Empirical Contributions (empirical + contribution)

Distribution by Scientific Domains


Selected Abstracts


Semi-strong dynamic style analysis with time-varying selectivity measurement: Applications to Brazilian exchange-rate funds

APPLIED STOCHASTIC MODELS IN BUSINESS AND INDUSTRY, Issue 1 2008
Adrian Pizzinga
Abstract This paper deals with restricted linear state space models for dynamic style analysis with time-varying selectivity measurement. Implementation and interpretation of the models are pertinently discussed. Empirical contributions lie on the understanding of how managers of Brazilian US Dollar/Real exchange-rate funds behaved along 2001 and 2002, a period of some political turbulence especially due to the 2002 Brazilian presidential election. Copyright © 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [source]


Evidence-based care and the case for intuition and tacit knowledge in clinical assessment and decision making in mental health nursing practice: an empirical contribution to the debate

JOURNAL OF PSYCHIATRIC & MENTAL HEALTH NURSING, Issue 4 2001
I. Welsh BEd (Hons) RGN ONC RNTDipN (London)
This paper provides empirical evidence that challenges the view that methods of clinical assessment and decision making should not rely solely on logical positivist approaches. Whilst the National Health Service (NHS) Executive currently takes a hard positivist line on what constitutes evidence-based practice, data reveal that it is not always appropriate to disregard the tacit knowledge and intuition of experienced practitioners when making assessment decisions in mental health nursing practice. Data support the case for a holistic approach which may draw on intuition and tacit knowledge, as well as traditional approaches, to meet the requirements of clients with complex mental health problems. A model based on Schon's notion of reflection in and reflection on practice is proposed which demonstrates the value of intuition and tacit knowledge. This model allows the generation of insights which may ultimately be demonstrated to be acceptable and empirically testable. It is accepted that an element of risk taking is inevitable, but the inclusion of a formal analytical process into the model reduces the likelihood of inappropriate care interventions. The cognitive processes which experienced nurses use to make clinical decisions and their implications for practice will be explored. [source]


Pattern Bargaining: An Investigation into its Agency, Context and Evidence

BRITISH JOURNAL OF INDUSTRIAL RELATIONS, Issue 1 2008
Franz Traxler
Pattern bargaining stands out as both an under-researched and controversial subject. This article is an analytical and empirical contribution to this debate. Theoretically, it provides a conceptual framework, which enables analysis to systematically differentiate between distinct forms of pattern bargaining in terms of scope, agency, development and function, which arise from differing contexts in terms of interest configuration, power relations and economic conditions. This framework is used to develop testable hypotheses on pattern bargaining as a mechanism of inter-industry bargaining co-ordination. The empirical part of the article examines these hypotheses for collective bargaining from 1969 to 2004 in Austria, which is commonly seen as a paradigm case of pattern bargaining. The article concludes by highlighting the broader implications its findings have from a cross-nationally comparative perspective. [source]


Families and Communities: An Annotated Bibliography

FAMILY RELATIONS, Issue 5 2005
Nancy Brossoie
Abstract: Connections between families and communities are dynamic and contextual, and their influences are reciprocal. We present a resource guide for family social scientists who are focusing on the nexus of families and communities by highlighting recent theoretical, methodological, and empirical contributions. [source]


Heterogeneity and cross section dependence in panel data models: theory and applications introduction

JOURNAL OF APPLIED ECONOMETRICS, Issue 2 2007
Badi H. Baltagi
The papers included in this special issue are primarily concerned with the problem of cross section dependence and heterogeneity in the analysis of panel data models and their relevance in applied econometric research. Cross section dependence can arise due to spatial or spill over effects, or could be due to unobserved (or unobservable) common factors. Much of the recent research on non-stationary panel data have focussed on this problem. It was clear that the first generation panel unit root and cointegration tests developed in the 1990's, which assumed cross-sectional independence, are inadequate and could lead to significant size distortions in the presence of neglected cross-section dependence. Second generation panel unit root and cointegration tests that take account of possible cross-section dependence in the data have been developed, see the recent surveys by Choi (2006) and Breitung and Pesaran (2007). The papers by Baltagi, Bresson and Pirotte, Choi and Chue, Kapetanios, and Pesaran in this special issue are further contributions to this literature. The papers by Fachin, and Moon and Perron are empirical studies in this area. Controlling for heterogeneity has also been an important concern for empirical researchers with panel data methods promising better handle on heterogeneity than cross-section data methods. The papers by Hsiao, Shen, Wang and Weeks, Pedroni and Serlenga and Shin are empirical contributions to this area. Copyright © 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [source]


ECONOMETRIC MODELS OF ASYMMETRIC PRICE TRANSMISSION

JOURNAL OF ECONOMIC SURVEYS, Issue 2 2007
Giliola Frey
Abstract In this paper, we review the existing empirical literature on price asymmetries in commodities, providing a way to classify and compare different studies that are highly heterogeneous in terms of econometric models, type of asymmetries and empirical findings. Relative to the previous literature, this paper is novel in several respects. First, it presents a detailed and updated survey of the existing empirical contributions on price asymmetries in the transmission mechanism linking input prices to output prices. Second, this paper presents an extension of the traditional distinction between long-run and short-run asymmetries to new categories of asymmetries, such as: contemporaneous impact, distributed lag effect, cumulated impact, reaction time, equilibrium and momentum equilibrium adjustment path, regime effect, regime equilibrium adjustment path. Each empirical study is then critically discussed in the light of this new classification of asymmetries. Third, this paper evaluates the relative merits of the most popular econometric models for price asymmetries, namely autoregressive distributed lags, partial adjustments, error correction models, regime switching and vector autoregressive models. Finally, we use the meta-regression analysis to investigate whether the results of asymmetry tests are not model-invariant and find which additional factors systematically influence the rejection of the null hypothesis of symmetric price adjustment. The main results of our survey can be summarized as follows: (i) each econometric model is specialized to capture a subset of asymmetries; (ii) each asymmetry is better investigated by a subset of econometric models; (iii) the general significance of the F test for asymmetric price transmission depends mainly on characteristics of the data, dynamic specification of the econometric model, and market characteristics. Overall, our empirical findings confirm that asymmetry, in all its forms, is very likely to occur in a wide range of markets and econometric models. [source]


Empirics of the Identification of Social Interactions; An Evaluation of the Approaches and Their Results,

JOURNAL OF ECONOMIC SURVEYS, Issue 2 2006
Adriaan R. Soetevent
Abstract., Over the last decade, the study of social interactions in economic decision making has become an important area of research. The main objective of this paper is to survey the extent to which recent empirical contributions have succeeded in overcoming the identification problems as first formulated by Manski (1993). This discussion is followed by a comparison of empirical studies in three key areas of research: neighborhood effects, substance use among teenagers, and peer effects among university roommates. Finally, I discuss questions like: Can economists restrict attention to a specific subcategories of social interactions? How do we define social groups, and what is the importance of social interactions for public policy? [source]


Development economics at a crossroads?

JOURNAL OF INTERNATIONAL DEVELOPMENT, Issue 7 2006
Introduction to a policy arena
Abstract This introduction reviews some of the issues and controversies within development economics over the last half century. Particular attention is given to the status of development economics as a sub-discipline of economics and to the relationship between theoretical and empirical contributions. There is a focus on the controversies which exist within the economics profession over some very important theoretical and empirical issues relating to the analysis of the economies of developing countries and their interaction with the international economy. A critical discussion of the proposition that ,development economics' is actually little more than ,the economics of developing countries' raises the questions of the nature of development economics and whether it is at a ,crossroads'. The introduction concludes with brief overviews of the five articles which follow and some reflections on the future of development economics. Copyright © 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [source]


Self-Monitoring: Individual Differences in Orientations to the Social World

JOURNAL OF PERSONALITY, Issue 3 2006
Christopher Leone
ABSTRACT In their articles in this special section of the Journal of Personality, the authors have focused their attention on the role of individual differences in self-monitoring for a variety of interpersonal phenomena. In so doing, the authors have provided an overview of the theoretical and empirical contributions of the psychology of self-monitoring to the domains of interest: close relationships, consumer behavior, behavior in the workplace, and social interaction. As each of the contributing authors to this special section suggests, much more theoretical and empirical work is in order if the impact of individual differences in self-monitoring for the phenomena reviewed here is to be fully appreciated. Moreover, the four domains of interest represented in this special section by no means exhaust the areas to which theorists and researchers have applied or can apply the psychology of individual differences in self-monitoring. Given the large nomological network that currently exists involving the self-monitoring construct, it is anticipated that the breadth and depth of applications of the psychology of self-monitoring will only continue to expand as it has in the last 30 years since the appearance of the construct in the literature. [source]


Personality Development: An Introduction Toward Process Approaches to Long-Term Stability and Change in Persons

JOURNAL OF PERSONALITY, Issue 6 2003
William G. Graziano
This special issue is concerned with the systematic transformation of persons and personalities as they move through their lives. The focus is on developmental processes early in the life course that influence both long-term stability and change. Contributors represent diverse topics and viewpoints, but offer new data on classical issues of personality, including trait structure, self-regulation and internalization, self-evaluation, and self-efficacy. In addition, the issue includes empirical contributions on newer approaches to bullying, developmental processes in psychopathology, the influence of racial and ethnic discrimination on subsequent adjustment, and cultural influences on personality development. The issue also includes a special contribution addressing methodological and statistical advances in dealing with prospective longitudinal data assessing personality over time. [source]


Effects of Concentrated Ownership and Owner Management on Small Business Debt Financing,

JOURNAL OF SMALL BUSINESS MANAGEMENT, Issue 4 2007
Zhenyu Wu
Using unique data and a new powerful Monte Carlo-based statistical tool, we examine the effects of concentrated ownership and owner,management (CO-OM) on the creditor,shareholder agency conflicts in small firms. A significant CO-OM effect from the small business owner's view, but insignificant from the commercial lenders' perspective, is found. Special features of informational asymmetry problems in small firms with CO-OM are also highlighted. Theoretical and empirical contributions are made to the small business management and corporate governance literature. Findings obtained from this research have important implications for small business practitioners as well as researchers, and this study can serve as a reference for policymakers and institutional lenders to assist small firms in successfully raising money through debt financing. In addition, a new powerful methodology is introduced to deal with various potential statistical biases and can be further applied to this line of research. [source]


Metacognition, Theory of Mind, and Self-Control: The Relevance of High-Level Cognitive Processes in Development, Neuroscience, and Education

MIND, BRAIN, AND EDUCATION, Issue 3 2008
Beate Sodian
ABSTRACT, The cognitive control of behavior is critical for success in school. The emergence of self-control in development has been linked to the ability to represent one's own and others' mental states (theory of mind and metacognition). Despite rapid progress in exploring the neural correlates of both mind reading and executive function in recent years, to date, the implications of these high-level cognitive processes for issues relevant to education have hardly been addressed. The present special issue brings together developmental perspectives on the relation of self-control, theory of mind, and metacognition; theoretical and empirical contributions on the implications of theory of mind and self-control for teaching and learning; and brief reviews of the state of the art in cognitive neuroscience on these high-level cognitive processes in adolescents and adults. [source]


The empirics of microfinance: what do we know?

THE ECONOMIC JOURNAL, Issue 517 2007
Niels Hermes
Microfinance has received a lot of attention recently, both from policy makers as well as in academic circles. Two of the main topics that have been hotly debated are explaining joint liability group lending and its implications for reducing information asymmetries, and the trade-off between the financial sustainability and outreach of microfinance programmes. This Feature contains three novel empirical contributions providing new insights with respect to why and how joint liability group lending works. It also contains the first large-scale systematic analysis of the trade-off between financial performance and outreach of microfinance institutions. [source]