Bathtub distributions: a review

Bathtub distributions are characterized by bathtub failure rate functions . These are possibly more realisitic models than the monotone failure rate models . A systematic account of such distributions is not available and this review aims to give such an account . We give some easily verifiable conditions to check the bathtub property of a distribution along with methods to construct such distributions . We also discuss some stochastic and reliablity mechanisms which lead to bathtub distributions. These include mixtures ( stochastic failure rate models ) , series system , stochastic differential equation models and so on. We also review inference on bathtub distributions. The paper concludes with a rather exhaustive list of bathtub distributions.     

The Distributive Impact of Reforms in Credit Enforcement: Evidence From Indian Debt Recovery Tribunals

It is generally presumed that stronger legal enforcement of lender rights increases credit access for all borrowers because it expands the set of incentive compatible loan contracts. This result relies on an assumption that the supply of credit is infinitely elastic. In contrast, with inelastic supply, stronger enforcement generates general equilibrium effects that may reduce credit access for small borrowers and expand it for wealthy borrowers. In a firm‐level panel, we find evidence that an Indian judicial reform that increased banks' ability to recover nonperforming loans had such an adverse distributive impact.     

Modified probability proportional to size sampling

Probability proportional to size (PPS) sampling is one of the most widely used designs for finite populations. We propose modifications to PPS designs with replacement and Rao–Hartley–Cochran design without replacement. These modifications consist of division of the population into two groups. Units in the first group are included in the sample with probability one. Under certain conditions, in both with and without replacement designs, the estimator of the population total based on the modified PPS sampling design is shown to be better than the corresponding estimator based on a PPS design. We illustrate our modification by an example and an application.     

Childhood victimization and subsequent adult revictimization assessed in a nationally representative sample of women and men

The purpose of this study was to identify whether experiences of childhood physical and/or sexual victimization would increase women's and men's risk for victimization in adulthood by different perpetrators (any perpetrator regardless of the relationship to the victim; intimate partner perpetrator; non-intimate perpetrator) using a nationally representative sample. Results of hierarchical logistic regression analyses indicated that childhood victimization increased the risk for adulthood victimization by any perpetrator for men and women, and by an intimate partner for women but not men. Female and male victims of physical and/or sexual child abuse are at higher risk for adult victimization by non-intimate perpetrators. These results suggest the appropriateness of interventions among adults or young adults who have been victims of child abuse, to prevent any future victimization in adulthood. To guide the development of such prevention programs, research is needed to identify factors that affect the probability of adulthood victimization among child abuse victims.     

Comparison of pivotals for confidence bounds and intervals for the mean of a stationary time series

We construct new pivotals to obtain confidence bounds and confidence intervals for the mean of a stationary process. These follow the approach based on estimating functions. The new pivotals are compared with the standard pivotal based on studentization. We study the first four cumulants of each of these pivotals and explain why the pivotals based on the estimating function approach result in better coverage probabilities. Some simulation results comparing these pivotals have been reported.     

Nationalist Ideas and the Colonial Episteme: The Antinomies Structuring Sociological Traditions of India

The paper traces the growth of sociology in India through three phases. The first phase, it argues, begins in the 30s with the slow consolidation of the discipline. In this phase, sociology was associated with the Indological perspective and the social was perceived in culturist terms and analysed through the prism of the past, in and through Sanskrit texts. In the second phase, which begins in the early 60s, when University education expands in India, this indigenous perspective is re-framed. There is a shift from textual studies to empirical investigation and the village becomes the site for studying Indian civilization. This paper makes a detailed analysis of the social anthropological perspective of M.N. Srinivas whose theories on village and caste influenced the sociological imagination in this phase. The third phase starts in the late 70s with the growth of social movements of the subalterns which challenge the received culturist nationalist sociological imagination. Today sociology together with other social sciences are at crossroads in India due to the impact of neoliberalism. The latter has encouraged privatisation of education, decreased state funding in material and human resources and an increased state control on academia. All three have affected the autonomy of the teachers and as well the University system and thus the efforts to chart a new sociological imagination in which the Indian social is perceived in global comparative terms. It is difficult to assess which turn sociology in India will take in these circumstances.