New Zealand bicycle helmet law - do the costs outweigh the benefits?

Objectives: This paper examines the cost effectiveness of the compulsory bicycle helmet wearing low (HWL) introduced in New Zealand on 1 January 1994. The societal perspective of costs is used for the purchase of helmets and the value of injuries averted. This is augmented with healthcare costs averted from reduced head injuries. Methods: Three age groups were examined: cyclists aged 5-12 years, 13-18 years, and greater than or equal to19 years. The number of head and non-head injuries averted were obtained from epidemiological studies. Estimates of the numbers of cyclists and the costs of helmets are used to derive the total spending on new bicycle helmets. Healthcare costs were obtained from national hospitalisation database, and the value of injuries averted was obtained directly from a willingness-to-pay survey undertaken by the Land Transport Safety Authority. Cost effectiveness ratios, benefit:cost ratios, and the value of net benefits were estimated. Results: The net benefit (benefit:cost ratios) of the HWL for the 5-12, 13-18, and greater than or equal to19 year age groups was $0.3m (2.6), -$0.2m (0.8), and -$1.5m (0.7) (in NZ$, 2000 prices; NZ $1.00 = US$0.47 = UK pound0.31 approx). These results were most sensitive to the cost and life of helmets, helmet wearing rates before the HWL, and the effectiveness of helmets in preventing head injuries. Conclusions: The HWL was cost saving in the youngest age group but large costs from the law were imposed on adult (greater than or equal to19 years) cyclists

Interactive Management and Updating of Spatial Data Bases

The decision making process, whether for power plant siting, load forecasting or energy resource planning, invariably involves a blend of analytical methods and judgement. Management decisions can be improved by the implementation of techniques which permit an increased comprehension of results from analytical models. Even where analytical procedures are not required, decisions can be aided by improving the methods used to examine spatially and temporally variant data. How the use of computer aided planning (CAP) programs and the selection of a predominant data structure, can improve the decision making process is discussed

What determines self-employment? : a comparative study

This article consists of a comparative study of the incidence of self-employment (SE) between Greece, which has the highest rate of SE in the European Union and the United Kingdom, which has amongst the lowest. Data from the Greek and the UK Labour Force Surveys are used in order to assess how personal attributes of an individual have an impact on the incidence of SE. It is found that common patterns exist between these two countries. In particular, it is found that for both countries, males have greater odds of being self-employed than females, older people have greater odds than younger, individuals employed in the primary and tertiary sectors have greater odds than the ones employed in the secondary, and that individuals with primary or secondary education have greater odds of being self-employed than individuals holding higher degrees. The incidence of SE is also found to differ according to the occupation of the individual. On the other hand, the findings indicate that individuals, residing in London, have greater odds of being self-employed than individuals working outside UK's capital, whereas in Greece the pattern is reversed

Robust Inference on Seasonal Unit Roots via a Bootstrap Applied to OECD Macroeconomic Series

Recent experimental results presented in Burridge and Taylor (2001a,b, and 2003) show that, as usually implemented, the Hylleberg et al. (1990) seasonal unit root tests can be rather liberal, with true level often substantially higher than nominal level. This effect is due to the presence of any of three things: data-based lag selection in the implementation of the tests, and either or both periodic heteroscedasticity and serial correlation in the driving shocks. Burridge and Taylor (2003) demonstrate that under experimental conditions a carefully implemented bootstrap substantially corrects test level without loss of power. The present study applies their technique to a large number of publicly available series, and demonstrates conclusively that the bootstrap produces less liberal, and, given the experimental results cited above, more reliable inference. We report results for Sweden, the UK and the US, which are typical of the fifteen countries in our panel. Other results, the GAUSS code, and raw data are all available at: www.staff.city.ac.uk/p.burridge

Phase space polarization and the topological string: a case study

We review and elaborate on our discussion in hep-th/0606112 on the interplay between the target space and the worldsheet description of the open topological string partition function, for the example of the conifold. We discuss the appropriate phase space and canonical form for the system. We find a map between choices of polarization and the worldsheet description, based on which we study the behavior of the partition function under canonical transformations.Comment: 18 pages, invited review for MPL

Community learning and development training for professionals engaged in community regeneration and community planning

The study was commissioned by the Scottish Executive Development Department to identify training needs and current provision of community learning and development (CLD) training for a range of professionals (other than those formally qualified in CLD) who are engaged in community regeneration and community planning (Local Government in Scotland Act 2003). It was one of a series of studies emanating from the Scottish Executive response to the review: „Empowered to Practice – the future of community learning and development training in Scotland‟. One of the themes of the report taken up by the Scottish Executive was the need for; „wider opportunities for joint training with other disciplines such as teachers, librarians, college lecturers, health workers and social workers‟

50 Years Later: Women, Work & the Work Ahead (Infographic)

How have things changed for women in the labor force over the last 50 years