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Downward Bias (downward + bias)
Selected AbstractsKeeping nurses at work: a duration analysisHEALTH ECONOMICS, Issue 6 2002Tor Helge HolmåsArticle first published online: 9 AUG 200 Abstract A shortage of nurses is currently a problem in several countries, and an important question is therefore how one can increase the supply of nursing labour. In this paper, we focus on the issue of nurses leaving the public health sector by utilising a unique data set containing information on both the supply and demand side of the market. To describe the exit rate from the health sector we apply a semi-parametric hazard rate model. In the estimations, we correct for unobserved heterogeneity by both a parametric (Gamma) and a non-parametric approach. We find that both wages and working conditions have an impact on nurses' decision to quit. Furthermore, failing to correct for the fact that nurses' income partly consists of compensation for inconvenient working hours results in a considerable downward bias of the wage effect. Copyright © 2002 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [source] Sacrifice Ratios with Long-Lived Effects,INTERNATIONAL FINANCE, Issue 2 2005Lawrence Huiyan Zhang This paper is a theoretical and empirical study of sacrifice ratios,that is, the cost of reducing inflation during periods when disinflation produces long-lived effects on output or unemployment. New methods are developed for measuring sacrifice ratios. Sacrifice ratios that take into account long-lived effects are larger than sacrifice ratios calculated using Ball's (1994) ,standard method'. The ,standard method' also has a larger downward bias for countries experiencing larger long-lived effects. The sacrifice ratio for the United States falls somewhere in the middle of those for G-7 countries when long-lived effects are taken into account, while it is at the top when calculated using the ,standard method'. Finally, there is a negative relationship between sacrifice ratios and initial inflation rates, and the cost of reducing inflation is generally lower when the speed of disinflation is faster. [source] On the Relation between Conservatism in Accounting Standards and Incentives for Earnings ManagementJOURNAL OF ACCOUNTING RESEARCH, Issue 3 2007QI CHEN ABSTRACT This paper studies the role of conservative accounting standards in alleviating rational yet dysfunctional unobservable earnings manipulation. We show that when accounting numbers serve both the valuation role (in which potential investors use accounting reports to assess a firm's expected future payoff) and the stewardship role (in which current shareholders rely on the same reports to monitor their risk-averse manager), current firm owners have incentives to engage in earnings management. Such manipulation reduces accounting numbers' stewardship value and leads to inferior risk sharing. We then show that risk sharing, and hence contract efficiency, can be improved under a conservative accounting standard where, absent earnings management, accounting earnings represent true economic earnings with a downward bias, compared with under an unbiased standard where, absent earnings management, accounting earnings represent true economic earnings without bias. [source] Assessing the effects of measurement errors on the estimation of production functionsJOURNAL OF APPLIED ECONOMETRICS, Issue 6 2006Carmine Ornaghi This article explores to what extent the poor results that are often found when estimating parameters of production functions can be attributed to measurement errors, due to the use of common price deflators across firms. Because of the lack of detailed micro-economic data, econometricians have to rely on industry-wide deflators when computing outputs and intermediate inputs. A unique feature of the longitudinal data used in this paper is that it reports firm-level prices. This allows for a comparative assessment of production function parameters where the outputs and intermediate inputs are computed using both firm-specific prices and industry-wide deflators. The empirical results presented in this paper show that the use of common deflators across firms leads to lower scale estimates, mainly because of a large downward bias in the estimated coefficients for labour. Copyright © 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [source] A SIMPLE ALTERNATIVE ANALYSIS FOR THRESHOLD DATA DETERMINED BY ASCENDING FORCED-CHOICE METHODS OF LIMITSJOURNAL OF SENSORY STUDIES, Issue 3 2010HARRY T. LAWLESS ABSTRACT An alternative analysis of forced-choice threshold data sets such as the type generated by ASTM method E-679 involves a simple interpolation of chance-corrected 50% detection. This analysis has several potential advantages. The analysis does not require the ad hoc heuristics for estimating individual thresholds above and below the series. It takes into account the possibility of guessing correctly, which is not considered in the ASTM calculations and produces a downward bias to the estimates. It does not discount correct responses early in the series which may be legitimate detections, but which are discounted by the ASTM method if followed by any incorrect response. Comparisons of the two methods in a large consumer study of odor detection threshold study data set gave comparable values. The interpolation can also be done to determine other levels of detection (e.g. 10, 25%). These values other than 50% can be potentially useful in setting regulatory standards for water or air pollution limits or to food manufacturers who wish to avoid detection of taints by more sensitive individuals. PRACTICAL APPLICATIONS The forced choice methods for threshold estimation have proven practically useful in comparing the potency of various flavor materials and in comparing the sensitivities of individuals. The ASTM method E-679 is one such method. The alternative analysis of results from this procedure which is outlined here provides additional information and does not exhibit the downward bias because of correct guessing. [source] DIET-TISSUE FRACTIONATION OF STABLE CARBON AND NITROGEN ISOTOPES IN PHOCID SEALSMARINE MAMMAL SCIENCE, Issue 1 2002VÉRONIQUE Lesage Diet-tissue isotopic fractionation of carbon (C) and nitrogen (N) isotopes in short- and longer-term diet integrators of diet (i. e., blood serum and red cells), that involve non-invasive sampling techniques was examined using three species of phocid seals (harbor seals, gray seals, and harp seals) fed a known diet. Variability in diet-tissue fractionation values within and between species was also scrutinized to determine the legitimacy of using values obtained from one species to explore trophic positions and diets of other related species. All captive seals raised on a constant diet had tissues enriched in 13C and 15N relative to their diet. Diet-tissue isotopic fractionation values were generally consistent among conspecifics and among phocid species for a given tissue. Trophic isotopic enrichment in 13C was significantly higher in red blood cells (+1.5%±) than in blood serum (+0.8%±), whereas the reverse was observed for nitrogen isotopes (+1.7%± in red cells vs. +3.1%± in serum). However, 13C-depleted lipids were not extracted from blood tissues in this study. This results in a downward bias in the diet-tissue fractionation factors for carbon for both red cells and blood serum, particularly the latter because of their significantly higher lipid contents (x,± SD = 14.6 ± 2.3%; n= 20; red blood cells 3.8 ± 0.9%±; n= 50, muscle 7.7 ± 2.0; n= 21) in marine mammals. [source] Forecasting volatility: Roles of sampling frequency and forecasting horizon,THE JOURNAL OF FUTURES MARKETS, Issue 12 2010Wing Hong Chan This study empirically tests how and to what extent the choice of the sampling frequency, the realized volatility (RV) measure, the forecasting horizon and the time-series model affect the quality of volatility forecasting. Using highly synchronous executable quotes retrieved from an electronic trading platform, the study avoids the influence of various market microstructure factors in measuring RV with high-frequency intraday data and in inferring implied volatility (IV) from option prices. The study shows that excluding non-trading-time volatility produces significant downward bias of RV by as much as 36%. Quality of prediction is significantly affected by the forecasting horizon and RV model, but is largely immune from the choice of sampling frequency. Consistent with prior research, IV outperforms time-series forecasts; however, the information content of historical volatility critically depends on the choice of RV measure. © 2010 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Jrl Fut Mark [source] COMPETITION AND RESOURCE EFFECTIVENESS IN EDUCATION,THE MANCHESTER SCHOOL, Issue 1 2007DAVID MAYSTON This paper examines the impact of competition in the markets for teachers and for housing on the long-standing issue of the influence of school resourcing on educational attainment. The existence of such competition is found to imply not only downward bias in many earlier empirical estimates of the role of resources in the educational production function, but also powerful general equilibrium effects, especially for the impact of relative levels of school resources on the distribution of relative levels of educational attainment across individual schools, that highlight the importance of how resources are distributed across individual schools. [source] | ||||||||||