The role universities can play in supporting the state sector

Over recent decades most of the developed world has invested significantly in lifting the proportion of the population that has a tertiary education, with a view to increasing what is commonly referred to as human capital. The OECD defines human capital as ‘the knowledge, skills, competencies and attributes embodied in individuals that facilitate the creation of personal, social and economic well-being’ (OECD, 2001) New Zealand spends around 1% of its the proportion of the population with a GDP on tertiary education (OECD, tertiary qualification over the past couple 2014) and has seen a significant rise in the proportion of the population with a tertiary qualification over the past couple of decades. In 1991, 8.2% of the working-age population had a degree at bachelor’s level or higher (Statistics New Zealand, 1991). By 2013 this had risen to 26.1%. In 1991, having a degree was a way of differentiating oneself to an employer; now it is an expectation for many jobs, including an increasing number in the state sector. This article considers the educational profile of the state sector’s employees at the time of the 2013 census, and examines the ways universities are contributing to this profile and to lifting the human capital available to the state sector. • Chris Whelan is the Executive Director of Universities New Zealand – Te Päkai Tara

J. Ebbeler, Discipling Christians: Correction and Community in Augustine's Letters.

Review of Ebbeler, Disciplining Christian

Identifying Taste Variation in Choice Models

Among the many attractive features of the mixed logit model is its ability to take account of taste variation among decision-makers by allowing coefficients to follow pre-specified distributions (usually normal or lognormal). Whilst accounting for heterogeneity in the population, simple applications of the technique fail to identify valuable information on differences in behaviour between market segments. This information is likely to be of use to those involved in policy and investment analysis, product design and marketing. The ‘standard’ approach to overcome this problem when working with the mixed logit model is to identify segments prior to modelling and either specify a set of constant coefficients for each market segment together with an additional error term to ‘mop-up’ any residual variation, or by allowing separate distributions for each market segment. An alternative approach is to adapt an exciting new methodology that offers the ability to estimate reliable individual specific parameters (Revelt and Train, 1999). This approach is documented in Section 3 and involves three key stages: • First use maximum simulated likelihood to estimate distributions of tastes across the population. • Next examine individual’s choices to arrive at estimates of their parameters, conditional on know distributions across the population (including accounting for uncertainty in the population estimates). This process again involves the use of maximum simulated likelihood. • Finally, differences in behaviour between market segments are identified by regressing individual ‘part-worths’ against the characteristics of the decision-maker or attributes of the choice alternatives. In the first instance the technique is validated under ‘controlled’ circumstances on a simulated data set with know taste distributions. This simulation involves a binary choice situation in which the alternatives are described in terms of time and cost. The choices of a group of decision-makers are simulated with each with a value of time drawn from a known distribution. The resulting choices are then analysed and individual values recovered with a surprisingly high degree of precision. The findings of this validation are set out in Section 4. Following a successful validation of the technique on simulated data, the methodology is applied to data from two stated preference experiments in which 326 respondents were asked to choose between alternate motor vehicle 1 specifications defined by purchase price, running costs, engine size, emissions and safety features. The results of this analysis are set out in Section 5 and are compared to the findings of previously calibrated models that identified significant differences in tastes across market segments

Van Waarden, Writing to Survive: A Commentary on Sidonius Apollinaris; Letters Book 7, vol. 1, The Episcopal Letters 1–11.

Review of Van Waarden, Writing to Survive

Jets from young stars and brown dwarfs

The protostellar outflow mechanism operates for a significant fraction of the pre-main sequence phase of a solar mass star and is thought to have a key role in star and perhaps even planet formation. This energetic mechanism manifests itself in several different forms and on many scales. Thus outflow activity can be probed in numerous different regimes from radio to X-ray wavelengths. Recent discoveries have shown that it is not only solar mass stars that launch outflows during their formation but also the sub-stellar brown dwarfs. In this article what is currently known about jets from young stars is summarised, including an outline of why it is important to study jets. The second part of this article is dedicated to jets from young brown dwarfs. While only a small number of brown dwarf outflows have been investigated to date, interesting properties have been observed. Here observations of brown dwarf outflows are described and what is currently known of their properties compared to low mass protostellar outflows.Comment: Astronomische Nachrichten, Special Issue: Reviews in Modern Astrononm

From Income Poverty to Quality of Life Measurement in Ireland, an Overview 1. ESRI Research Bulletin February 2020/03

There is an increasing consensus that the identification and measurement of poverty using a single income measure fails to capture the complexity of poverty. This was particularly true in Ireland in periods of bust and boom, when relative income poverty measures were unable to reflect the changes in standard of living. Such limits highlight the need to develop a multidimensional approach. This requires developing criteria relating to choice of dimensions and the manner in which they should be combined