programs, identify gaps in the development and implementation of adolescent fertility programs and projects, and formulate plans to meet the adolescent fertility needs of the participating countries. Capsule presentations of the experiences of the participating countries are presented. Focus is on the projects they have undertaken and proposed activities. In Bangladesh Jatio Tarum Sangha, the national youth organization, seeks to get youth involved in family planning activities through information/education/motivation programs and community development projects. Fiji proposes to establish a youth center to be operated by the Ministry of Health to reduce the incidence of unplanned pregnancy and sexually transmitted diseases in adolescents and to make them more aware of sex-related health problems and the importance of responsible sex. India's Family Planning Association has initiated population education programs for youth. Several projects have been launched in Jakarta to cope with adolescent fertility problems including the adolescent health project, the Consultation Center for Adolescents, and the university-based family health project. The Family Planning Association of Nepal has completed some major programs under its youth project. The Philippines' proposed youth centers are planned to respond to the fertility related needs and problems of Filipino adolescents. Innovations of the center are: the operation of several youth-serving government and private agencies under 1 roof, and encouragement of youth participation in designing and running the center. Sri Lanka does not have much of an adolescent fertility problem. Virtually all fertility is said to occur within marriage. A study on adolescent fertility is planned. Thailand has launched several government and nongovernment programs to reach adolescents both in and out of school. Government programs include counseling services and the National Family Planning Communication for Premarriage adolescents. Key issues are identified and recommendations are made.     

Coping with adolescent fertility

In the Philippines, despite the conservative values of the population, factors brought about by increasing modernization encurage the youth to practice sex, although actual sexual behavior lags behinds attitudes. This is particlarly the case in Metropolitan Manila, the country's most urbanized region. In 1982, 4 of 10 live births were to women aged 15-24. There also are reports that births out of wedlock have increased in the past few years, with the biggest number of such births registered by women in the younger age groups. The magnitude of the problem causes concern among the policymakers, throughout the world, the Philippines included. The government and the private sector in the philippines have started to recognize the need to protect adolescents, particularly girls, from unplanned parenthood. Adolescent fertility programs in the Philippines and neighboring countries are relatively new and policymakers are working to strengthen them. Recently, the Commission on population (Popcom) organized the Youth and Premarriage Task Forces to address the specific needs and concerns of the youth. In line with this objective, private and government agencies have developed programs and projects for specific youth sectors which influence or may be influenced by adolescent secxuality norms. There are projects designed to suit the specific needs of in school youth, out of school youth, working youth, pregnnant unmarried women, and adolescent counselors. Some of these programs and projects are described. Similar to other projects, the adolescent fertility projects in the Philippines experience their share of problems and constrants, including shortage of trainers, lack of reliable data, inadequate supply of resource materials, and the need to strengthen government policy. In view of all this, a need exists to attract more people to train service providers who will attend to adolescents' information needs, ranging from common concerns like dating to more serious concerns like pregnancy. In a recent survey many service providers indicated that the were wary of providing contraceptive information and services to adolescents for 2 reasons: they believe these might promote sexual promiscuity among the married; and the fear they might be sued by irate parents. Coupled with the problem of lack of reliable data is the fact that few materials on sexually related materials have been developed in the philippines. Such local materials are needed for the benefit of both the youth and the service providers and counselors.     

A hierarchical theory of occupational segregation and wage discrimination

Becker's model of discrimination is extended to the case where men exhibit distastes for working under female managers. The distribution of women in the resulting occupational hierarchy depends on the number of women in lower occupations, the wages of male workers in lower occupations, and male distastes for female management. Thus, there exists an occupational sorting function, related to wages, that determines the occupational distribution of women. We integrate this sorting function into a standard wage equation to derive a new decomposition of male-female wage differentials and apply it to a sample of insurance industry workers from the 1988 CPS.     

Testing the equality of location parameters of exponential populations from censored samples

The modified Tiku test and the modified likelihood ratio test proposed by Tiku and Vaughan (1991) for k=2 exponential populations are extended to . k > 2 populations. These tests are shown to be more powerful than the test proposed by Kambo and Awad (1985). Unlike the Kambo-Awad test, the proposed tests are shown to have almost symmetric power functions. Further, these tests can be applied when there is both left or right censoring present, in contrast to the tests of Sukhatme (1937), Bain and Englehardt (1991) and Elewa et al. (1992), who assume that there is no left censoring.