Analysis of top to bottom-kk shuffles

A deck of $n$ cards is shuffled by repeatedly moving the top card to one of the bottom $k_n$ positions uniformly at random. We give upper and lower bounds on the total variation mixing time for this shuffle as $k_n$ ranges from a constant to $n$. We also consider a symmetric variant of this shuffle in which at each step either the top card is randomly inserted into the bottom $k_n$ positions or a random card from the bottom $k_n$ positions is moved to the top. For this reversible shuffle we derive bounds on the $L^2$ mixing time. Finally, we transfer mixing time estimates for the above shuffles to the lazy top to bottom-$k$ walks that move with probability 1/2 at each step.Comment: Published at http://dx.doi.org/10.1214/10505160500000062 in the Annals of Applied Probability (http://www.imstat.org/aap/) by the Institute of Mathematical Statistics (http://www.imstat.org

DO HIGHLY COMPENSATED PARTICIPANTS INFLUENCE THE MANAGEMENT OF QUALIFIED PENSION PLANS?

This paper presents evidence of favorable management of qualified pension plans with large proportion of highly compensated employees. Defined-benefit pension plans that are dominated by highly compensated employees tend to contribute beyond the minimum amount required under Internal Revenue Code (flow effect) resulting in overfunded plans (stock effect) and then use aggressive actuarial assumptions to disguise the overfunding to avoid visibility costs (reporting effect). This favored treatment is less likely when the sponsoring firm has an active labor union (monitoring effect). These actions contradict the provisions under the Employee Retirement Income Security Act and the Internal Revenue Code, which prohibit favorable treatment for highly compensated employees.Defined-Benefit Pension plans; highly compensated employees; funding; actuarial assumptions

OCCUPATIONAL DIVERSIFICATION AND ACCESS TO RURAL EMPLOYMENT: REVISITING THE NON FARM EMPLOYMENT DEBATE

There is a growing feeling of urgency for enlarging the ambit of non-farm activities for accelerating the pace of rural development, battering the employment prospects, augmenting productivity and earnings, alleviating poverty and redressing urban problem. It is important to note that what was once deemed as a passive side-route for employment growth is now vociferously recommended as the pivotal plan of a rural development strategy. It is in this context that this paper examines in detail the notion of rural non-farm sector. It explore the theoretical linkages between agricultural sector and the rural non-farm sector and examines in detail the factors may cause diversification towards the rural non-farm sector.