bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Closing A Conceptual Gap: The Case For A Description Of English As A Lingua Franca
Authors: Seidlhofer Barbara
Published: March 2003

Despite momentous developments in the sociopolitics of the teaching of English worldwide, targets have generally remained tied to native‐speaker norms. This paper argues that although this orientation is often recognized as inappropriate and counter‐productive, it persists because discussions about ‘global English’ on the meta‐level have not been accompanied by a necessary reorientation in linguistic research: very little empirical work has so far been done on the most extensive contemporary use of English worldwide, namely English as a lingua franca, largely among ‘non‐native’ speakers. The paper seeks to demonstrate that this lack of a descriptive reality precludes us from conceiving of speakers of lingua franca English as language users in their own right and thus makes it dif?cult to counteract the reproduction of native English dominance. To remedy this situation, a research agenda is proposed which accords lingua franca English a central place in description alongside English as a native language, and a new corpus project is described which constitutes a ?rst step in this process. The paper concludes with a consideration of the potentially very signi?cant impact that the availability of an alternative model for the teaching of English as a lingua franca would have for pedagogy and teacher education.
Spatial Optimization of Resources Deployment for Forest‐Fire Management
Authors: Dimopoulou Maria , Giannikos Ioannis
Published: March 2003

The main objective of forest‐fire management is to minimize the damage caused by forest fires. This may be achieved by deploying fire‐fighting forces in critical locations so as to detect fires as early as possible and quickly dispatch an initial attack force that can control them while they are small. Empirical studies have identified several factors that affect the development of a forest fire. In the present study, a methodology is employed to classify regions within a forest area according to these factors. The classification is based on information provided by a Geographic Information System (GIS). This information is then passed on to a spatial optimization model that determines the optimal location of fire‐fighting resources. A maximal covering model is employed that takes into account the classification of regions by varying coverage in regions of different class. The method has been applied to the area of Parnitha, near Athens.
A Hierarchical Location Model for Locating Bank Branches in a Competitive Environment
Authors: Miliotis P. , Dimopoulou M. , Giannikos I.
Published: March 2003

Recent developments in the provision of banking services are expected to affect the structure and the organization of modern banks significantly. Consequently, it has become necessary for most banks to reorganize their service network. In this context we demonstrate how demand–covering models may be combined with geographical information systems (GIS) to determine the optimal location of bank branches, taking into account the various factors that characterize local conditions within the demand area. The essence of the proposed models is to employ a GIS to represent various criteria concerning the demand for banking services (geographical, social, economic, etc.) as well as the competition in each particular area. This information is then taken into account by appropriate demand–covering models which determine the locations that achieve the maximum capture of the demand. Finally, we present some initial results concerning the application of this approach by a major Greek commercial bank.
Rational Poverty or Poor Rationality? The Take‐up of Social Assistance Benefits
Authors: Riphahn Regina T.
Published: March 2003

In several countries social assistance dependence has been increasing since the 1980s. After surveying the theoretical and empirical take‐up literature, this study presents estimates of recent rates of non take‐up of social assistance benefits. Once methodological shortcomings of prior estimations are corrected, the results show that take‐up has fallen recently and thus cannot explain the rising welfare receipt. Following theoretical predictions, the probability that a rational individual takes up social assistance increases with the expected benefit amount and duration, and falls with application cost and stigma. More than half of all households eligible for transfers under the German social assistance program did not claim their benefits.
Saharan dust: sources and trajectories
Authors: Middleton N. J. , Goudie A. S.
Published: March 2003

The Sahara is the world’s largest source of aeolian desert dust, but precise information on specific sources of this material is poor and sometimes contradictory. This paper uses daily data from the Total Ozone Mapping Spectrometer (TOMS) for 1999 to identify source areas for major dust events and their trajectories of long‐range transport. Two major source areas are identified: the Bodélé depression and an area covering eastern Mauritania, western Mali and southern Algeria. Both of these major dust sources are primarily driven by natural factors since they are little affected by anthropogenic activities.
Fieldwork and disabled students: discourses of exclusion and inclusion
Authors: Hall Tim , Healey Mick , Harrison Margaret
Published: March 2003

Disabled students form a significant but under represented minority in higher education in the UK. Participation appears to be particularly low in disciplines that contain a fieldwork component. Fieldwork has been recognized as a barrier to the participation of disabled students. This paper emphasizes a critical perspective on fieldwork, highlighting the way in which fieldcourses as currently conceived, enacted and experienced, can exclude disabled students. It discusses a survey of the experiences of providing learning support to disabled students undertaking fieldwork in geography, earth and environmental science departments in the UK. It also considers the various ways in which the images, spaces, practices and cultures of fieldwork may exclude or marginalize disabled students and the different ways in which fieldwork may be made more inclusive.
Auditors' Perceived Business Risk and Audit Fees: Analysis and Evidence
Authors: Bell Timothy B. , Landsman Wayne R. , Shackelford Douglas A.
Published: March 2003

This study analyzes the relation between auditors' perceived business risk and audit fees to determine whether audit firms or their clients bear the expected legal costs of business risk. We predict that hourly audit fees and the number of audit hours are increasing in business risk. Using confidential survey data collected by a large international accounting firm for 422 audits, we find that high business risk increases the number of audit hours, but not the fee per hour. This implies that firms perceive firm‐level differences in business risk and obtain compensation through billing additional hours, not by raising the hourly charge.
Reporting Discretion and Private Information Communication through Earnings
Authors: Sankar Mandira Roy , Subramanyam K. R.
Published: March 2003

We model a two‐period pure exchange economy where a risk averse manager, who has private information regarding future earnings, is required to issue an earnings report to investors at the end of each period. While the manager is prohibited from directly disclosing her private information, she is allowed to bias reported earnings in the first period, subject to GAAP rules that require that a specified proportion of the bias be reversed subsequently. We show there is a minimum threshold of reversal, such that, when the proportion of required reversal is above this threshold, the manager smooths income and communicates her private information through reported earnings. Consequently, the market attaches greater weight to reported earnings than under a regime that allows no discretion. When the required reversal is below the minimum threshold, the manager increases reported earnings without limit and the equilibrium degenerates. When the manager is not endowed with any private information, the market unravels the “true” earnings and price is unaffected by earnings management. Our results underscore the importance of both allowing and restricting reporting discretion through formal mechanisms.
GAAP versus The Street: An Empirical Assessment of Two Alternative Definitions of Earnings
Authors: Bradshaw Mark T. , Sloan Richard G.
Published: March 2003

Managers, security analysts, investors, and the press rely increasingly on modified definitions of GAAP net income, known by such names as “operating” and “pro forma” earnings. We document this phenomenon and discuss competing explanations for the recent rise in the use of such modified earnings numbers and implications for the interpretation of related accounting research. Our results show that over the past 20 years there has been a dramatic increase in the frequency and magnitude of cases where “GAAP” and “Street” earnings differ. Further, there is a very strong bias toward the reporting of a Street earnings number that exceeds the GAAP earnings number. We also show that the market response to the Street earnings number has displaced GAAP earnings as a primary determinant of stock prices. Finally, through an analysis of earnings releases, we show that management has taken a proactive role in defining and emphasizing the Street number when communicating to analysts and investors.
Who Is My Peer? A Valuation‐Based Approach to the Selection of Comparable Firms
Authors: Bhojraj Sanjeev , Lee Charles M. C.
Published: March 2003

This study presents a general approach for selecting comparable firms in market‐based research and equity valuation. Guided by valuation theory, we develop a “warranted multiple” for each firm, and identify peer firms as those having the closest warranted multiple. We test this approach by examining the efficacy of the selected comparable firms in predicting future (one‐ to three‐year‐ahead) enterprise‐value‐to‐sales and price‐to‐book ratios. Our tests encompass the general universe of stocks as well as a sub‐population of so‐called “new economy” stocks. We conclude that comparable firms selected in this manner offer sharp improvements over comparable firms selected on the basis of other techniques.
Can “Big Bath” and Earnings Smoothing Co‐exist as Equilibrium Financial Reporting Strategies?
Authors: Kirschenheiter Michael , Melumad Nahum D.
Published: March 2003

We study a model of financial reporting where investors infer the precision of reported earnings. Reporting a larger earnings surprise reduces the inferred earnings precision, dampening the impact on firm value of reporting higher earnings, and providing a natural demand for smoother earnings. We show that for sufficiently “bad” news, the manager under‐reports earnings by the maximum, preferring to take a “big bath” in the current period in order to report higher future earnings. If the news is “good,” the manager smoothes earnings, with the amount of smoothing depending on the level of cashflows observed. He either over‐reports or partially under‐reports for slightly good news, and gradually increases his under‐reporting as the news gets better, until he is under‐reporting the maximum amount for sufficiently good news. This result holds both when investors are “naïve” and ignore management’s ability to manipulate earnings, or “sophisticated” and correctly infer management’s disclosure strategy.
Has the Information Content of Quarterly Earnings Announcements Declined in the Past Three Decades?
Authors: Landsman Wayne R. , Maydew Edward L.
Published: March 2003

This paper examines changes in the information content of earnings over the past three decades using the two metrics from Beaver [1968]: abnormal trading volume and abnormal return volatility. We find no evidence of a decline in the information content of earnings announcements over the past three decades, as measured by both abnormal trading volume and return volatility around quarterly earnings announcements. If anything, our results suggest an increase over time in the informativeness of quarterly earnings announcements. Variables reflecting changes in firm‐specific factors account for a portion of the observed increase.
Bringing the Future Forward: The Effect of Disclosure on the Returns‐Earnings Relation
Authors: Lundholm Russell , Myers Linda A.
Published: March 2003

This paper studies how firm disclosure activity affects the relation between current annual stock returns, contemporaneous annual earnings and future earnings. Our results show that firms with relatively more informative disclosures “bring the future forward” so that current returns reflect more future earnings news. We also find that changes in disclosure activity are positively related to changes in the importance of future earnings news for current returns. These results suggest that a firm’s disclosure activity reveals credible, relevant information not in current earnings, and that this information is incorporated into the current stock price.
Large–Sample Evidence on the Debt Covenant Hypothesis
Authors: Dichev Ilia D. , Skinner Douglas J.
Published: March 2003

We use Dealscan, a database of private corporate lending agreements, to provide large–sample tests of the debt covenant hypothesis. Dealscan offers several advantages over the data available in previous studies, principally larger and more representative samples and the availability of extensive actual covenant detail. These advantages allow us to construct powerful tests in which we find clear support for the debt covenant hypothesis. We also use these data to provide broad evidence on the economic role of debt covenants. We find that private lenders set debt covenants tightly and use them as “trip wires” for borrowers, that technical violations occur relatively often, and that violations are not necessarily associated with financial distress. Finally, since we measure covenant slack directly, we report evidence that the extensively–used leverage variable is a relatively noisy proxy for closeness to covenants.
The Effects of Alternative Justification Memos on the Judgments of Audit Reviewees and Reviewers
Authors: Agoglia Christopher P. , Kida Thomas , Hanno Dennis M.
Published: March 2003

Prior research on justification has typically focused on the differences in judgments between auditors required, or not required, to justify their decisions. However, justification memos can be prepared using different approaches. In this study we examine the impact of using three justification memos: supporting, balanced, and component. Using a comprehensive control environment case based on an actual client that experienced fraud, we find that the justification memo used can affect the judgments of auditors preparing the memos as well as the judgments of auditors who review their work. Specifically, the results indicate that auditors using an unrestricted component memo, who were required to write memos for components of their task by providing important positive and negative evidence, thought that the firm's control environment was more likely to prevent fraud as compared with the supporting and balanced memo groups. Additional analyses suggest that the reason for this result is that an unrestricted component memo focuses auditors’ attention on a larger percentage of positive control environment characteristics when a firm's underlying evidence set is mostly positive. This may be problematic because firms can have more positive than negative control environment characteristics, even when fraud is present.
Investor and Analyst Reactions to Earnings Announcements of Related Firms: An Empirical Analysis
Authors: Ramnath Sundaresh
Published: March 2003

In this article I examine the response of investors and analysts of nonannouncing firms to the earnings report of the first announcers in the industry. The error in the earnings forecast of the first announcer is found to be informative about the errors in the contemporaneous earnings forecasts of subsequent announcers in the industry. However, investors and analysts do not appear to fully incorporate the information from the first announcers’ news in their revised earnings expectations for subsequent announcers. This apparent underreaction to the first announcers’ news leads to predictable stock returns for subsequent announcers in the days following the first announcement. Results of this study can be seen as further evidence of investor and analyst underreaction to publicly available information.
Dividend Omissions and Intraindustry Information Transfers
Authors: Caton Gary L. , Goh Jeremy , Kohers Ninon
Published: March 2003

We examine potential information transfers from companies that announce dividend omissions to their industry rivals. Specifically, we examine the abnormal stock returns and abnormal earnings forecast revisions of rivals after a company makes a dividend‐omission announcement. Our results show negative and significant abnormal stock returns and negative and significant abnormal forecast revisions for rival companies in response to the announcement, and a significant and positive relation between the two. We conclude that a dividend‐omission announcement transmits unfavorable information across the announcing company's industry that affects cash flow expectations and ultimately stock prices.
Merger Announcements and Trading
Authors: Ascioglu N. Asli , McInish Thomas H. , Wood Robert A.
Published: March 2003

We test whether an increase either in informed trades or in large liquidity trades leads to greater correlation of trading volume across markets. We confirm that both trading volume and positive returns of target companies are abnormally high before merger announcements. We find a statistically significant increase in the correlation between New York Stock Exchange and Nasdaq/regional trading volume before merger announcements. Furthermore, after merger announcements, we find evidence of both large liquidity trading and a statistically significant increase in the correlation of trading volume across markets.
Adolescent’s perceptions of differential parenting: Links with attachment style and adolescent adjustment
Authors: Sheehan Grania , Noller Patricia
Published: March 2003

The study examines whether adolescent twins’ attachment style mediates the association between their perceptions of differential parental treatment and their reported adjustment. Data from a survey of 174 adolescent twins are used to assess the links between twins’ reports of differential parental affection and differential parental control, their attachment style, and their reported personal self‐esteem, social self‐esteem, and anxiety. Twins’ reports of having been disfavored in comparison with their co‐twin were associated with attachment insecurity, anxiety, and lower personal self‐esteem. Attachment was found to mediate the association between the twins’ reports of differential parental affection and their reported anxiety and personal self‐esteem. The strongest evidence for mediation was found for twins’ reports of differential maternal affection in predicting adolescent twins’ anxiety.
Dimensions of Relationship Quality
Authors: Hassebrauck Manfred , Fehr Beverley
Published: March 2003

Four studies examined the dimensions of relationship quality. In Study 1, based on a principal components analysis, four dimensions underlying the prototype of relationship quality were identified: intimacy, agreement, independence, and sexuality. The four–factorial structure was replicated both with a German sample (Study 2) and a Canadian sample (Study 3). Study 4 tested the validity of scales based on the four–factorial structure of relationship quality with German and Canadian samples. Relationship satisfaction was predicted well by the four scales, with intimacy contributing most, and sexuality least, to overall relationship satisfaction. The four scales correlated as predicted with other constructs relevant to close relationships, such as commitment, trust, love, and the like. Consequences for the measurement of relationship quality are discussed.
Problem–solving conversations in marriage: Does it matter what topics couples discuss?
Authors: Sanford Keith
Published: March 2003

To address the validity of a common procedure for assessing problem–solving communication behavior in marriage, this study investigated the extent to which communication behavior is influenced by the difficulty of the topic being discussed. Married couples engaged in a sequence of four videotaped problem–solving conversations, and the topics discussed in each conversation were coded for difficulty. Hierarchical linear modeling was used to investigate both proximal and distal influences on communication behavior. At the proximal level, couples did not change their communication behavior in response to changes in topic difficulty that occurred across the four conversations. At the distal level, couples experiencing conflict over a highly difficult topic reported low relationship satisfaction and used negative forms of communication behavior in all their problem–solving conversations, regardless of the issue being discussed. The relationship between topic difficulty and communication behavior was mediated by marital satisfaction.
Community Colleges and the School‐to‐Work Transition: A Multilevel Analysis
Authors: Mobley Catherine
Published: March 2003

This study aims to illuminate whether the context of community colleges results in more positive outcomes for students. More specifically, the multilevel analysis aims to predict the race, gender, and socioeconomic status (SES) gaps in student outcomes, and how these are impacted by state coordination. Measures of state coordination include level of state funding, years of existence of state community college system, number of local institutions, type of governance board, degree to which the state is involved in program approval and centralization rank. Results suggest that state coordination has influence over wages in that a higher percentage of state funding was associated with a wider gender gap in earnings. Additionally, the variables associated with more positive outcomes in terms of the race gap in wages were program approval by the state and the presence of a coordinating board. This exploratory study demonstrates the potential of multilevel models in examining the school‐to‐work transition. Future research should be directed toward developing additional models of state coordination.
The Atatürk Dam project in south‐east Turkey: Changes in objectives and planning over time
Authors: Brismar Anna
Published: March 2003

The Atatürk Dam was constructed on the Euphrates River in Turkey in the 1980s as the central component of a large‐scale regional development project for the South‐eastern Anatolia region, known as GAP. Since the first development plan for the region was presented in 1970, the objectives for regional development have changed significantly.

This article aims to analyze how the functions, design, and capacities of the Atatürk Dam project have been modified since 1970, paralleling changes in the regional development objectives and ambitions, and to identify accomplishments and constraints in the realization of the dam project.

Since 1970, ambitions to develop the region have grown significantly, resulting in major changes to the original project plans. The most important change occurred in 1978, when the design for the Middle Karababa Dam, recommended in 1970, was abandoned and the Atatürk Dam design was adopted. This change considerably increased the storage and power generation capacities of the dam. Yet, the sparse rainfall throughout the catchment in recent years has hampered full utilization of the dam’s storage and generation capacities and increased the need for tradeoffs between conflicting demands for water use.
Joined-up Government: A Survey
Authors: Pollitt Christopher
Published: March 2003

This paper first identifies the varied meanings and objectives of joined-up government (JUG). Subsequently it explores the costs and risks involved, and briefly reviews some of the relevant academic literature. Having thus clarified the key concepts and situated the current fashion for a ‘holistic approach’ within the broader literature on co-ordination, the paper also considers a range of approaches to the assessment of progress with JUG.
Adolescent Health and Well‐Being in the Twenty‐First Century: A Global Perspective
Authors: Call Kathleen Thiede , Riedel Aylin Altan , Hein Karen , McLoyd Vonnie , Petersen Anne , Kipke Michele
Published: March 2003

Adolescence is a critical developmental period with long‐term implications for the health and well‐being of the individual and for society as a whole. The most significant factors to adolescents' health are found in their environments, and in the choices and opportunities for health‐enhancing or health‐compromising behaviors that these contexts present (e.g., exposure to violence, supportive families). Inadequate contexts represent a failure to invest in and protect adolescents, a choice to alienate rather than integrate them into society. This article describes a number of societal trends, including growing poverty and income disparities, government instability, the changing health‐care system, the spread of HIV/AIDS, increased migration and urbanization, changing family and cultural contexts, and new information technology. The health implications of these trends for the well‐being of adolescents in the 21st century are contemplated.
Assessing Human Health Response in Life Cycle Assessment Using ED10s and DALYs: Part 1—Cancer Effects
Authors: Crettaz Pierre , Pennington David , Rhomberg Lorenz , Brand Kevin , Jolliet Olivier
Published: March 2003

Life cycle assessment (LCA) is a framework for comparing products according to their total estimated environmental impact, summed over all chemical emissions and activities associated with a product at all stages in its life cycle (from raw material acquisition, manufacturing, use, to final disposal). For each chemical involved, the exposure associated with the mass released into the environment, integrated over time and space, is multiplied by a toxicological measure to estimate the likelihood of effects and their potential consequences. In this article, we explore the use of quantitative methods drawn from conventional single‐chemical regulatory risk assessments to create a procedure for the estimation of the cancer effect measure in the impact phase of LCA. The approach is based on the maximum likelihood estimate of the effect dose inducing a 10% response over background, ED10, and default linear low‐dose extrapolation using the slope βED10 (0.1/ED10). The calculated effects may correspond to residual risks below current regulatory compliance requirements that occur over multiple generations and at multiple locations; but at the very least they represent a “using up” of some portion of the human population's ability to accommodate emissions. Preliminary comparisons are performed with existing measures, such as the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's (U.S. EPA's) slope factor measure q1*. By analyzing bioassay data for 44 chemicals drawn from the EPA's Integrated Risk Information System (IRIS) database, we explore estimating ED10 from more readily available information such as the median tumor dose rate TD50 and the median single lethal dose LD50. Based on the TD50, we then estimate the ED10 for more than 600 chemicals. Differences in potential consequences, or severity, are addressed by combining βED10 with the measure disability adjusted life years per affected person, DALYp. Most of the variation among chemicals for cancer effects is found to be due to differences in the slope factors (βED10) ranging from 10−4 up to 104 (risk of cancer/mg/kg‐day).
Communicating Air Quality Information: Experimental Evaluation of Alternative Formats
Authors: Johnson Branden B.
Published: March 2003

A long‐running effort in environmental communication is daily publication of a report on local air pollution in many American newspapers based on the Pollutant Standards Index (PSI). A 1998 proposal by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (U.S. EPA) to change the PSI prompted a survey experiment with 1,100 adults in Philadelphia, evaluating the proposed change's ability to better inform the populace. The effects of exposure to the old and new versions of the PSI, as well as health cautions and information about groups sensitive to air pollution, were compared with evaluation criteria suggested byWeinstein and Sandman (1993). Sample respondents had strong baseline concerns about air pollution. Descriptors of air quality (e.g., “good; ”“unhealthy”) were difficult to discriminate, particularly in the New format. Concern rose as hypothetical air pollution levels rose, but the New format (as well as PSI versions without health cautions or sensitive‐group information) evoked a sharp discontinuity in concern between below‐ and above‐standard pollution levels. Both Old and New formats reduced concern relative to no provision of PSI information at all, but the New format reduced concern significantly more than the Old version. No PSI format did particularly well at increasing knowledge of air pollution or decreasing intentions to be active outdoors during high pollution, contrary to the agency's aim. Although U.S. EPA has since adopted the new proposal as a national “Air Quality Index” requirement, the experiment's results illuminate the strengths and limitations of the new PSI as a means of informing citizens and motivating them to protect themselves.
Methods and Rationale for Derivation of a Reference Dose for Methylmercury by the U.S. EPA
Authors: Rice Deborah C. , Schoeny Rita , Mahaffey Kate
Published: March 2003

In 2001, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency derived a reference dose (RfD) for methylmercury, which is a daily intake that is likely to be without appreciable risk of deleterious effects during a lifetime. This derivation used a series of benchmark dose (BMD) analyses provided by a National Research Council (NRC) panel convened to assess the health effects of methylmercury. Analyses were performed for a number of endpoints from three large longitudinal cohort studies of the neuropsychological consequences of in utero exposure to methylmercury: the Faroe Islands, Seychelles Islands, and New Zealand studies. Adverse effects were identified in the Faroe Islands and New Zealand studies, but not in the Seychelles Islands. The NRC also performed an integrative analysis of all three studies. The EPA applied a total uncertainty factor (UF) of 10 for intrahuman toxicokinetic and toxicodynamic variability and uncertainty. Dose conversion from cord blood mercury concentrations to maternal methylmercury intake was performed using a one‐compartment model. Derivation of potential RfDs from a number of endpoints from the Faroe Islands study converged on 0.1 μg/kg/day, as did the integrative analysis of all three studies. EPA identified several areas for which further information or analyses is needed. Perhaps the most immediately relevant is the ratio of cord:maternal blood mercury concentration, as well as the variability around this ratio. EPA assumed in its dose conversion that the ratio was 1.0; however, available data suggest it is perhaps 1.5–2.0. Verification of a deviation from unity presumably would be translated directly into comparable reduction in the RfD. Other areas that EPA identified as significant areas requiring further attention are cardiovascular consequences of methylmercury exposure and delayed neurotoxicity during aging as a result of previous developmental or adult exposure.
Challenges Confronting Risk Analysis of Potential Thyroid Toxicants
Authors: Zoeller R. Thomas
Published: March 2003

Screening and testing for potential thyroid toxicants using endpoints of thyroid function, including circulating levels of thyroid hormones and thyrotropin, will not capture toxicants that directly interfere with thyroid hormone action at the receptor. The goals of the present review are to provide a critique of the literature focused on thyroid hormone and brain development as it relates to testing and evaluating thyroid toxicants, and to propose possible solutions to this perceived dilemma.
Detection of Automobile Insurance Fraud With Discrete Choice Models and Misclassified Claims
Authors: Artís Manuel , Ayuso Mercedes , Guillén Montserrat
Published: March 2003

The insurance industry is concerned with the detection of fraudulent behavior. The number of automobile claims involving some kind of suspicious circumstance is high and has become a subject of major interest for companies. This article demonstrates the performance of binary choice models for fraud detection and implements models for misclassification in the response variable. A database from the Spanish insurance market that contains honest and fraudulent claims is used. The estimation of the probability of omission provides an estimate of the percentage of fraudulent claims that are not detected by the logistic regression model.
Fraud Classification Using Principal Component Analysis of RIDITs
Authors: Brockett Patrick L. , Derrig Richard A. , Golden Linda L. , Levine Arnold , Alpert Mark
Published: March 2003

This article introduces to the statistical and insurance literature a mathematical technique for an a priori classification of objects when no training sample exists for which the exact correct group membership is known. The article also provides an example of the empirical application of the methodology to fraud detection for bodily injury claims in automobile insurance. With this technique, principal component analysis of RIDIT scores (PRIDIT), an insurance fraud detector can reduce uncertainty and increase the chances of targeting the appropriate claims so that an organization will be more likely to allocate investigative resources efficiently to uncover insurance fraud. In addition, other (exogenous) empirical models can be validated relative to the PRIDIT‐derived weights for optimal ranking of fraud/nonfraud claims and/or profiling. The technique at once gives measures of the individual fraud indicator variables’ worth and a measure of individual claim file suspicion level for the entire claim file that can be used to cogently direct further fraud investigation resources. Moreover, the technique does so at a lower cost than utilizing human insurance investigators, or insurance adjusters, but with similar outcomes. More generally, this technique is applicable to other commonly encountered managerial settings in which a large number of assignment decisions are made subjectively based on ‘‘clues,‘’ which may change dramatically over time. This article explores the application of these techniques to injury insurance claims for automobile bodily injury in detail.
Guaranteeing Defined Contribution Pensions: The Option to Buy Back a Defined Benefit Promise
Authors: Lachance Marie‐Eve , Mitchell Olivia S. , Smetters Kent
Published: March 2003

After a long commitment to defined benefit (DB) pension plans for U.S. public sector employees, many state legislatures have introduced defined contribution (DC) plans for their public employees. In this process, investment risk that was previously borne by state DB plans has now devolved to employees covered by the new DC plans. In light of this trend, some states have introduced a guarantee mechanism to help protect DC plan participants. One such guarantee takes the form of an option permitting DC plan participants to buy back their DB benefit for a price. This article develops a theoretical framework to analyze the option design and illustrate how employee characteristics influence the option's cost. We illustrate the potential impact of a buy‐back option in a pension reform enacted recently by the State of Florida for its public employees. If employees were to exercise the buy‐back option optimally, the market value of this option could represent up to 100 percent of the DC contributions over their work life.
Optimal Loss Mitigation and Contract Design
Authors: Kelly Mary , Kleffner Anne E.
Published: March 2003

This work examines the interaction between the premium rates set by an insurer and the incentives of an individual to purchase market insurance and undertake mitigation to reduce the size of a potential loss. A risk‐neutral monopolistic insurer prices insurance according to the price‐elasticity of demand for coverage. The elasticity of demand is affected by the presence of both mitigation and government intervention. The availability of loss reduction activities increases the consumer's elasticity of demand and lowers the optimal rate charged by the monopolist. Government intervention reduces both expenditures on mitigation and the rate charged by the monopolistic insurer.
Social Support and Quality of Life Among Older People in Spain
Authors: Fernández–Ballesteros Rocío
Published: March 2003

Social support is a key concept in social gerontology; there is empirical evidence of its relationships with health, well–being and quality of life in old age. The density of an individual’s social relationships, the degree to which he/she interacts with others and how much he/she receives and gives affect, instrumental support, and/or services are all associated with health indicators, subjective well–being, and quality of life measures. This article deals with social support in old age in Spain, its relationships with health indicators, and its role in quality of life. Several descriptive studies dealing with social integration, frequency of social interactions, satisfaction with social relationships, and formal and informal social support are reviewed. Finally, the role attributed by elders to social relationships is an important conditioning factor of quality of life.
Arab and Jewish Youth in Israel: Voicing National Injustice on Campus
Authors: Hertz‐Lazarowitz Rachel
Published: March 2003

Haifa University (HU) is the stage for a prolonged social drama between Arabs (20%) and Jews. 86 students (38 Arabs and 48 Jews) were interviewed on their experiences of injustice. Three major differences emerged. For the Arabs, 92% of injustice took place on campus compared to 40% for the Jews. Arabs attributed injustice to discrimination (60%), Jews to the actors' personal characteristics (58%); the Arabs transformed injustice events into a political struggle for national recognition, identity, and narratives. The analysis intimates that Arabs' “social being” is developing through the staging of negative expressive acts, namely, respect/contempt and power/weakness. Thus actors at HU can stage social processes, and change sites of surveillance and injustice into places of reconciliation and coexistence.
Tracing the Historical Origins of Youth Delinquency & Violence: Myths & Realities About Black Culture
Authors: Cross William E.
Published: March 2003

The negative effects of slavery have been theoretically linked to contemporary problems faced by African Americans, such as family instability, low achievement motivation, and high rates of juvenile delinquency and youth violence. Combining historical, sociological, and psychological materials, the current analysis argues that Blacks exited slavery with the necessary social capital, inclusive of proactive family attitudes and patterns as well as high achievement motivation, for rapid acculturation into mainstream America. Shifting to the present, it is shown that the co‐existence of high Black crime rates and Black cultural integrity are not contradictory, especially when systemic forces neutralize or undermine the ameliorative potential of Black culture.
Supporting Listening Comprehension and Vocabulary Acquisition in French with Multimedia Annotations
Authors: Jones Linda C. , Plass Jan L.
Published: March 2003

English‐speaking college students enrolled in a French course listened to a 2‐minute, 20‐second historical account in French presented by a computer program. The participants were randomly assigned to one of four listening treatments: the listening text (a) with no annotations available, (b) with only written annotations available, (c) with only pictorial annotations available, and (d) with both written and pictorial annotations available. The students remembered word translations and recalled the passage better when they had selected both written and pictorial annotations while listening rather than one of these types or no annotations. In addition, effect sizes were much larger for pictorial annotations than for written annotations, especially for delayed tests. The results were consistent with Mayer's (1997, 2001) Generative Theory of Multimedia Learning and extend this theory to listening comprehension.
Evaluative Criteria for Qualitative Research in Applied Linguistics: Whose Criteria and Whose Research?
Authors: Lazaraton Anne
Published: March 2003

This paper examines various criteria that have been proposed for evaluating the increasing number of empirical studies carried out using qualitative research methods, and it demonstrates how such criteria may privilege certain forms of qualitative research while excluding others. A broader disciplinary view is taken by defining qualitative research, and by discussing in more detail the two qualitative traditions that have achieved prominence in applied linguistics, ethnography, and conversation analysis. Then, select existing evaluative criteria for qualitative research proposed by applied linguists, as well as additional criteria developed outside applied linguistics, are examined. Finally, the issue of criteriology is considered, on which some of the assumptions underlying the existing evaluative criteria are based. To conclude, this article discusses the complex relationship between research method and evaluative criteria and the role of professional journals in establishing and validating such criteria.
Teachers as Intercultural Learners: Negotiating German–American Telecollaboration along the Institutional Fault Line
Authors: Belz Julie A. , Müller–Hartmann Andreas
Published: March 2003

This article examines how social, cultural, and institutional affordances and constraints in a telecollaborative foreign language learning partnership shape the agency of online teachers. In particular, it details how various aspects of schools and schooling impact the negotiation, execution, and management of a German–American virtual course from the perspectives of the teachers. These aspects include: the misalignment of academic calendars, local patterns of socialization into the teaching profession, institution–specific classroom scripts, systems of learning assessment, student workloads, and the physical layouts of local institutions and social forms of classroom collaboration. The article presents a self–reflective case study of our 10–month electronic negotiation, execution, and management of a German–American telecollaborative partnership within the constructivist paradigm of social realism. Using Agar's (1994) notion of the linguistic rich point and examining patterns of communication, specific lexical items, and grammatical structures, the study uncovers how the culturally varying nature of schools and schooling is linguistically encoded in the texts of electronic correspondence.
Particularism versus Universalism in the Brazilian Public Administration Literature
Authors: Candler Gaylord George
Published: March 2003

The author draws on the Brazilian public administration literature to discuss the conflict between the need to remain open to lessons from elsewhere, while at the same time remaining grounded in a particular local context. The article begins by presenting calls by a number of Brazilian public administration scholars for what might be termed an “administrative particularism,” or an assertion that universal lessons do not apply in the discipline. This is followed by a discussion of the challenges that these and other Brazilian public administration scholars identify. Further discussion will suggest these challenges, and many of the solutions most commonly offered for them, imply that, far from a uniquely Brazilian public administration, the country seeks to move closer to the model of public administration practiced elsewhere, especially in the developed world.
Devolution and the Social Welfare of Elderly Immigrants: Who Will Bear the Burden?
Authors: Angel Jacqueline L.
Published: March 2003

Growing ethnic diversity translates into rising numbers of individuals facing socioeconomic disadvantage, creating a context in which detailed examinations of public policy are critical for understanding the health care needs of immigrant populations in the United States. Although many scholars document the link between social disadvantage and increased morbidity and mortality, additional analyses are needed to identify specific public policies associated with decreased access to social goods and public services. The implications of the latest welfare bill, the Personal Responsibility and Work Reconciliation Act of 1996, on the health and social welfare of the aging Hispanic population provides a unique opportunity for such inquiry. On the basis of demographic trends and recent analyses of data from the Hispanic Established Populations for Epidemiologic Study of the Elderly, the results suggest that older, Mexican–origin immigrants are likely to become an even greater administrative responsibility of state and local governments.
Globalization and Reunification: Administrative Reforms and the China–Hong Kong Convergence Challenge
Authors: Huque Ahmed Shafiqul , Yep Ray
Published: March 2003

When Hong Kong reintegrated with China in 1997, one critical issue was whether the flourishing center of economic activity with an efficient administrative framework would lose its advantages and become just another city of the People's Republic of China. This article examines the process of managing transition as socialist China tries to accommodate capitalist Hong Kong. With strong forces of globalization at play, both units have had to embark on administrative reforms to make their systems compatible with the demands of the new circumstances. An overview of the reforms they have undertaken reveals that convergence is possible despite markedly different points of departure. However, while the forces of globalization press for increased convergence, the forces of institutional arrangements and history present a major challenge. The balance of the push and pull of convergent and divergent forces will determine the direction and outcome of administrative reforms in China and Hong Kong.
Strengthening Effective Government–Citizen Connections through Greater Civic Engagement
Authors: Kirlin John J. , Kirlin Mary K.
Published: March 2003

Citizens are more trusting of government since the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, but their civic behaviors are little changed. One reason is that they mostly have been asked for monetary gifts to fund disaster relief and to serve others through existing nonprofit organizations. Available theoretical and empirical analyses suggest the three factors of motivation, skills, and network connections contribute to increased civic engagement, which is defined by behaviors such as seeking to persuade others to join in mobilizing commitment and resources to address a collective problem. Responses to 9/11 have not addressed these three factors. Increased civic engagement strengthens democracy and can contribute to the development of public judgment, which is critical to sustaining support of efforts to thwart terrorism. Success in any effort to increase civic engagement requires different strategies and actions by public officials.