Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Multilevel Methods: Emergent Issues And Future Directions In Measurement, Longitudinal Analyses And Non-Normal Outcomes, Paul D. Bliese, David Chan, Robert E. Ployhart

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

The study of multilevel phenomena in organizations involves a complex interplay between methods and statistics on one hand and theory development on the other. In this introduction, the authors provide a short summary of the five articles in this feature topic and use them as a platform to discuss the broad need for work in the two areas of (a) multilevel construct validation and measurement and (b) statistical advances in variance decomposition. Within these two broad frameworks, the authors specifically discuss, first, the need to continue moving beyond notions of isomorphism in developing and testing aggregate-level constructs. Second, they discuss …

Navigating The Us Health Care System: A Video Guide For Immigrant And Diverse Populations., Alison M Bobal, Heather L Brown, Teresa L Hartman, Marty Magee, Cynthia M Schmidt

Journal Articles: Leon S. McGoogan Health Sciences Library

No abstract provided.

Navigating The Us Health Care System: A Video Guide For Immigrant And Diverse Populations., Alison M. Bobal, Heather Brown, Teresa Hartman, Martha L. Magee, Cynthia M. Schmidt

Journal Articles: Leon S. McGoogan Health Sciences Library

No abstract provided.

A Corrected Plug-In Method For Quantile Interval Construction Through A Transformed Regression, Zhenlin Yang, Yiu Kuen Tse

Research Collection School Of Economics

We propose a corrected plug-in method for constructing confidence intervals of the conditional quantiles of an original response variable through a transformed regression with heteroscedastic errors. The interval is easy to compute. Factors affecting the magnitude of the correction are examined analytically through the special case of Box-Cox regression. Monte Carlo simulations show that the new method works well in general and is superior over the commonly used delta method and the quantile regression method. An empirical application is presented. [PUBLICATION ABSTRACT]

Estimation Of Impulse Response Functions Using Long Autoregression, Pao Li Chang, Shinichi Sakata

Research Collection School Of Economics

This article proposes an alternative methodology to estimate impulse response functions without imposing parametric restrictions. The impulse responses are estimated by regressing the series of interest on estimated innovations, which are the residuals obtained from a prior-stage ‘long autoregression.’ We establish the consistency and asymptotic normality of the proposed estimator. The proposed estimator is closely related to the estimator of Jordà (2005, American Economic Review 95, 161–182). Our large sample analysis, as a byproduct, establishes the asymptotic equivalence between Jordà's estimator and our estimator, and provides justifications for the statistical inference method used in Jordà (2005).

The Evolution And Utilization Of The Gatt/Wto Dispute Settlement Mechanism, Pao-Li Chang

Research Collection School Of Economics

This paper provides a theoretical framework of dispute settlement to explain the surge in blocking incidence of GATT panel reports during the 1980s and the variations in withdrawn incidence versus total disputes across different decades of the GATT regime. The study first suggests the role of the degree of legal controversy over a panel ruling in determining countries' incentives to block (appeal) a panel report under the GATT (WTO) regime. The study then analyzes the effects of political power on countries' incentives to use, and their interactions in using, the dispute settlement mechanism, when two-sided asymmetric information exists regarding panel …

Financial Variables As Predictors Of Real Output Growth, Anthony S. Tay

Research Collection School Of Economics

We investigate two methods for using daily stock returns to forecast, and update forecasts of, quarterly real output growth. Both methods aggregate daily returns in some manner to form a single stock market variable. We consider (i) augmenting the quarterly AR(1) model for real output growth with daily returns using a nonparametric Mixed Data Sampling (MIDAS) setting, and (ii) augmenting the quarterly AR(1) model with the most recent r -day returns as an additional predictor. We discover that adding low frequency stock returns (up to annual returns, depending on forecast horizon) to a quarterly AR(1) model improves forecasts of output …

Direction-Of-Change Forecasts For Asian Equity Markets Based On Conditional Variance, Skewness And Kurtosis Dynamics: International Evidence, Peter F. Christoffersen, Francis X. Diebold, Robert S. Mariano, Anthony S. Tay, Yiu Kuen Tse

Research Collection School Of Economics

Recent theoretical work has revealed a direct connection between asset return volatility forecastability and asset return sign forecastability. This suggests that the pervasive volatility forecastability in equity returns could, via induced sign forecastability, be used to produce direction-of change forecasts useful for market timing. We attempt to do so in an international sample of developed equity markets, with some success, as assessed by formal probability forecast scoring rules such as the Brier score. An important ingredient is our conditioning not only on conditional mean and variance information, but also conditional skewness and kurtosis information, when forming direction-of-change forecasts.

Indirect Inference For Dynamic Panel Models, Jun Yu

Research Collection School Of Economics

It is well-known that maximum likelihood (ML) estimation of the autoregressive parameter of a dynamic panel data model with fixed effects is inconsistent under fixed time series sample size (T) and large cross section sample size (N) asymptotics. The estimation bias is particularly relevant in practical applications when T is small and the autoregressive parameter is close to unity. The present paper proposes a general, computationally inexpensive method of bias reduction that is based on indirect inference (Gouriéroux et al., 1993), shows unbiasedness and analyzes efficiency. The method is implemented in a simple linear dynamic panel model, but has wider …

Silence Speaks Volumes: The Effectiveness Of Reticence In Comparison To Apology And Denial For Repairing Integrity- And Competence-Based Trust Violations, Donald L. Ferrin, Peter H. Kim, Cecily D. Cooper, Kurt T. Dirks

Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business

Prior research on responses to trust violations has focused primarily on the effects of apology and denial. The authors extended this research by studying another type of verbal response that is often used to respond to trust violations but has not been considered in the trust literature: reticence. An accused party may use reticence in a sincere and even legitimate attempt to persuade a trustor to withhold judgment. Yet, by considering information diagnosticity and belief formation mechanisms through which verbal responses influence trust, the authors argue that reticence is a suboptimal response because it combines the least effective elements of …

Instrumental Variable Quantile Estimation Of Spatial Autoregressive Models, Zhenlin Yang

Research Collection School Of Economics

We propose an instrumental variable quantile regression (IVQR) estimator for spatial autoregressive (SAR) models. Like the GMM estimators of Lin and Lee (2006) and Kelejian and Prucha (2006), the IVQR estimator is robust against heteroscedasticity. Unlike the GMM estimators, the IVQR estimator is also robust against outliers and requires weaker moment conditions. More importantly, it allows us to characterize the heterogeneous impact of variables on different points (quantiles) of a response distribution. We derive the limiting distribution of the new estimator. Simulation results show that the new estimator performs well in finite samples at various quantile points. In the special …

Analyzing Construction-Related Market Trends In Apec Countries Using Gis, Low Sui Pheng, Benny Raphael, Faisal Manzoor Arain

Business Review

GIS (Geographical Information System) is a means of representing data in digital form that has been used increasingly in various domains. GIS has the ability to capture,model, manipulate, retrieve, analyze and present geographically referenced data. In managing overseas building projects, research and analysis are especially crucial. It is necessary to collect enough information of the country that is related to the rule of law, government policies, and the performance of individual economic sectors, among other things. Although GIS has been shown to be a useful tool in various types of planning and management, it has not been used so far …

Family Functioning As A Risk Factor In The Development Of Juvenile Delinquency, Zeenat Ismail, Zaeema Riaz

Business Review

The purpose of the present research was to determine the difference between the family functioning of juvenile delinquents and non delinquents. After detailed literature review it was hypothesized that score on the variable of Communication, Rigidity in Value and Norms, Affective Expression and Parental Control among family members of juvenile delinquents will be high as compared to non delinquents. Sample of the present research consisted of 240 adolescents divided into two groups of 120 delinquents and 120 non-delinquents from lowsocioeconomic status. Family Assessment Measure-Ill was administered in order to measure level of Communication, Value and Norms, Affective Expression and Parental …

The Casual Link Between Stock Returns And Trading Volume: Some Evidence From An Emerging Market, Abdul Rashid

Business Review

This paper investigates the dynamic association between daily stock index returns and percentage trading volume changes. To proceed with this, linear and nonlinear Granger causality tests are applied to the Karachi Stock Exchange (KSE) data. The analysis covers the span of about 5 years with 1266 daily observations. The same methodology is employed for two non-overlapping sub-periods to examine the robustness of the results. Unidirectional linear Granger causality from stock returns to trading volume is observed for the entire sample period and for both the sub-periods as well. The null hypothesis of linear Granger noncausality from percentage volume changes to …

Cocoa Farming In Ghana: Emic Experience, Etic Interpretation, Francis Danquah, Stephen K. Miller

Journal of Rural Social Sciences

This paper develops the tension between emic and etic analysis, recounting the experience of life on a cocoa farm in Ghana, from the perspective of an urban youth with familial connections to the rural community. The dual perspective of living in the city along with frequent visits to and summer sojourns on the farm provided an “outsider’s” perceptions of the rural culture. Yet even these dual emic perspectives were insufficient to bring recognition of the underlying economic realities of cocoa bean production that depended partly on migrant labor. That etic insight came later in the United Kingdom, when studying similar …

"Dirt Farmer" Vs. "Soil Scientist": Representative Tensions In The Constructed Identities Of Farmer-Writers Walter Thomas Jack And Edward H. Faulkner, Zachary Michael Jack

Journal of Rural Social Sciences

This extended case study of Edward Hubert Faulkner, one-time extension agent turned overnight agricultural sensation, and Walter Thomas Jack, a former Quaker schoolteacher and self-professed Iowa “dirt farmer,” and their respective, point/counterpoint soil conservation classics, Plowman’s Folly (1943) and The Furrow and Us (1946), illuminates key tensions within the fields of rural sociology and agricultural history: namely subject versus object, inside versus outside, and “peasant” versus “professional” practice as they were played out in the American popular and agricultural press from 1943 to 1948. While it is true that Plowman’s Folly, as its title implies, goads the American farmer …

John Deere Tractors And School Reform: Balancing Economies Of Scale And Quality Of Life, Stephen K. Miller

Journal of Rural Social Sciences

Many school reform reports, many politicians, and typical media coverage attribute today’s reform efforts to the failure of the schools. We need, say critics, to return to the good old days when schools were tough and everybody learned! This essay debunks the Golden Age myth by comparing John Deere tractors to school reform. In the analogy, repeated upgrades of the old two-cylinder motor during the decade of the fifties were associated with the demise of the family farm. The new models were more powerful than the tractors they replaced, but not enough. Eventually, John Deere evolved to the new 4010 …

My Garden State: Memory, History, And The Agrarian Ideal, Michelle Gillespie

Journal of Rural Social Sciences

This essay examines the dynamic tension between the memory of lived experience and the formal discipline of history as it applies to the value of farm life and the importance of the agrarian ideal in American society. It analyzes the author’s memories about growing up in rural New Jersey, their critical place in her development as a scholar, and their embeddedness in her moral valuation of rural experience. Simultaneously it conveys the limits of those memories when held against critical analysis, especially in relation to the lenses of gender and race. It suggests that the longstanding appeal of the agrarian …

Executive Council Retreat Meeting Minutes, Wku Student Government Association

Student Government Association

Meeting regarding ASGA conference, fall retreat, SGA week, homecoming, banquet, schedule of meetings, reconfiguration of offices, constitutional revisions, goals and networking seminar.

Small Town In Global Society, Don E. Albrecht

Journal of Rural Social Sciences

The 2007 Southern Rural Sociological Association Presidential Address: After passing through eras labeled as “Small Town in Isolation” and “Small Town in Mass Society,” it is argued that we are now entering the era of “Small Town in Global Society.” Two factors that distinguish global society from mass society are worldwide competition and the reduced relevance of location. Outcomes of the transition to global society include the increased importance of amenity resources and a major economic structure transformation. To survive and prosper in a global society will require community leaders and development specialists to understand the inherent obstacles and constraints, …

Storytelling As Narrativity: Rural Life Through The Prism Of Social Tensions, Stephen K. Miller, Zachary Michael Jack

Journal of Rural Social Sciences

This introductory article provides purpose and rationale for this special issue of Southern Rural Sociology. The remaining six essays represent stories based on the authors’ farm experiences, crafted to explicate the tensions that underlie all of social life. Illustrating the connection between rural life and the world of ideas, the work makes explicit how the often unrecognized contradictions of everyday society are balanced through choices that typically exist at an unconscious, taken-for-granted level. Each author describes a particular dialectic. Collectively, the writers have transformed their narrative to narrativity, the formal imposition of moral purpose on storied form. Although our purpose …

A Life Lost: The Tensions Between Local Attachments And Cosmopolitan Attractions, E. Carolyn Tucker

Journal of Rural Social Sciences

This retrospective on a multigenerational farm family calls upon the author’s life experiences to describe the microcosm of a local rural culture. The author uses narrative to consider sense of place and the impact it exerts on native-born locals. Considering the nonmigration of an extended family of third-generation rural cousins who live and farm within 25 miles of land belonging to the family for more than a hundred years, the story contrasts local and cosmopolitan values, raises issues about attempts to “leave home,” describes the tension created when rurals try to become part of both worlds, and examines the stranglehold …

A Whistling Girl And A Crowing Hen: Changing Productivity And Gender Expectations, Cynthia Williams Resor

Journal of Rural Social Sciences

This paper explores two conflicts encountered by the author as she earned her Ph.D. in medieval history. First is the conflict the author feels when working on her craft—can written history be considered a credible occupation that results in something useful in contrast to the farm production of her youth? The second theme explores the tension the author encounters when challenging traditional gender roles of both farmers and historians.

Interagency Science And Research: Quarterly Progress Report, Period Ending June 30, 2007, Margaret N. Rees

Interagency Science and Research Strategy

• Updated the SNAP Board on May 18 with a formal presentation.
• Began discussions with the Cultural Resources Team to integrate cultural resource science within in the Science and Research Strategy.
• Refined the science proposal peer-review process and developed a conceptual graphic to communicate the process with Science and Research Team members.
• Facilitated the selection of interagency goals, sub-goals, and related monitoring and science questions by Science and Research Team.
• Began planning of an all-agency resource management workshop intended to validate interagency science goals and sub-goals, and assist in the prioritization of questions.

Archaeological Inventory, Site Assessment, And Data Management, Lake Mead National Recreation Area (Lake Mead Nra) And Parashant National Monument (Para): Quarterly Progress Report, Period Ending June 30, 2007, Margaret N. Rees

Archaeology

• Inventoried 4,000 acres and recorded 59 archaeological sites for NPS and BLM Fire Management Projects

• Archaeological Field School at site AZ A:14:50 in progress

• Information on over 1,200 sites obtained for settlement pattern study; pilot database complete

• Draft report for Lost City Class III Inventory complete

• Four presentations/posters given at professional conferences/research forums

Barry Bonds At 750, Richard C. Crepeau

On Sport and Society

It has been a summer of milestone achievements in baseball, with the promise of more to come. Sammy Sosa reached the 600 home run mark two weeks ago and Frank Thomas reached the 500 home run level this past week, on the same day that Craig Biggio reached the 3000 level in hits. Alex Rodriguez will reach the 500 home run level sometime in the next month and Ken Griffey should reach 600 home runs before the end of the season. Gary Sheffield will reach 500 home runs late this season or early next season. These are exclusive clubs in …

New Mexico Labor Market Review 06-30-2007, New Mexico Department Of Labor

Historic Publications

The New Mexico Labor Market Review is a monthly publication presenting statistical data and analysis on labor market conditions throughout New Mexico. Issues examine statewide and regional trends in employment, unemployment, labor force estimates, industry activity, wages, occupational demand, and related economic conditions, often accompanied by feature articles on topics affecting the state’s economy. This issue covers May 2007.

Long-Distance Assessment Of High-Risk Sexual Behavior: A Comparative Analysis Of Postal, Telephone, Electronic Mail And Internet Administrations, Trevor Allen Grice

Master's Theses and Doctoral Dissertations

With the continuing improvement and development of technology, research methods have struggled to keep up with the changing times in terms of demonstrating the utility of newer technology. The development and continued improvement of the Internet presents an opportunity to explore the utility of this mode of administration for the assessment of these sensitive behaviors. This study examined the use of long-distance methods of high-risk sexual behavior assessment and compared the more traditional methods of mailed surveys and telephone interviews to newer and more technological methods of electronic mail and Internet.

Seven hundred and eighty participants were randomly assigned into …

Are Successful Applicants To The Roman Catholic Deaconate Psychologically Healthy?, Thomas G. Plante, Kathleen Lackey

Psychology

The current investigation evaluated psychological and personality profiles of successful applicants to the deaconate in several Roman Catholic dioceses in California. The MMPI-2 and 16PF were administered to 25 applicants between 2004 and 2006 who subsequently entered the permanent deaconate program. Results indicate that these applicants to the deaconate were generally well-adjusted as well as being socially responsible. Findings also suggest some tendency for defensiveness, repression, naivete, and a strong need for affection, as well as for being emotionally stable, genuine, and cooperative.

Economic Scan And Workforce Development Profile: Barry, Branch, Calhoun, Kalamazoo, And St. Joseph Counties, Brad R. Watts, George A. Erickcek, Bridget Timmeney, Suprotik Stotz-Ghosh

Reports

No abstract provided.