5,316 research outputs found
Sensitivity Analysis for Unmeasured Confounding in Meta-Analyses
Random-effects meta-analyses of observational studies can produce biased
estimates if the synthesized studies are subject to unmeasured confounding. We
propose sensitivity analyses quantifying the extent to which unmeasured
confounding of specified magnitude could reduce to below a certain threshold
the proportion of true effect sizes that are scientifically meaningful. We also
develop converse methods to estimate the strength of confounding capable of
reducing the proportion of scientifically meaningful true effects to below a
chosen threshold. These methods apply when a "bias factor" is assumed to be
normally distributed across studies or is assessed across a range of fixed
values. Our estimators are derived using recently proposed sharp bounds on
confounding bias within a single study that do not make assumptions regarding
the unmeasured confounders themselves or the functional form of their
relationships to the exposure and outcome of interest. We provide an R package,
ConfoundedMeta, and a freely available online graphical user interface that
compute point estimates and inference and produce plots for conducting such
sensitivity analyses. These methods facilitate principled use of random-effects
meta-analyses of observational studies to assess the strength of causal
evidence for a hypothesis
Constitutional Impediments to Decentralization in the World\u27s Largest Federal Country
Decentralization is often advocated as a means of improving local democracy and enhancing what economists call allocative efficiency. In federal countries, where power is already divided between national and state governments, decentralization involves the devolution of power from state to local governments. The world’s largest federal country, India, took an unusual step to advance decentralization: it passed the 74th Constitutional Amendment Act to confer constitutional status on municipalities. However, India’s efforts to promote the devolution of power through a national urban renewal scheme have not succeeded for three reasons. The first is that India’s decentralization process is incomplete. Political decentralization has been stymied by the language of the constitutional amendment itself; administrative decentralization has been hampered by the comparative advantage of entrenched state-level institutions; and fiscal decentralization has not occurred because financial responsibility—but not significant revenue—has been devolved. The second reason is that decentralization has been undertaken in a top-down manner, which has exacerbated Center-state relations and mitigated the goal of allocative efficiency. Third is the relative weakness of local governance structures, which has created a Catch-22 situation: as long as the local governments lack significant capacity, the states are reluctant to devolve power to them. Additional effort needs to be directed towards an effective model of cooperative federalism. With Prime Minister Narendra Modi poised to create “smart cities” and promote urban renewal, it is critical to understand why India’s prior decentralization efforts have largely failed. The lessons learned over the past decade are an important guide to the future of cities in India as well as in other federal countrie
Study of the apsidal precession of the Physical Symmetrical Pendulum
We study the apsidal precession of a Physical Symmetrical Pendulum (Allais'
precession) as a generalization of the precession corresponding to the Ideal
Spherical Pendulum (Airy's Precession). Based on the Hamilton-Jacobi formalism
and using the technics of variation of parameters along with the averaging
method, we obtain approximate solutions, in terms of which the motion of both
systems admits a simple geometrical description. The method developed in this
paper is considerably simpler than the standard one in terms of elliptical
functions and the numerical agreement with the exact solutions is excellent. In
addition, the present procedure permits to show clearly the origin of the
Airy's and Allais' precession, as well as the effect of the spin of the
Physical Pendulum on the Allais' precession. Further, the method can be
extended to the study of the asymmetrical pendulum in which an exact solution
is not possible anymore.Comment: 20 pages, 8 figures, LaTeX2
The Effects of California’s Paid Family Leave Program on Mothers’ Leave-Taking and Subsequent Labor Market Outcomes
This analysis uses March Current Population Survey data from 1999-2010 and a differences-in-differences approach to examine how California’s first in the nation paid family leave (PFL) program affected leave-taking by mothers following childbirth, as well as subsequent labor market outcomes. We obtain robust evidence that the California program more than doubled the overall use of maternity leave, increasing it from around three to six or seven weeks for the typical new mother – with particularly large growth for less advantaged groups. We also provide suggestive evidence that PFL increased the usual weekly work hours of employed mothers of one-to-three year-old children by 6 to 9% and that their wage incomes may have risen by a similar amount.
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