A martingale-transform goodness-of-fit test for the form of the conditional variance

In the common nonparametric regression model the problem of testing for a specific parametric form of the variance function is considered. Recently Dette and Hetzler (2008) proposed a test statistic, which is based on an empirical process of pseudo residuals. The process converges weakly to a Gaussian process with a complicated covariance kernel depending on the data generating process. In the present paper we consider a standardized version of this process and propose a martingale transform to obtain asymptotically distribution free tests for the corresponding Kolmogorov-Smirnov and Cramer-von-Mises functionals. The finite sample properties of the proposed tests are investigated by means of a simulation study. --nonparametric regression,goodness-of-it test,martingale transform,conditional variance

Sweden - Cultural and Institutional Dimensions of Developing and Reforming Social Security Systems

The paper gives a brief presentation of the cultural and institutional specificities of Sweden and how these cultural and institutional specificities impact the development of the Swedish social welfare system over periods of change, transition and strategic adjustment. The paper concludes by presenting a suggestion of a new view of the relationship between culture and social welfare systems, which questions the ability of neo-liberal ideology and political-institutional alignments to suceed if they abandon traditional cultural and institutional demands of balancing the dual social security goals of efficiency and equality

Title III Blog: 2019 MSS Annual Meeting

I had the wonderful opportunity to travel to the Annual Meeting of the Midwest Sociological Society (MSS) this year, between the dates of April 17-20th, 2019. I will discuss how this opportunity contributed to the areas of scholarship, service, and teaching for myself. In sum, this was a wonderful and valuable experience to be able to attend and participate in the MSS Annual meetings. I was able to utilize the opportunity to expand my networks outside of those in the mid-Missouri area, as well as enhance my knowledge in my areas of teaching/learning. As well, I was connected to a range of new strategies to take into the classroom to enhance student learning

Poverty, Homelessness and Domestic Violence among Poor Mothers: Issues and Opportunities for Programs

This research draws on a ten-month ethnography of a domestic violence shelter. While the central research goal was to explore how mothers accomplish mothering in a semi-permanent space, what was discovered is a system of networks shaped by social class and gender, interwoven with the experience of intimate partner violence, which resulted in a limited set of options for poor mothers escaping intimate partner violence. This work contributes to the literature on the social networks of poor mothers, arguing that the dynamics of violence further restricts the already limited networks of poor mothers. To manage the gaps in their networks, mothers greatly relied on one another to work to exit the shelter