Government Risk Management Priorities: A Comparison of the Preferences of Asian Indian Americans and Other Americans

A survey was conducted of approximately 200 Asian Indian Americans and 200 other residents of New Jersey in order to understand the risk management priorities that they want government to have. We found that Asian Indian Americans, especially younger women, focused on personal/family risks, such as alcohol and drug abuse, sexual abuse, and domestic violence. The New Jersey comparison group, in contrast, placed war/terrorism and loss of health care services and insurance at the top of their priorities for government. These results suggest stressful acculturation-related issues within the Asian Indian community. Both populations want more risk management from government than they believe government is currently providing. Respondents who wanted more from government tended to dread the risk, be fearful of the consequences, trust government, and have a feeling of personal efficacy. Within the Asian Indian American sample, wide variations were observed by language spoken at home and religious affiliation. Notably, Muslims and Hindi language speakers tended not to trust government and hence wanted less government involvement. This study supports our call for studies of recent migrant populations and Johnson's for testing ethnic identity and acculturation as factors in risk judgments.     

Empirical Bayes estimation in finite population sampling under functional measurement error models

The paper considers simultaneous estimation of finite population means for several strata. A model-based approach is taken, where the covariates in the super-population model are subject to measurement errors. Empirical Bayes (EB) estimators of the strata means are developed and an asymptotic expression for the MSE of the EB estimators is provided. It is shown that the proposed EB estimators are “first order optimal” in the sense of Robbins [1956. An empirical Bayes approach to statistics. In: Proceedings of the Third Berkeley Symposium on Mathematical Statistics and Probability, vol. 1, University of California Press, Berkeley, pp. 157–164], while the regular EB estimators which ignore the measurement error are not.     

‘Dirty Work?’ Gender,Race and the Union in Industrial Cleaning

The study uses an eclectic framework and through an intersectional analysis and use of narratives explores the meaning of janitorial work, the gender division of labour (GDL), the unions and organizing for janitors engaged in industrial cleaning for a big cleaning company, Pluto, in Toronto. Pluto was organized by the Service Employees International Union (SEIU) in 2006. The study is based on the organizing drive for Pluto and uses participant observation and interview methods. Intersectional analysis is useful in understanding the worker's perceptions of the racialized, gendered and classed constitution of cleaning work as ‘dirty’ and their resistance to these constructs. We explore GDL in industrial cleaning and the construction of women's work as ‘light duty’ and men's work as ‘heavy duty’. We conclude that union membership is important not only for material benefits of the janitors but also for their alternative identity construction. However, there is a persistence of GDL and gender pay equity is not addressed seriously in the organizing drive or upon organizing.     

Missing millions: undercounting urbanization in India

Population and Environment - The measurement and characterization of urbanization crucially depends upon defining what counts as urban. The government of India estimates that only 31% of the...     

On a characterization of the dispersion matrix based on the properties of regression

This paper provides a partial solution to a problem posed by J. Neyman (1965) regarding the characterization of multivariate negative binomial distribution based on the properties of regression. It is shown that some of the properties of regression characterize the form of the nonsingular dispersion matrix of the parent distribution, which, interestingly enough, corresponds to only two types viz. those of positive and negative multivariate binomial distributions.     

An alternative approach to variable selection for prediction

A procedure for selecting a subset of predictor variables in regression analysis is suggested. The procedure is so designed that it leads to the selection of a subset of variables having an adequate degree of informativeness with a directly specified confidence coefficient. Some examples are considered to illustrate the application of the procedure.     

Finding the Delicate Balance: Serials Assessment at the University of Nevada,Las Vegas

Abstract

In the spring of 2003 the University Libraries at University of Nevada, Las Vegas (UNLV), conducted a Serials Assessment Project which combined technology with effective communication between library users and subject librarians to successfully identify journals that could be cancelled, should cancellations be necessary due to budgetary constraints. Although the library had conducted similar assessments in 1998 and 2000, a fresh look at past assessments resulted in an innovative approach. The project and experience proved to be tremendously positive for both the library and its users. This article describes the planning and process by which the UNLV libraries designed and conducted the 2003 review of UNLV's serials collection, comparing it to methods used in the two previous assessments.     

Bayesian estimation for the Pareto income distribution

The Bayes estimators of the Gini index, the mean income and the proportion of the population living below a prescribed income level are obtained in this paper on the basis of censored income data from a pareto income distribution. The said estimators are obtained under the assumptions of a two-parameter exponential prior distribution and the usual squared error loss function. This work is also extended to the case when the income data are grouped and the exact incomes for the individuals in the population are not available. The method for the assessment of the hyperparameters is also outlined. Finally, the results are generalized for the doubly truncated gamma prior distribution. Now deceased.