Around the Fed: Safety first?

Related link(s): http://www.richmondfed.org/publications/research/region_focus/2009/summer/around_the_fed_weblinks.cfmEconomics

Safety first: safeguards for writing for wellbeing

This feature article considers the sharp rise in 'writing for wellbeing' workshops around the UK, held in academic institutions, community centres and literary organisations, and also employed increasingly by counsellors and clinicians. The article considers the provenance of creative writing for mental health and analysis the benefits and potential negative impacts of writing for well-being, with a call to establishing a regulatory body to impose safeguarding measures

The California Model: Twenty Years of Putting Safety First

In the last two decades, with the Law Center's dedicated team of attorneys leading the way, California has become a national leader in the movement for effective gun laws. The rate of gun violence in California has also fallen notably compared to rest of the country. Today, California has the ninth lowest gun death rate of any state nationwide when twenty years ago, it had the thirty-fifth lowest rate. California has taken a comprehensive and courageous approach to addressing the epidemic of gun violence, and that approach has succeeded. The state's strong gun laws not only help save lives, but also reduce the trafficking of illegal guns to other states and to Mexico, protecting lives in neighboring communities.This publication examines the history of success in enacting smart gun laws in California and how those laws have contributed to a significant drop in gun death rates in the state

Safe Routes to School: Putting Traffic Safety First

The Safe Routes to School National Partnership has released a new national report showing how SRTS programs can be harnessed to keep children safe from traffic dangers while walking and bicycling to school. The report explores the approaches five different communities used through SRTS to create safer environments for children walking and bicycling. The five communities (Santa Rosa, CA; Miami-Dade County, FL; state of ME; Springfield, MO; and Portland, OR) each demonstrate how Safe Routes to School evaluation, education, encouragement, enforcement, and engineering can address traffic safety concerns. Many of these safety improvements are made at relatively low costs to communities and schools, yet have profound effects on keeping children safe while also improving physical health and the environment

“Safety First”, Just a Slogan?

The objective of this study was to: 1) explore safety and health practices within Career and Technical Education (CTE); and 2) identify the perceived obstacles, which appear to hinder implementation of safety and health programs. The background of the study was founded on a general belief that providing safe and secure teaching and learning environments can be an ongoing challenge. “Safety first”, so the slogan goes, has been a longstanding priority of CTE. However, with the rise of curricular assessment demands in schools, has safety taken a back seat to other educational initiative of the day? Through a survey research method, CTE instructors were asked questions related to the status of a safety and health program, safety training and assessments completed by students prior to participation within the laboratory as well as the instructor’s perceived barriers to implementing occupational safety and health procedures. The results suggested that some laboratory and classroom safety practices are in need of improvement. The conclusions would be useful to school administration; faculty, safety compliance personnel and teacher educators interested in the application of enhanced occupational safety and health practices

Extreme Observations and Diversification in Latin American Emerging Equity Markets

In this paper, we focus on the tails of the unconditional distribution of latin American emerging markets stock returns. We explore their implications for portfolio diversification according to the safety first principle, first proposed by Roy (1952). We find that the Latin American emerging markets have significantly fatter tails than industrial markets, especially, the lower tail of the distribution. We consider the implication of the safety first principle for a U.S. investor who creates a diversified portfolio using Latin America stock markets. We find that a U.S. investor gains by adding Latin American equity markets to her purely domestic portfolio. For different parameter specifications, we find a more realistic asset allocation than the one suggested by the literature based on the traditional meanvariance framework.

INCORPORATING SAFETY-FIRST CONSTRAINTS IN LINEAR PROGRAMMING PRODUCTION MODELS

A recent survey indicated that many procedures view risk in a safety-first context. Traditional methods used to impose safety-first constraints in optimization models have often been difficult to implement. This is particularly true when endogenous decisions affect the distribution of the chance-constrained random variable. This paper presents a method whereby probabilistic constraints can be easily imposed upon finitely discrete random variables. The procedure uses a linear version of the lower partial moment stochastic inequality. The resulting solutions are somewhat conservative but are less so than the results using the previously published mean income-absolute deviation stochastic inequality.Production Economics, Research Methods/ Statistical Methods,

AN APPLICATION OF SAFETY-FIRST PROBABILITY LIMITS IN A DISCRETE STOCHASTIC FARM MANAGEMENT PROGRAMMING MODEL

A sequential decision-making model was developed, and data from farm-raised catfish production were used to demonstrate its use. Outcomes of sequences of decisions which satisfied chance constraints on ending cash balances were traced through a specified time period. Discrete choice variables were specified due to the fixed nature of pond facilities. Recourse actions specified were sale of production in excess of endogenously determined transfer levels or purchase of inputs to supplement needs of the next production stage. Production activities cannot be changed during the planning period. Only yield variability was considered due to its impact on relative competitiveness among growth stages. Deviations were calculated from endogenously determined target levels based on goal and probability limits.Farm Management,

ENVIRONMENTAL RISK ASSESSMENT UNDER ENVIRONMENTAL STANDARD AND SAFETY-FIRST CONSTRAINTS

The uncertainty weather condition could pose some challenge in achieving environmental target. In this study, we use a bioeconomic model to calculate the impacts of alternative management systems. Under different safety-first constraints on the levels of environmental runoff, obtaining from APEX, optimal net return of alternative cropping practices is estimated.Environmental Economics and Policy,