Measuring Disparities in Non-School Costs and Revenue Capacity Among Massachusetts Cities and Towns

This paper develops new measures of environmental costs and local revenue capacity as the basis for a new municipal aid formula in Massachusetts. On the cost side, unlike previous studies, we quantify the effects on local non-school spending of characteristics related to uncontrollable costs. On the capacity side, we account for the constraints of a tax limitation, for the first time in the literature, by estimating these constraints as a function of residents' incomes. The estimates of costs and capacity indicate substantial inter-local fiscal disparities in Massachusetts. Our approach is potentially applicable to other states

Integrated Economic and Climate Modeling

This survey examines the history and current practice in integrated assessment models (IAMs) of the economics of climate change. It begins with a review of the emerging problem of climate change. The next section provides a brief sketch of the rise of IAMs in the 1970s and beyond. The subsequent section is an extended exposition of one IAM, the DICE/RICE family of models. The purpose of this description is to provide readers an example of how such a model is developed and what the major components are. The final section discusses major important open questions that continue to occupy IAM modelers. These involve issues such as the discount rate, uncertainty, the social cost of carbon, the potential for catastrophic climate change, algorithms, and fat-tailed distributions. These issues are ones that pose both deep intellectual challenges as well as important policy implications for climate change and climate-change policy

Statistical Procsess Control

ix.;ill.;445 hal.;30 c

Cases in Total Quality Management

Oxfordxxii, 271 p.; illus.; 23 cm

Total Quality Management and Operational Excellence: Text with Cases, 4/E.

The notion of "Quality" in business performance has exploded since the publication of the first edition of this classic text in 1989. Today there is a plethora of performance improvement frameworks including Baldrige, EFQM, Lean, Six Sigma and ISO 9001, offering a potentially confusing variety of ways to achieve business excellence. Quality guru John Oakland’s famous TQM model, in many ways a precursor to these frameworks, has evolved to become the ultimate holistic overview of performance improvement strategy. Incorporating the frameworks that succeeded it, the revised model redefines Quality by: Accelerating change Reducing cost Protecting reputation Oakland’s popular, practical, jargon-free style, along with ten case studies eight of which are brand new, effortlessly ties the model to its real-life applications, making it easy to understand how to apply what you’ve learned to your practices and a achieve sustainable competitive advantage. Total Quality Management and Operational Excellence: Text with Cases (Fourth Edition) is supplemented for the first time with a suite of online teaching aids for busy tutors. This exciting update of a classic text is perfect for all students studying for professional qualifications in the management of quality, or those studying science, engineering or business and management who need to understand the part TQM may play in their subjects

Statistical process control, 6th ed./ Oakland

xiii, 458 hal.: ill, tab.; 27 cm