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PubMed1975

Partial knowledge, entropy, and estimation.

In a growing body of literature, available partial knowledge is used to estimate the prior probability distribution p identical with(p(1),...,p(n)) by maximizing entropy H(p) identical with-Sigmap(i) log p(i), subject to constraints on p which express that partial knowledge. The method has been applied to distributions of income, of traffic, of stock-price changes, and of types of brand-article purchases. We shall respond to two justifications given for the method:(alpha) It is "conservative," and therefore good, to maximize "uncertainty," as (uniquely) represented by the entropy parameter.(beta) One should apply the mathematics of statistical thermodynamics, which implies that the most probable distribution has highest entropy.Reason (alpha) is rejected. Reason (beta) is valid when "complete ignorance" is defined in a particular way and both the constraint and the estimator's loss function are of certain kinds.

Journal Article↗
PubMed2004

Using a population-based database to explore the inter-specialty differences in physician practice incomes in Taiwan.

Gaining an understanding of the distribution of physician incomes between different medical specialties could assist policymakers to predict the future medical manpower supply. The purpose of this study is to examine the differences in medical specialty-specific gross practice incomes between office-based physicians in Taiwan. The primary data source for the study, which includes 7444 office-based physicians, was provided by the Taiwan Department of Health, with the dependent variable of interest to this study being the annual gross income of physician practices, whilst the independent variable is physician specialty. The study controlled for physicians' age, gender, specialty-board status, type of practice, location of clinic and urbanization level of the community in which the practice was located. Multivariate regression analyses were carried out to explore the relationship between physician specialty and gross practice income. This study finds a significant relationship between the annual gross income of physician practices and the physician's medical specialty (P < 0.001). Of all physicians, those specializing in rehabilitation and orthopedics had the highest gross practice incomes; conversely, obstetricians and gynecologists had the lowest gross practice incomes. The regression analyses demonstrated that after adjusting for socio-demographic and professional characteristics, gross practice incomes of physicians were significantly related to their medical specialty. This study concludes that differences in the gross practice incomes of physicians were significantly related to medical specialties. Those physicians specializing in procedure-based specialties, such as rehabilitation and orthopedics, had higher practice incomes than their counterparts in other more diagnosis-oriented specialties such as family practice and pediatrics.

Adult↗
PubMed1994

Earnings differences among the Mexican-origin population in the United States: nativity and citizenship explanations.

The authors "use data from the June 1986 Current Population Survey to investigate nativity and citizenship differences in earnings within the Mexican-origin population in the United States. There is no evidence of any ¿costs' of nativity or citizenship status. Rather, the existing variation appears to be more than explained by the distribution of earnings-related endowments. In fact, there is evidence that immigrants are better rewarded for their lower endowments. A possible explanation is that the Mexican-origin population is seen as homogeneous by employers, who therefore compensate individuals similarly, regardless of their respective endowments."

Americas↗
PubMed2002

Multiple neural systems controlling food intake and body weight.

Discovery of the leptin receptor and its downstream peptidergic pathways has reconfirmed the crucial role of the hypothalamus in the regulation of food intake and energy balance. Strategically located in the midst of the mammalian neuraxis, the hypothalamus receives at least three distinct types of relevant information via direct or indirect neural connections as well as hormone receptors and substrate sensors bestowed on hypothalamic neurons. First, the medial and to a lesser extent the lateral hypothalamus receive a rich mix of information pertaining to the internal state of relative energy repletion/depletion. Second, specific hypothalamic nuclei receive information about the behavioral state, such as diurnal clock, physical activity-level, reproductive cycle, developmental stage, as well as imminent (e.g. fight and flight) and chronic (e.g. infection) stressors, that can potentially impact on short-term availability of fuels and long-term energy balance. Third, the hypothalamus, particularly its lateral aspects, receives information from areas in the forebrain involved in the acquisition, storage, and retrieval of sensory representations of the external food space and internal food experience, as well as from the executive forebrain involved in behavior selection and initiation. In addition, rich intrahypothalamic connections facilitate further distribution of incoming information to various hypothalamic nuclei. On the other hand, the hypothalamus has widespread neural projections to the same cortical areas it receives inputs, and many hypothalamic neurons are one synapse away from most endocrine systems and from both sympathetic and parasympathetic effector organs involved in the flux, storage, mobilization, and utilization of fuels. It is argued that processing within cortico-limbic areas and communication with hypothalamic areas are particularly important in human food intake control that is more and more guided by cognitive rather than metabolic aspects in the obesigenic environment of affluent societies. A distributed neural network for the control of food intake and energy balance consisting of a central processor and several parallel processing loops is hypothesized. Detailed neurochemical, anatomical, and functional analysis of reciprocal connections of the numerous peptidergic neuron populations in the hypothalamus with extrahypothalamic brain areas will be necessary to better understand what hypothalamus, forebrain, and brainstem tell each other and who is in charge under specific conditions of internal and external nutrient availability.

Animals↗
PubMed2002

Dynamical scaling behavior in two-dimensional ballistic deposition with shadowing.

The dynamical scaling behavior in two-dimensional ballistic deposition with shadowing is studied as a function of the angular distribution of incoming particles and of the underlying lattice structure. Using a dynamical scaling form for the surface box number, results for the scaling of the surface fractal dimension are also presented. Our results indicate that, in addition to the usual self-affine universality class corresponding to vertical deposition, there exist at least two additional universality classes characterized by distinct values of the coarsening and roughening exponents p and beta describing the evolution of the lateral feature size and surface roughness with film thickness, as well as the surface fractal dimension D(f). For the case of a uniform angular distribution corresponding to an anisotropic flux, we find p=beta=1 and D(f) approximately 1.7. However, for ballistic deposition with an isotropic flux (corresponding to a "cosine" angular distribution), we find p approximately 2/3 and D(f) approximately 1.5 while the effective roughening exponent beta approximately 0.52-0.64 was found to be slightly lattice dependent. In both cases, anomalous scaling of the height-height correlation function is also observed. In contrast, vertical deposition leads to a self-affine surface with p=2/3, beta=1/3, and D(f)=1. The asymptotic scaling behavior appears to depend on the behavior of the angular distribution at large angles but does not depend on other details. An analysis that clarifies the relationship between the launch angle distribution used in the simulations and the flux distribution is also presented.

Journal Article↗
PubMed1998

Household health expenditures in Nepal: implications for health care financing reform.

His Majesty's Government of Nepal has embarked on an ambitious social welfare programme of increasing the accessibility of primary education and health care services in rural communities. The implications on the financing of health care services are substantial, as the number of health posts has increased twelve-fold from 1992 to 1996, from 200 to 2597. To strengthen health care financing, government policy-makers are considering a number of financing strategies that are likely to have a substantial impact on household health care expenditures. However, more needs to be known about the role of households in the current structure of the health economy before the government designs and implements policies that affect household welfare. This paper uses the Nepal Living Standards Survey, a rich, nationally-representative sample of households from 1996, to investigate level and distribution of household out-of-pocket health expenditures. Utilization and expenditures for different types of providers are presented by urban/rural status and by socioeconomic status. In addition, the sources of health sector funds are analyzed by contrasting household out-of-pocket expenditures with expenditures by the government and donors. The results indicate that households spend about 5.5% of total household expenditures on health care and that households account for 74% of the total level of funds used to finance the health economy. In addition, rural households are found to spend more on health care than urban households, after controlling for income status. Distributing health care expenditures by type of care utilized indicates that the wealthy, as well as the poor, rely heavily on services provided by the public sector. The results of this analysis are used to discuss the feasibility of implementing alternative health care financing policies.

Developing Countries↗
PubMed1992

["Parents' salary" and "freedom of choice" between paid and unpaid work: empirical results of a controversial concept].

The author summarizes results from a study on the impact of a parents' salary in Vorarlburg, a province in western Austria. "According to this concept parents are 'paid' by the government for taking care of their children during the first years after birth, while giving up paid work in the labour market. Critics oppose this concept because of its potentially negative implications for the labour force participation of women.... It is shown that the public transfer payment substantially improves the financial situation of the families involved but also affects the distribution of money and power between the spouses within the households. Moreover, it is pointed out that the payment of a parents' salary itself has 'asymmetrical' effects, which could be balanced if more efforts were made to improve the child care facilities for children under three." (SUMMARY IN ENG)

Aid to Families with Dependent Children↗
PubMed1998

Social equity and access to the World Wide Web and E-mail: implications for design and implementation of medical applications.

INTRODUCTION: The distribution and types of Internet connectivity will determine the equity of access by patient populations to emerging health technologies. We sought to measure the rates, types, and predictors of access in a patient population targeted for Web-based medical services. METHODS: Design. Cross sectional in-person interview. Setting. Emergency department of a large urban pediatric teaching hospital. Subjects. Primary caretakers of patients or patients at least 16 years old. Procedure and measures. Subjects were asked about access to e-mail and the Internet as well as about willingness to use and concerns about Web-based services. Views of equity and access and sociodemographic data were also elicited. RESULTS: 132 subjects were enrolled in the study. Of respondents, 67.2% use a computer and 36.4% can access the Internet or e-mail from home. Including Internet connections and/or e-mail accounts at work, school and public libraries, 50.7% of the sample has access. Forty percent of families have e-mail accounts. The rate at which families have connectivity is primarily correlated with income (r = 0.6, p < 0.01). At all income levels, rates of access to the World Wide Web are higher than to e-mail. White patients are much more likely to have e-mail (OR 5.0, 95% CI 2.4-10.8) and Web access (OR 3.6, 95% CI 1.7-7.5). CONCLUSIONS: Connectivity is directly correlated with income and distributed unevenly across racial and ethnic groups. World Wide Web access is more prevalent than e-mail accounts, and both are often obtained outside the home. Design of health applications should account for these attributes of patient access.

Caregivers↗
PubMed1993

Net worth and the economic diversity of the elderly.

Using data from the 1984 panel of the Survey of Income and Program Participation (SIPP), this article examines characteristics of the older population disaggregated by net-worth quintiles. The authors argue that income is not a sufficient measure of economic status for current policy discussions on issues such as changing Medicare co-payments, increasing the taxation of social security benefits, or means-testing under Medicaid. Net worth is a better measure of economic status, particularly for the elderly, because it represents the net value of assets accumulated over the life course. Their results indicate that there is considerable diversity in the economic status of the older population, which is masked by aggregate statistics (such as means and medians) typically used to summarize the economic status of population groups. Stereotypical views of the elderly based on such aggregates result in misdirected policy formulation. In the future, policymakers will need to formulate policies and programs using information on the distributions of income and assets among the older populations rather than relying on statistical aggregates.

Aged↗
PubMed1984

Wage distributions and spatial preferences in competitive job search and migration.

"Aggregate interstate migration data [for the United States] indicate that the majority of observed flows are from higher to lower wage states, quite contrary to the predictions of human capital theory. It is argued that a search theoretic framework may be used to complement and strengthen human capital theory. Such a framework may then include consideration of the flows of job information and aspects of job competition. A model is proposed for application to longitudinal micro-level data which overcomes a variety of theoretical and inferential problems and which remains within the bounds of empirical application." (summary in FRE, GER)

Americas↗
PubMed1988

The costs of long-term care: distribution and responsibility.

Long-term care costs will result in financial hardship for millions of elderly Americans and their families. The growing number of elderly people has focused public attention on the catastrophic problem of coverage for long-term care. Social insurance is unlikely to emerge as a solution in the USA. One reason is that the expected total cost is viewed as an unmanageable burden by both Federal and State governments. To others, it is the uncertainty surrounding the projected costs. This paper reports on the results of a double-decrement life-table analysis, based on a national survey of the elderly taken in early 1977 and one year later, that estimated the distribution and total lifetime nursing-home costs of the elderly. Combining the probability of nursing-home entry and length of stay, a 65-year-old faces a 43% chance of entering a nursing home and spending about +11,000 (1980 dollars). The distribution of lifetime costs is however very skewed with 13% of the elderly consuming 90% of the resources. Thus, while the costs of nursing-home care can be catastrophic for an individual, spread across a group they are not unmanageable. Given the distribution of income and assets among the elderly, a sizeable proportion could readily afford the necessary premiums of different emerging insurance and delivery programmes. Alternative private and public models of long-term care must be evaluated in terms of the goals of a finance and delivery system for long-term care.

Actuarial Analysis↗
PubMed1995

Public pensions, family allowances and endogenous demographic change.

"A tax-transfer system deals with redistribution a PAYGmong generations and corrective taxation a PAYGt the same time. Since such a policy is a government's task, we take a normative approach and pose the question: Which tax-transfer system should a government apply to maximize social welfare? The framework we consider allows for endogenous demographic aspects...: first, fertility has a great impact on a PAYG [pay-as-you-go] financed pension insurance; and second, through education human capital is accumulated.... We analyzed the optimal extent of a public pension scheme in the presence of external effects of fertility and education on the net domestic product." Pension schemes in Germany and the United States are compared.

Aid to Families with Dependent Children↗
PubMed1995

Lifetime income redistribution by social security.

"This paper discusses the redistributive impact of the Dutch social security system on lifetime basis. Net benefits appear to be positive for the birth generations up to 1960. Social insurances show a declining net benefit, whereas for occupational pensions the reverse holds. It is generally assumed that flat-rated social security schemes are more redistributive ones than wage-related schemes. However, the Dutch social security system shows that on a lifetime basis the redistributive impact of flat-rated general insurances does not necessarily largely differ from the wage-related employee insurances. Social assistance schemes result in a very large income redistribution in view of the small amounts involved. Social insurances and social assistance schemes have an income equalizing effect. On the contrary, occupational pensions increase income inequality."

Developed Countries↗
PubMed1993

Earnings adjustment of temporary migrants.

"The present paper shows that in the case of temporary migration the optimal investment into country specific human capital should be lower than in the case of permanent migration. Investments may not be sufficient to allow migrants' earnings to catch up with those of native workers." Earnings profiles of temporary migrants in West Germany are analyzed and compared with those of permanent migrants in Australia, Canada, and the United States. Data concern the 1980s.

Americas↗
PubMed1991

United States public policy and the elderly: the disproportionate risk to the well-being of women.

"Cross-sectional comparisons show that poverty among the aged in the United States has dropped dramatically over the last two decades. We use longitudinal data to identify economic events associated with unfavorable economic outcomes and to trace the influence of these events on women and men at different ages. We find that while social insurance programs appear to prevent severe financial hardship from the most frequent work-related events, they are far less effective in cushioning the economic impact of widowhood and divorce, especially for women. We suggest a number of policy changes that would provide some measure of social insurance against adverse family-related events."

Adult↗
PubMed1976

Cultural factors affecting urban Mexican male homosexual behavior.

Some aspects of the mestizoized urban culture in Mexico are linked to male homosexuality in support of the theory that cultural factors play an important role in the kind of life styles and sex practices of males involved in homosexual behavior. The following factors are considered relevant: the sharp dichotomization of gender roles, dual categorization of females as good or bad, separate social networks maintained by males before and after marriage, proportion of unmarried males, and distribution of income. One result of the sharp dichotomization of male and female gender roles is the widely held belief that effeminate males generally prefer to play the female role rather than the male. Effeminacy and homosexuality are also linked by the belief that as a result of this role preference effeminate males are sexually interested only in masculine males with whom they play the passive sex role. The participation of masculine males in homosexual encounters is related in part to a relatively high level of sexual awareness in combination with the lack of stigmatization of the insertor sex role and in part to the restraints placed on alternative sexual outlets by available income and/or marital status. Males involved in homosexual behavior in Mexico operate in a sociocultural environment which gives rise to expectations that they should play either the insertee or insertor sex role but not both and that they should obtain ultimate sexual satisfaction with anal intercourse rather than fellatio. In spite of cultural imperatives, however, individual preferences stemming from other variables such as personality needs, sexual gratification, desires of wanted partners, and amount of involvement may override the imperatives with resulting variations in sexual behavior patterns.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1989

Female labour force activity and the sex differential in mortality: comparisons across developed nations, 1950-1980.

This paper examines the macro-level relationship between female labor force activity and the sex differential in mortality among developed nations. Discrimination, protection, and null relationship hypotheses are tested using aggregate data for 18 high income nations over 7 time points from 1950 to 1980. High levels of female labor force activity--controlling for a variety of general social conditions--increase the longevity advantage women have over men. In some models the effects are immediate; in other models the effects occur after a substantial lag; but in no cases are there harmful effects for women's longevity. Also important for the differential are consumption of cigarettes and alcohol, and the level of income inequality in a society.

Alcohol Drinking↗