Values,decision-making,and the rich life

Young people increasingly take only one value seriously in making decisions about careers, that of salary levels. They should understand that there are many values which need to be weighed in making decisions about employment. Given the present milieu, it may prove effective to use language which describes these other, nonmonetary values as contributors to the “rich lifer”     

Loan performance and race

Recent studies find evidence of racial discrimination in mortgage markets. Although these studies explore loan approval rates for whites versus minorities, they do not specifically consider loan performance, either in the form of default rates or loan administration costs. This study considers discrimination in the used car credit market, where the collateral is not subject to location externalities, collateral value and quality do not vary as much as in real estate, and the loan terms are shorter. We find administration costs and default rates are higher for minorities than for whites, controlling for age, income, home ownership, wealth, occupation, loan terms, and geographic location.     

Optimum stratification for allocation proportional to strata totals for simple random sampling scheme

The paper considers the problem of finding optimum strata boundaries when sample sizes to different strata are allocated in proportion to the strata totals of the auxiliary variable. This variable is also treated as the stratification variable. Minimal equations, solutions to which provide the optimum boundaries, have been obtained. Because of the implicit nature of these equations their exact solutions cannot be obtained. Therefore, methods of obtaining their approximate solutions have been presented. A lim¬iting expression for the variance of the estimate of population mean, as the number of strata tend to become large, has also been obtained.     

Population growth under changed fertility schedule in stability conditions

"This paper aims to investigate some models for population projection under a gradual change in fertility schedule, and to evaluate integrals therein for their actual values....Some formulae for population projection have been derived under stability conditions. The proposed formulae are also illustrated with some numerical values of the parameters involved therein. The merits and shortcomings are also discussed." (SUMMARY IN FRE)     

New business development in mature firms

New business development (NBD) is one of the main strategic options for the ‘mature’ company. The authors discuss the reasons why NBD should be considered and suggest a framework for developing new businesses. The results of a two year investigation of a sample of 14 UK companies' NBD initiatives are presented. Half of the sample have either abandoned or are reducing their new business activities. The reasons are manifold and relate to a failure to define specifically the role of the NBD initiatives; a lack of appreciation of the risks, long time spans for development and the high financial commitment associated with NBD; a weakening of the mainstream business (this in itself suggesting that companies often leave NBD ‘too late’); and a naive approach toward marketing. Some lessons for mature companies' future involvement in NBD are drawn.