Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Nonparametric Testing For Asymmetric Information, Liangjun Su, Martin Spindler

Research Collection School Of Economics

Asymmetric information is an important phenomenon in many markets and in particular in insurance markets. Testing for asymmetric information has become a very important issue in the literature in the last two decades. Almost all testing procedures that are used in empirical studies are parametric, which may yield misleading conclusions in the case of misspecification of either functional or distributional relationships among the variables of interest. Motivated by the literature on testing conditional independence, we propose a new nonparametric test for asymmetric information, which is applicable in a variety of situations. We demonstrate that the test works reasonably well through …

Testing Monotonicity In Unobservables With Panel Data, Liangjun Su, Stefan Hoderlein, Halbert White

Research Collection School Of Economics

Monotonicity in a scalar unobservable is a crucial identifying assumption for an important class of nonparametric structural models accommodating unobserved heterogeneity. Tests for this monotonicity have previously been unavailable. This paper proposes and analyzes tests for scalar monotonicity using panel data for structures with and without time-varying unobservables, either partially or fully nonseparable between observables and unobservables. Our nonparametric tests are computationally straightforward, have well behaved limiting distributions under the null, are consistent against precisely specified alternatives, and have standard local power properties. We provide straightforward bootstrap methods for inference. Some Monte Carlo experiments show that, for empirically relevant sample …

Impact Of Food Inflation On Poverty In The Philippines, Tomoki Fujii

Research Collection School Of Economics

We simulate the impact of food inflation between June 2006 and June 2008 on poverty across different areas and between agricultural and non-agricultural households. We explicitly treat the spatial heterogeneity in food inflation and the differences in consumption and production patterns across households by merging household expenditure survey and price datasets at the provincial level or lower. Although some of the poor agricultural households may have escaped poverty, the poorest of the poor, whether they are in an agricultural household or not, are severely and adversely affected by the food inflation.

Collusion Set Detection Using A Quasi Hidden Markov Model, Zhengxiao Wu, Xiaoyu Wu

Research Collection School Of Economics

In stock market, a collusion set is defined as a group of individuals or organizations who act cooperatively with an intention of manipulating security price. Collusion-based malpractices impose large costs on the economy, but few techniques have yet been developed for collusion set detection. In this article, we propose a quasi hidden Markov model (QHMM) approach. In particular, we consider the transactions as a marked point process with hidden states, and we calculate the class conditional probabilities to identify the malicious transactions. The detection algorithms associated with the model are recursive, hence suitable for online monitoring and detection. The QHMM …

Social Capital, Informal Governance, And Post-Ipo Firm Performance: A Study Of Chinese Entrepreneurial Firms, Jerry X. Cao, Yuan Ding, Hua Zhang

Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business

This paper explores the links between entrepreneurs' social capital and post-IPO firm performance in China's unique capital market and regulatory setting. Using hand-collected data on entrepreneurs' political connections and firm financial information, we construct original measures for various types of social capital and examine their roles in determining the accounting and financial performance of entrepreneurial firms after an IPO. On one hand, firm accounting performance is enhanced by entrepreneurs' bridging social capital, such as political connections or a willingness to share power with external investors. On the other hand, bonding social capital such as intra-group related party transactions causes performance …

Why We Travel: Picturing Global Mobility In User-Generated Travel Journalism, Katie Day Good

University Faculty Publications and Creative Works

Travel journalism provides unique insights into changing notions of culture, media, and mobility. This study examines ‘Why we travel,’ a New York Times collection of over 2000 reader-submitted photos and captions about travel. To locate trends within this multi-authored text, the author refers to the theories of tourism scholars MacCannell and Urry to distinguish between enduring and emergent travel representations. The former include unequal distributions of certain subject matter across regions, emphasis on ‘authentic’ touristic experiences, and visual methods for minimizing signs of western culture. Within the same collection, however, emergent representations feature ‘new’ tourisms, highly reflexive portraits of tourists, …

Minero Magazine, Volume Xvi, Spring 2013, Utep Student Publications

The Prospector

Cover Story: Early Awakenings in the South Pacific

A Smooth Test For The Equality Of Distributions, Anil Bera, Aurobindo Ghosh, Zhijie Xiao

Research Collection School Of Economics

The two-sample version of the celebrated Pearson goodness-of-fit problem has been a topic of extensive research, and several tests like the Kolmogorov-Smirnov and Cramer-von Mises have been suggested. Although these tests perform fairly well ´ as omnibus tests for comparing two probability density functions (PDFs), they may have poor power against specific departures such as in location, scale, skewness, and kurtosis. We propose a new test for the equality of two PDFs based on a modified version of the Neyman smooth test using empirical distribution functions minimizing size distortion in finite samples. The suggested test can detect the specific directions …

Using Behavior-Analytic Techniques To Benefit An African Non-Governmental Organization: Improving And Expanding Services, Amy L. Durgin

Dissertations

The combination of a slowly recovering global economy, increased corporate competition, and higher standards from donors with respect to governance and accountably have posed significant challenges for nonprofit organizations around the world. In order to survive, these organizations must adapt their operational models and find new strategies for delivering on strategic goals, improving operational efficiency, and differentiating their services. The purpose of the present project was to employ behavioral techniques to improve operational efficiency and to develop opportunities for organizational growth by expanding the range of services provided by a nongovernmental organization (NGO) in East Africa that uses scent-detection rats …

Counselor Educator Knowledge, Experience, Attitudes And Beliefs Toward Complementary And Alternative Medicine, Jennifer Mills Langeland

Dissertations

Following growing public interest and widespread use, many health professions have begun to explore the attitudes toward, knowledge of and experience with complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) of the various stakeholders within their professions. This foundational information has enabled disciplines such as medicine, nursing, psychology, and marriage and family therapy to take a closer look at how students, patients, clients, and faculty think about and utilize CAM and its relevance to their professions. Surveying the practices and attitudes of stakeholders has been an important starting point for professions undertaking the task of integrating these practices into training programs.

This study …

Fulcrum, Newsletter Of The Furman University Libraries. Issue 02, Jenny Colvin

Libraries Institutional Records

This issue of Fulcrum, the newsletter of the Furman University Libraries, includes articles on: The Sanders Science Library dedication, texting from the Library Catalog, "Up All Night in the Science Library", the Dogs in the Library event, and Steve Richardson, the traveling librarian.

The issue also includes News from the Stacks, profiles on Susan Yeargin, Christy Allen, and Joanna Bixler, and updates from Special Collections and Archives, and WorkSmart Workshops.

2013 April, Office Of Communications & Marketing, Morehead State University.

Morehead State Press Release Archive, 1961 to the Present

Press releases for April of 2013.

Thefts On Campus, Georgia Southern University, Zach S. Henderson Library

Library Publications (1999-2023)

• Thefts on Campus

Myth, Memory And The Reagan Legacy: Taxes And The Gop, Michael Espinoza

Political Science Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Henderson News 1.1, Bede Mitchell, Ann Hamilton, Sonya Shepherd, Fred Smith

Library Publications (1999-2023)

In This Issue:
-3rd Annual Farm to Table Dinner
-Dr. William H. Schubert Curriculum History Collection
-Spotlight on Henderson Library Benefactor
-Fall Family Weekend
-Resources for Community Use

Twicube: A Real-Time Twitter Online Community Analysis Tool, Juan Du, Wei Xie, Cheng Li, Feida Zhu, Ee Peng Lim

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

As a micro-blogging service, Twitter differs from other social network services in two ways: 1) the absence of mutual consent in establishing follow links and 2) being a mixture of news media and social network. A key question to ask in better understanding Twitter user behavior is which part of a user’s Twitter network reflects one’s real-life social network. TwiCube is an online tool that employs a novel algorithm capable of identifying a user’s real-life social community, which we call the user’s off-line community, purely from examining the link structure among the user’s followers and followees. Based on the identified …

Finding The Optimal Social Trust Path For The Selection Of Trustworthy Service Providers In Complex Social Networks, Guanfeng Liu, Yan Wang, Mehmet A. Orgun, Ee Peng Lim

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

Online social networks have provided the infrastructure for a number of emerging applications in recent years, e.g., for the recommendation of service providers or the recommendation of files as services. In these applications, trust is one of the most important factors in decision making by a service consumer, requiring the evaluation of the trustworthiness of a service provider along the social trust paths from a service consumer to the service provider. However, there are usually many social trust paths between two participants who are unknown to one another. In addition, some social information, such as social relationships between participants and …

Dynamic Label Propagation In Social Networks, Juan Du, Feida Zhu, Ee Peng Lim

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

Label propagation has been studied for many years, starting from a set of nodes with labels and then propagating to those without labels. In social networks, building complete user profiles like interests and affiliations contributes to the systems like link prediction, personalized feeding, etc. Since the labels for each user are mostly not filled, we often employ some people to label these users. And therefore, the cost of human labeling is high if the data set is large. To reduce the expense, we need to select the optimal data set for labeling, which produces the best propagation result. In this …

The Transformation Of Urban Vegetable Retail In China: Wet Markets, Supermarkets, And Informal Markets In Shanghai, Qian Forrest Zhang, Zi Pan

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

The state-monopolised system of vegetable retail in socialist urban China has transformed into a market-based system run by profit-driven actors. Publicly owned wet markets not only declined in number after the state relegated its construction to market forces, but were also thoroughly privatised, becoming venues of capital accumulation for the market operators now controlling these properties. Self-employed migrant families replaced salaried state employees in the labour force. Governments’ increased control over urban public space reduced the room for informal markets, exacerbating the scarcity of vegetable retail space. Fragmentation in the production and wholesale systems restricted modern supermarkets’ ability to establish …

Military Service, Exposure To Trauma, And Health In Older Adulthood: An Analysis Of Northern Vietnamese Older Adults, Kim Korinek, Bussarawan Teerawichitchainan

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

The long-term, indirect effects of war on older adult health are poorly understood, especially in less developed societies where armed conflict concentrates. In this paper we analyse the determinants of self-reported health, chronic conditions, somatoform symptoms and depressive symptoms in a sample of northern Vietnamese ages 55 and older, who encountered mass mobilization for war and widespread exposure to war traumas in early adulthood. Results of multivariate models indicate that service in combat roles predicts poor self-reported health, health complaints and chronic illness in late adulthood. No such relationship is observed for depressive symptoms, a pattern consistent with previous research …

Health Inequalities Among Older Adults In Vietnam: Evidence From The 2011 Vietnam National Aging Survey, Bussarawan Teerawichitchainan, Thanh Long Giang

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

Vietnam’s economic development, change in health infrastructure, demographic and epidemiological transitions, and projected rapid population aging point to the need for understanding issues related to the wellbeing of older adults. Few recent studies that examine old-age health among specific Vietnamese populations notwithstanding, a national profile of older adults’ health, particularly health inequalities among the aged, is still lacking for Vietnam. To address this gap, we analyze nationally representative data from Vietnam’s first national survey of older adults to examine socioeconomic gradients in health at older ages in urban and rural Vietnam. Our specific research questions include: how are various measures …

Using Digital Storytelling To Engage Student Learning, Themin Suwardy, Gary Pan, Poh Sun Seow

Research Collection School Of Accountancy

No one really knows what the first story ever told in human history was, but storytelling is an art that spans many civilizations and cultures, and continues to be a major part of our modern lives. More recently, storytelling has gone digital with advances in technology and connectivity. Educators have also rediscovered how storytelling can be an effective teaching pedagogy for engaged student learning. A digital story can engage students' visual and auditory senses in a way that the written word alone cannot. This article describes such an effort. The Movie-Door-2-Door.com (MD2D) is a digital story spanning 12 episodes. The …

The Effects Of Computer Reliance And Relationships On Memory, Denise Beyer

College of Graduate Studies: Theses & Dissertations

Research supports the notion that the internet may serve as a transactive memory source for many individuals. Because, for many, information from technology is so accessible, humans may be less likely to encode and store information in their memory, potentially resulting in a smaller knowledge base over time (Sparrow, Liu, & Wegner, 2011). The current study examined the effects of exposing participants to a computer, friend, or neutral prime. Procedure order was also varied among the groups to determine whether potential memory failure would occur due to an encoding failure or a retrieval failure. Participants were asked to write out …

Does The Presence Of A Non-Coincident Visual Spatial Pattern Facilitate Spatial Pattern Learning? Implications For A Dedicated Spatial Pattern Learning System, Scott Katz

College of Graduate Studies: Theses & Dissertations

Spatial pattern learning is defined as an ability to learn spatial relationships of objects in space without the use of discrete visual landmarks or environmental geometry (Brown & Terrinoni, 1996). Spatial pattern learning has been suggested to be a distinct form of learning because it is not affected by cue competition and has been shown to occur in the absence of discrete landmarks and environmental geometry (Brown, Yang, & DiGian, 2002; Sturz Brown, & Kelly, 2009). In the proposed study, the distinctness of spatial pattern learning was investigated. Specifically, human participants searched in an interactive 3-D computer generated virtual environment …

Ncaa Division I Head Coaches' Experiences With Eating Disorders And Disordered Eating In Female Athletes: A Qualitative Analysis, Caitlyn Pecinovsky

College of Graduate Studies: Theses & Dissertations

In today's sport, NCAA Division I female athletes are under a constant pressure to reach an elite level of perfection in athletic performance, frequently adhering to the assumption that there is an inverse relationship between body size and performance level (Petrie & Sherman, 2007). Additionally, coaches have unrealistic expectations about weight and body image, which adds pressure on athletes to conform to certain weight or image driven standards. Perceptions that coaches hold about eating disorders and disordered eating present a set of risk factors that may increase the likelihood of female athletes developing maladaptive eating patterns (Scoffier, Maiano, & d'Arripe-Longueville, …

Recognizing The Other: Training's Ability To Improve Other Race Individuation, W. Grady Rose

College of Graduate Studies: Theses & Dissertations

Members of one race or ethnicity are less able to individuate members of another race compared to their own race peers. This phenomenon is known as the other race effect (ORE) or the cross race effect (CRE). Not only are individuals less able to identify members of the other race but they are also more likely to pick those individuals out of a crowd. The categorizationindividuation model predicts that this deficit arises from a lack of motivated individuation; in which members of the other race are remembered at the category level as a prototype while own race members are remembered …

Concussion Knowledge And Attitudes In English Football (Soccer), Joshua Williams

College of Graduate Studies: Theses & Dissertations

While concussions are prevalent in soccer, outside the US there has been limited investigation into soccer players' knowledge and attitudes regarding concussions. The purpose of the study was to access English soccer player' concussion knowledge and attitudes. This study used a cross sectional mixed methodology design. Participants included 26 respondents (Age: 23.4 ± 4.5 years, playing experience 16.4 ± 4.4 years) playing for a Championship team in England (Response rate: 89.6%). Fifty percent of respondents had a diagnosed concussion history. Participants were administered the valid and reliable ROCKAS-ST survey divided into 5 sections and includes 3 constructs: concussion knowledge (CKI), …

It Takes More Than Public Speaking: A Leadership Analysis Of The King’S Speech, Patrice-Andre Prud'homme, Brandon O. Hensley

Faculty and Staff Publications – Milner Library

In a time of global anxiety, a recent internationally acclaimed film aptly shows the development of a leader who never intended to lead. This leadership analysis of The King's Speech critically explores transformation shaped by the pressures of war, modernity, and a public figure's speech impediment in the advent of radio broadcasting. Supportive leadership and followership are examined, as the Duchess of York serves as an exemplar of both. The central catalyst of transformative leadership comes from Lionel Logue, who exercises his role with emotional intelligence and key strategies that are invaluable to the eventual King finding his voice. The …

Why Risk It? The Effect Of Risk And Time Preferences On Microfinance Loan Default, Nike Start

Master's Theses

Microfinance is widely recognized as a powerful method for poverty

alleviation. However, little is known about the characteristics of those who

default on their loans. Understanding the behavior of borrowers is an important

component of mitigating adverse selection and the moral hazard of lending. Both

of these concepts embody some of the greatest challenges faced by microfinance

institutions, and they provide the major motivation for this study. Accordingly,

the main objective of this research is to investigate whether non-delinquent

borrowers and delinquent borrowers of a microfinance institution reveal any

difference in their level of risk preference and time preference. This …

The Effect Of Metacognitive And Self-Regulatory Strategy Instruction On Impoverished Students' Assessment Achievement In Physics, Jaunine Fouche

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

The purpose of this nonequivalent control group design study was to evaluate the effectiveness of metacognitive and self-regulatory strategy use on the assessment achievement of 215 9th-grade, residential physics students from low socioeconomic status (low-SES) backgrounds. Students from low-SES backgrounds often lack the self-regulatory habits and metacognitive strategies to improve academic performance. In an effort to increase these scores and to increase student self-regulation and metacognition with regard to achievement in physics, this study investigated the use of metacognitive and self-regulatory strategies specifically as they apply to students' use of their own assessment data. Traditionally, student performance data is used …