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Style Differences (style + difference)

Distribution by Scientific Domains
Business, Economics, Finance and Accounting50%

Selected Abstracts

Generalizability of Cognitive Interview-Based Measures Across Cultural Groups

EDUCATIONAL MEASUREMENT: ISSUES AND PRACTICE, Issue 2 2009
Guillermo Solano-Flores
We addressed the challenge of scoring cognitive interviews in research involving multiple cultural groups. We interviewed 123 fourth- and fifth-grade students from three cultural groups to probe how they related a mathematics item to their personal lives. Item meaningfulness,the tendency of students to relate the content and/or context of an item to activities in which they are actors,was scored from interview transcriptions with a procedure similar to the scoring of constructed-response tasks. Generalizability theory analyses revealed a small amount of score variation due to the main and interaction effect of rater but a sizeable magnitude of measurement error due to the interaction of person and question (context). Students from different groups tended to draw on different sets of contexts of their personal lives to make sense of the item. In spite of individual and potential cultural communication style differences, cognitive interviews can be reliably scored by well-trained raters with the same kind of rigor used in the scoring of constructed-response tasks. However, to make valid generalizations of cognitive interview-based measures, a considerable number of interview questions may be needed. Information obtained with cognitive interviews for a given cultural group may not be generalizable to other groups. [source]

Common Risk Factors Versus a Mispricing Factor of Tokyo Stock Exchange Firms: Inquiries into the Fundamental Value Derived from Analyst Earnings Forecasts,

INTERNATIONAL REVIEW OF FINANCE, Issue 3 2009
KEIICHI KUBOTA
ABSTRACT We search for common factors and/or a mispricing factor for Tokyo Stock Exchange firms. We utilize the Edwards,Bell,Ohlson model to compute the firms' fundamental value and divide this value by the firms' market price to construct a new variable called a ,value-to-price ratio' (VPR). We find that this VPR variable can generate abnormal returns even after adjusting for the risk factors related to portfolio style differences. To find out whether it is indeed a risk factor or simply a characteristic, we construct return difference portfolios of the high VPR stocks minus the low value-to-price stocks and call this portfolio the upward-forecast minus downward-forecast (UMD) factor. Fama and MacBeth test indicate that the risk premium for this UMD factor is positive. The best model in terms of the adjusted R2 value is the four-factor model in which the UMD factor is added to the Fama and French three factors. GMM Euler condition tests reveal that the UMD factor helps to price assets and that the four-factor model is not rejected. We conclude the VPR variable contains new information content that is not contained in the conventional Fama and French's three factors. [source]

An explanatory model of medical practice variation: a physician resource demand perspective

JOURNAL OF EVALUATION IN CLINICAL PRACTICE, Issue 2 2002
Michael J. Long MA PhD
Abstract Practice style variation, or variation in the manner in which physicians treat patients with a similar disease condition, has been the focus of attention for many years. The research agenda is further intensified by the unrealistic assumption that by reducing variation, quality will be improved, costs will be reduced, or both. There is a wealth of literature that identifies differences in health care use of many kinds, in apparently similar communities. Attempts have been made by many scholars to identify the determinants of variation in terms of differences in the population characteristics (e.g. age, sex, insurance, etc.) and geographical characteristics (e.g. distance to provider, number of physicians, number of hospital beds, etc.). When significant differences in use rates prevail after controlling for differences in population characteristics, it is often attributed to ,uncertainty', or the fact that there is no consensus on what constitutes the optimum treatment process. It is suggested by this literature that the greatest variation can be found in the circumstances where there is the most ,uncertainty'. In this work, a physician resource demand model is proposed in which it is suggested that, during the diagnosis and treatment process, physicians demand resources consistent with the clinical needs of the patients, modified by the intervening forces under which they practice. These intervening forces, or constraints, are categorized as patient agency constraints, organizational constraints and environmental constraints, which are characterized as ,induced variation'. It is suggested that when all of the variables that constitute these constraints are identified, the remaining variance represents ,innate variance', or practice style differences. It is further suggested that the more completely this model is specified, the more likely area differences will be attenuated and the smaller will be the residual variance. [source]

On the Industry Concentration of Actively Managed Equity Mutual Funds

THE JOURNAL OF FINANCE, Issue 4 2005
MARCIN KACPERCZYK
ABSTRACT Mutual fund managers may decide to deviate from a well-diversified portfolio and concentrate their holdings in industries where they have informational advantages. In this paper, we study the relation between the industry concentration and the performance of actively managed U.S. mutual funds from 1984 to 1999. Our results indicate that, on average, more concentrated funds perform better after controlling for risk and style differences using various performance measures. This finding suggests that investment ability is more evident among managers who hold portfolios concentrated in a few industries. [source]