Olympic rankings based on objective weighting schemes

In this paper, we propose an objective principal components weighting scheme for all-time Winter Olympic gold, silver and bronze medals based solely on the number of medals won. Our results suggest that the approximately equal weights be assigned (or the total medal counts be used regardless of color) if all of the three medal types are retained for ranking purposes. When the proposed methodology is tested against five alternative weighting schemes that have been suggested in the literature using the results for the 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympics, we find a significant agreement in the country rankings. Furthermore, our implementation of principal components variable reduction strategy results in the identification of silver as the best representative medal count for parsimonious Winter Olympics rankings.KEYWORDS: Olympic rankings, principal components analysis, variable reduction strategy, medal counts, objective weighting schemeJEL Classifications: C18, C38, C43     

A Hedonic Price Function for a Northern BC Community

In this paper a hedonic price function forPrince George, a northern British Columbiacommunity, is estimated. In light of the lackof consensus regarding appropriate functionalform of a hedonic price function, a linearmodel is estimated and a battery of diagnostictests of model adequacy is performed. Twoestimation procedures are used, namely,ordinary least squares (OLS) and Least AbsoluteDeviation (LAD). The estimation results areused to form appropriate valuations ofcharacteristics of residential houses in PrinceGeorge.     

Simplifying the Water Poverty Index

In this paper, principal components methodology is used to derive simplified and cost effective indexes of water poverty. Using a well known data set for 147 countries from which an earlier five-component water poverty index comprising of Resources, Access, Capacity, Use and Environment was constructed, we find that a simplified three-component composite index comprising of Access, Capacity, and Environment, with unequal weights, or its two-component counterpart comprising of Capacity and Environment with equal weights, would be more cost-effective to construct without much loss of information. These simplified indexes have high positive and negative correlations with the Human Development Index and the Human Poverty Index, respectively.     

The Choice of Principal Variables for Computing some Measures of Human Well-being

In this paper, we investigate the choice ofprincipal variables for computing three humandevelopment indicators, namely, the HumanDevelopment Index (HDI), the Gender-RelatedDevelopment Index (GDI), and the GenderEmpowerment Measure (GEM). To this end, datafrom the 1999 Human Development Reportare used. Empirical results providejustification for selecting only one componentof each indicator. The paper also suggests analternative weighting scheme should all thethree components of each indicator be retained.The implications of these results fordevelopment policy are discussed.