The extent to which selected elementary, junior, and senior high school textbooks confirm certain misconceptions in United States history

Thesis (Ed.M.)--Boston Universit

INTERNATIONAL DIMENSION OF AGRICULTURAL PRICES

International Relations/Trade,

"An Examination of Changes in the Distribution of Wealth from 1989 to 1998: Evidence from the Survey of Consumer Finances"

This paper considers the distribution of wealth in the period from 1989 to 1998 as an indicator of the economic condition of households. It examines changes in the distribution of wealth over that period, mostly using data from the Survey of Consumer Finances (SCF). Some of the SCF data used here have previously been studied by Weicher (1996), Wolff (1996), and Kennickell and Woodburn (1992 and 1999). As background, the paper also uses some estimates published by Forbes magazine on the 400 wealthiest people in the United States. The first section of the paper briefly discusses the data. The next section uses the Forbes data to characterize changes at the very top of the wealth distribution. The third section presents a variety of estimates of wealth changes for the population below the AForbes 400" level using SCF data. The fourth section examines the sensitivity of the SCF estimates to a variety of assumptions about systematic mismeasurement in the data. The final section summarizes the findings of the paper.

Characterization of Bayes procedures for multiple endpoint problems and inadmissibility of the step-up procedure

The problem of multiple endpoint testing for k endpoints is treated as a 2^k finite action problem. The loss function chosen is a vector loss function consisting of two components. The two components lead to a vector risk. One component of the vector risk is the false rejection rate (FRR), that is, the expected number of false rejections. The other component is the false acceptance rate (FAR), that is, the expected number of acceptances for which the corresponding null hypothesis is false. This loss function is more stringent than the positive linear combination loss function of Lehmann [Ann. Math. Statist. 28 (1957) 1-25] and Cohen and Sackrowitz [Ann. Statist. (2005) 33 126-144] in the sense that the class of admissible rules is larger for this vector risk formulation than for the linear combination risk function. In other words, fewer procedures are inadmissible for the vector risk formulation. The statistical model assumed is that the vector of variables Z is multivariate normal with mean vector \mu and known intraclass covariance matrix \Sigma. The endpoint hypotheses are H_i:\mu_i=0 vs K_i:\mu_i>0, i=1,...,k. A characterization of all symmetric Bayes procedures and their limits is obtained. The characterization leads to a complete class theorem. The complete class theorem is used to provide a useful necessary condition for admissibility of a procedure. The main result is that the step-up multiple endpoint procedure is shown to be inadmissible.Comment: Published at http://dx.doi.org/10.1214/009053604000000986 in the Annals of Statistics (http://www.imstat.org/aos/) by the Institute of Mathematical Statistics (http://www.imstat.org

Decision theory results for one-sided multiple comparison procedures

A resurgence of interest in multiple hypothesis testing has occurred in the last decade. Motivated by studies in genomics, microarrays, DNA sequencing, drug screening, clinical trials, bioassays, education and psychology, statisticians have been devoting considerable research energy in an effort to properly analyze multiple endpoint data. In response to new applications, new criteria and new methodology, many ad hoc procedures have emerged. The classical requirement has been to use procedures which control the strong familywise error rate (FWE) at some predetermined level \alpha. That is, the probability of any false rejection of a true null hypothesis should be less than or equal to \alpha. Finding desirable and powerful multiple test procedures is difficult under this requirement. One of the more recent ideas is concerned with controlling the false discovery rate (FDR), that is, the expected proportion of rejected hypotheses which are, in fact, true. Many multiple test procedures do control the FDR. A much earlier approach to multiple testing was formulated by Lehmann [Ann. Math. Statist. 23 (1952) 541-552 and 28 (1957) 1-25]. Lehmann's approach is decision theoretic and he treats the multiple endpoints problem as a 2^k finite action problem when there are k endpoints. This approach is appealing since unlike the FWE and FDR criteria, the finite action approach pays attention to false acceptances as well as false rejections.Comment: Published at http://dx.doi.org/10.1214/009053604000000968 in the Annals of Statistics (http://www.imstat.org/aos/) by the Institute of Mathematical Statistics (http://www.imstat.org

Rich States, Poor States: ALEC-Laffer State Economic Competitiveness Index

Ranks states' business climates based on income, population growth, and employment and outlook based on current tax policies; analyzes their fiscal conditions; reviews 2010 fiscal reform initiatives; and recommends policies to spur economic growth

The extent to which selected elementary, junior, and senior high school textbooks confirm certain misconceptions in United States history

Thesis (Ed.M.)--Boston Universit