Notes on likelihood intervals and profiling

In many applications, decisions are made on the basis of function of parameters g(θ). When the value of g(theta;) is calculated using estimated values for te parameters, its is important to have a measure of the uncertainty associated with that value of g(theta;). Likelihood ratio approaches to finding likelihood intervals for functions of parameters have been shown to be more reliable, in terms of coverage probability, than the linearization approach. Two approaches to the generalization of the profiling algorithm have been proposed in the literature to enable construction of likelihood intervals for a function of parameters (Chen and Jennrich, 1996; Bates and Watts, 1988). In this paper we show the equivalence of these two methods. We also provide and analysis of cases in which neither profiling algorithm is appropriate. For one of these cases an alternate approach is suggested Whereas generalized profiling is based on maximizing the likelihood function given a constraint on the value of g(θ), the alternative algorithm is based on optimizing g(θ) given a constraint on the value of the likelihood function.     

SIMULATION AND THE CAPITAL ASSET PRICING MODEL: A COMMENT*

This paper challenges Lewellen and Long's contention that a Hertz-type simulation generates irrelevant data for the evaluation of capital expenditure opportunities. The conclusion is reached that an estimate of an asset's “own risk” may be a vital first step in estimating its covariance properties with the market index. A method of incorporating the information generated by simulation into the capital asset pricing model is also provided.     

The impact of neoliberal school choice reforms on students with disabilities: perspectives from New York City

This disability studies in education informed study unpacks effects of neoliberal reforms on students with disabilities in New York City schools. These reforms proliferated small themed schools, dismantled many large schools, and required students to apply to high school. This multi-site case study researched two high schools, one large and one small, with data from interviews and document review. Findings reveal how reforms forced large schools to accept many marginalized students with disabilities, while small schools employed tactics to avoid accepting many students with disabilities seen as having intensive needs. Finally, contextual analysis reveals how larger city politics perpetuated segregative ideologies.     

Manaagement practices and employee attitudes: a longitudinal study spanning fifty years

This paper reports findings from a third consecutive study to re‐visit a steelworks that provided a classic elaboration of the industrial enterprise as a social system. The social system of the works in the 1950s (Scott et al., 1956) was used to explain the positive orientation of steelworkers to change. A later study of the plant in 1991 uncovered a remarkably similar positive orientation to change in the plant indicating a number of continuities (Blyton et al., 1996). Despite massive changes affecting the plant between the 1950s and the early 1990s, the social system of the works‐occupational structures and identities and management‐union relations‐were seen as having a continuing bearing on steelworkers’ attitudes to work in general, and their positive orientation to work change in particular. A third study of employee attitudes in the same plant in 1999 revealed important changes had occurred during the 1990s.     

Teaching queer theory at a Normal School

This article presents a case study of the ongoing struggle to queer West Chester University at the level of the institution, the curriculum, and the classroom. Part of that struggle includes an effort to establish a policy for free speech that accommodates the values of the institution toward diversity. Another part involves attempts to introduce LGBT Studies into the curriculum, and the resulting debates over whether the curriculum should be "gayer" or "queerer." I discuss the personal struggle to destabilize ready-made categories and encourage non-binary thinking, while honoring the identities we live, and perform, in the classroom. In the last four years, WCU has hired half a dozen out gay or lesbian faculty members, some of whom identify as "queer." In many ways, those faculty members have entered a climate open to new ideas for adding LGBT content to the curriculum and to queering the structure and curriculum of the university. But as faculty, staff, and students engage this cause-along with the broader cause of social justice at the University- we have found that our enemies are often closer than we might have guessed. Detailing the tensions that have characterized the landscape at WCUduring my three years and half years there, this essay elaborates on the epistemological and pedagogical issues that arise when queer Theory meets LGBT Studies in the process of institutional, curricular, and pedagogical reform. I argue that questions about content and method, inclusion and exclusion, and identity and performance can be answered only with a concerted effort and continued attention to the cultural tendency to re-assert binaries while simultaneously learning from them. What is true of West Chester, I argue, is true of the larger social system where the contested terrain of the queer has implications for the choices we make as both stakeholders and deviants in the systems we chronicle and critique.     

Assortative mating on risk attitude

Spousal correlation in risk attitude is estimated using data from the German Socio-Economic Panel over the period 2004–2009. We apply the bivariate panel ordered probit model to the analysis of the simultaneous determination of the male’s and the female’s risk attitude, using the survey question about general willingness to take risk, provided on a 0–10 Likert-scale. The correlations between both the individual-specific effects of the two partners and the two within-individual errors are separately estimated, and found to be +0.285 and +0.310, respectively. We consider the former to be a key parameter, since its positive sign may be interpreted in terms of positive assortative mating on risk attitude: individuals tend to form partnerships with others having a similar risk attitude. We also find evidence that this correlation increases with years of marriage, suggesting either a form of spousal socialization or a selection process in which marriage breakdown is more likely in poorly matched couples.