...to decide which matching algorithm to choose and determine the region of common support. Subsequently, the matching quality has to be assessed and treatment effects and their standard errors have to be estimated. Furthermore, questions like ‘what to do if there is choice-based sampling?’ or ‘when to measure effects?’ can be important in empirical studies. Finally, one might also want to test the sensitivity of estimated treatment effects with respect to unobserved heterogeneity or failure of the common support condition. Each implementation step involves a lot of decisions and different approaches can be thought of. The aim of this paper is to discuss these implementation issues and give some guidance to researchers who want to use PSM for evaluation purposes. Keywords. Propensity score matching; Treatment effects; Evaluation; Sensitivity analysis; Implementation 1. Introduction Matching has become a popular approach to estimate causal treatment effects. It is widely applied when evaluating labour market policies (see e.g., Heckman et al., 1997a; Dehejia and Wahba, 1999), but empirical examples can be found in very diverse fields of study. It applies for all situations where one has a treatment, a group of treated individuals and a group of untreated...
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...organisation; any surplus made is invested back into the establishment to help towards the development of qualifications and support which keep pace with the changing needs of today’s society. This mark scheme is published as an aid to teachers and students, to indicate the requirements of the examination. It shows the basis on which marks were awarded by Examiners. It does not indicate the details of the discussions which took place at an Examiners’ meeting before marking commenced. All Examiners are instructed that alternative correct answers and unexpected approaches in candidates’ scripts must be given marks that fairly reflect the relevant knowledge and skills demonstrated. Mark schemes should be read in conjunction with the published question papers and the Report on the Examination. OCR will not enter into any discussion or correspondence in connection with this mark scheme. © OCR 2011 Any enquiries about publications should be addressed to: OCR Publications PO Box 5050 Annesley NOTTINGHAM NG15 0DL Telephone: Facsimile: E-mail: 0870 770 6622 01223 552610 publications@ocr.org.uk G582 Band 0 1 Mark /21 0 1-5 AO1 Mark Scheme Mark /14 0 1-3 AO2...
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...Institutionen för Ekonomi och företagande| Magisteruppsats 30 hp |Internationell ekonomi | Höstterminen 2009 | How to ensure that the nightmare won’t happen again – Bankernas nyckeltal, kapitalstruktur och riskreglering i ett konjunkturperspektiv Av: Gustav Johansson, Fredrik Söderlund Handledare: Jurek Millak, Curt Scheutz, Maria Smolander Examinator: Cheick Wagué How to ensure that the nightmare won’t happen again Johansson & Söderlund FÖRORD Trots en något nydanande synvinkel på ett mycket intressant problem, i jakten på nya verktyg att hantera risk, har denna magisteruppsats äntligen tagit form. I samband med detta vill författarna naturligtvis tacka sina handledare för värdefull vägledning och uppmuntran. Stort Tack Curt, Jurek och Maria. Utan de kontakter som författarna haft med banker och reglerare skulle uppsatsen aldrig uppnått den kvaliteten eller tyngd den har idag. Författarna vill därför passa på att tacka intervjurespondenter, informationsförmedlare och andra som varit till stor hjälp och förmedlat värdefulla synpunkter. Dessa mycket hjälpsamma människor är: riksdagsledamöterna Sonia Karlsson och Lars Elindersson i Finansutskottet; Masih Yazdi på Finansinspektionen; Henrik Sörensen Andersen, Martin Gottlob och Heidi Sörensen på Danske Bank; Anna Halaby på Nordea; Anne Hasso och Petri Vertiö på Pohjola Bank; Annika Halldin och Else-Marie Nerep på Skandinaviska Enskilda Banken; Martin Blåvarg och Elizabeth Krämbring på Svenska Handelsbanken; Gunilla...
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...Modelling Football Data By Renzo Galea A Dissertation Submitted in Partial Fulfilment of the Requirements For the Degree of Bachelor of Science (Honours) Statistics and Operations Research as main area DEPARTMENT OF STATISTICS AND OPERATIONS RESEARCH FACULTY OF SCIENCE UNIVERSITY OF MALTA MAY 2011 Declaration of Authorship I, Renzo Galea 25889G, declare that this dissertation entitled: “Modelling Football Data”, and the work presented in it is my own. I confirm that: (1) This work is carried out under the auspices of the Department of Statistics and Operations Research as part fulfillment of the requirements of the Bachelor of Science (Hons.) course. (2) Where any part of this dissertation has previously been submitted for a degree or any other qualification at this university or any other institution, this has been clearly stated. (3) Where I have used or consulted the published work of others, this is always clearly attributed. (4) Where I have quoted from the works of others, the source is always given. With the exception of such quotations, this dissertation is entirely my own work. (5) I have acknowledged all sources used for the purpose of this work. Signature: _______________________ Date: _______________________ Abstract Renzo Galea, B.Sc. (Hons.) Department of Statistics & Operations Research May 2011 University of Malta The main goal of this dissertation is to investigate the Bayesian modelling performance for ...
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...attitudeintention relationship. Design/methodology/approach – An online survey was conducted with 207 online panel members, and multiple regression analysis was used to test the relationships among the variables. Findings – The results indicate that environmental consciousness and appearance consciousness positively influence attitude toward buying organic personal care products. The addition of past experiences as a predictor of purchase intention and perceived behavioral control as a moderator of the attitude-purchase intention relationship yielded an improvement on the TPB model. Practical implications – This study suggests that retailers can develop effective marketing strategies emphasizing ecological beauty, product safety, and affordable prices to increase consumers’ intentions to buy organic personal care products. Originality/value – This study provides valuable insight into US consumer behavior regarding organic personal care products by examining the factors that influence consumers’ attitudes toward buying organic personal care products and consumers’ purchase intentions for the products. Furthermore, this study extends an application of the TPB by examining the moderating influence of perceived behavioral control on the attitude-intention relationship. Keywords Consumer behaviour, Value analysis, Purchasing, Personal hygiene, Paper type Research paper An executive summary for managers and executive...
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...Jönköping International Business School Jönköping University B eh avioral F i nance Investors’ Rationality Bachelor Thesis within Finance Authors: Bernéus, Hannes Sandberg, Carl Wahlbeck, David Tutor: Jönköping Österlund, Urban December, 2008 Acknowledgement We would like to thank our tutor Mr. Urban Österlund for his support and guidance. We are also grateful for all valuable comments and insights from our fellow students during seminar sessions. We would also like to present a special thanks to Johan Sandberg at Swedbank Robur and Viktor Östebo at Nordnet. Without Mr. Sandberg’s and Mr. Östebo’s contribution, this thesis would not have been possible to complete. To all the respondents: thank you for your participation! _____________ Hannes Bernéus ____________ Carl Sandberg Jönköping International Business School Date: 2008-12-11 i _____________ David Wahlbeck Bachelor Thesis within Business Administration Title: Authors: Tutor: Date: Subject terms: Behavioral Finance – Investors’ Rationality. Hannes Bernéus, Carl Sandberg, David Wahlbeck Urban Österlund 2008-12-02 Behavioral Finance, Behavioral Economics, Finance, Economic Psychology. Abstract Purpose: The purpose of this thesis is to examine if professional investors are indicating tendencies of irrational behavior when exposed to certain psychological dilemmas related to the financial world. Background: A new field within financial theory emerged...
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...AT&T Merging with Comcast Tonya Mealey, Teneisha Bonner, and Richard Chan ECON220-X-1302B-02/Professor Luzius July 14th, 2013 Abstract For our group 5 project, we have collected information about the company AT&T merging with Comcast. In this paper, the industry description introduces the company and explains the history of the company. The supportive argument and the argument against the merger are discussed. Keywords: AT&T, Comcast AT&T Merging with Comcast Initially, Comcast proposed to buy AT&T Broadband for 44.5 billion in assets and 13.5 billion in deficit assumption. AT&T’s committee did not accept the acquisition and Comcast offered to merge with AT&T broadband to establish AT&T Comcast. AT&T assets have been dropping and this coalition would probably help them by letting Comcast, which has a great understanding in the broadband business, work with the many resources AT&T has to present. The merger is set at $72 billion. Comcast thinks the coalition with AT&T will keep them rich and it will get 2.2 million broadband consumers and 22 million co responders, news and entertainment supporters. They are evaluating the merger to decide if the aftermath will be an accomplishment or a downfall (Brinkerhoff, 2010). Industry Description: AT&T, is considered to be a telecommunications industry, and is among the world’s premier voice, video, and data communications companies serving millions of consumers, businesses...
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...1 Den allmänna livsmedelsförordningen – The General Food Hygiene Directive 13 3.2 Egenkontroll 13 3.3 HACCP 14 3.4 Allmänt om HACCP 14 3.5 HACCPs principer 17 3.6 Lärandets grunder 19 4. Analys 20 4.1 Hur följs de sju grundprinciperna? 20 4.3 HACCP och egenkontroll i praktiken 24 4.4 Analys av enkätundersökningen 25 5. Diskussion 26 6. Resultat 30 7. Vidare forskning 32 Källförteckning 33 Bilaga 1 35 Enkätundersökning 35 Bilaga 2 38 Enkätanalys 38 1. Inledning ”Vi fick läsa ett kapitel i ettan. Det räckte gott och väl.” (enkätsvar; elev på restaurang- och livsmedelsprogrammet). Efter att ha arbetat med denna uppsats, kan det konstateras att ovannämnda citat från en elev, återspeglar den allmänna inställningen hos restaurang- och livsmedelsprogrammets elever på tre olika gymnasieskolor i Skåne. Det är därför intressant att undersöka hur de som har valt detta program på gymnasiet får utbildning i HACCP och egenkontroll. Gymnasieprogram med restaurang- och livsmedelsinriktning ska förbereda eleverna för arbete i kök och matsal. Eleverna får lära sig grunderna inom bland annat hygien, varav HACCP utgör en stor...
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...Högskolan i Halmstad Sektionen för ekonomi och teknik Europaekonomprogrammet 180 hp Changes in the coffee culture - opportunities for multinationals coffee shops? C-uppsats i Företagsekonomi, Företagsekonomi 51-60 p Slutseminarium: 2007-06-07 Författare: Almqvist Emma Hruzova Barbara Olsson Kajsa Handledare: Max Lundberg Preface and acknowledgement We would like to thank our tutor Max Lundberg at the section of business and engineering at the University of Halmstad for his support and comments throughout the dissertation. We would also like to thank the personnel, managers and the barista for their answers to our questions. Finally we would like to thank the opponent group for their valuable criticism we would also like to take a moment and express our gratitude to the free software Skype that has enabled us to stay in touch despite the long distance between us. Målilla, Düsseldorf, Helsingborg 2007-05-28 Emma Almqvist Barbara Hruzova Kajsa Olsson Abstract The Swedish coffee culture is changing and bringing new business opportunities for multinational coffee shops. Our purpose with this dissertation was to describe the Swedish coffee culture and its changes. We wanted to increase our knowledge about how these changes can make Sweden a more attractive country for coffee shops, like Starbucks, wanting to establish in Sweden. We choose to use a qualitative method with an abductive approach. To gather the primary data we interviewed one barista and sent...
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...prepared to adopt these technologies. Prior research shows, however, that this population lags behind in ICT adoption, although some believe that this is a temporary phenomenon that will soon change. Objectives: : To assess use by older adults of technology in general and ICT in particular, in order to evaluate their readiness to adopt health-related ICT. Method: : We employed the questionnaire used by Selwyn et al. in 2000 in the UK, as well as a survey instrument used by Morris and Venkatesh, to examine the validity of the theory of planned behavior (TPB) in the context of computer use by older employees. 123 respondents answered the questions via face-to-face interviews, 63 from the US and 60 from Israel. SPSS 17.0 was used for the data analysis. Results: : The results show that although there has been some increase in adoption of modern technologies, including ICT, most of the barriers found by Selwyn et al. are still valid. ICT use was determined by accessibility of computers and support and by age, marital status, education, and...
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...Mid Sweden University The Department of Information Technology and Media (ITM) Author: Katarina Lundqvist, kalu9700@student.miun.se Study program: Master of Science in Engineering – Computer Engineering, 270 higher education credits Examiner: Tingting Zhang, tingting.zhang@miun.se Tutor: Aron Larsson, aron.larsson@miun.se Tutor: Mats Olsson, mats.olsson@sogeti.se Scope: 20102 words inclusive of appendices Date: 2010-03-17 M.Sc. Thesis in Computer Engineering AV, 30 higher education credits Tools for Business Intelligence A comparison between Cognos 8 BI, Microsoft BI and SAP BW/NetWeaver Katarina Lundqvist Abstract 2010-03-17 Tools for Business Intelligence A comparison between Cognos 8 BI, Microsoft BI and SAP BW/NetWeaver Katarina Lundqvist Abstract The aim of the thesis was to conduct a general study of Business Intelligence and BI systems followed by a comparison of Cognos 8 BI, Microsoft BI and SAP BW/NetWeaver. The goal was to distinguish similarities and differences between the tools regarding technique, cost, usability and educational need and to provide a mapping for different customer situations. The method consisted of a theoretical study followed by a practical part including development, testing and interviews. The comparison showed that SAP and Microsoft both use the client/server model while Cognos is an integrated web-based system built on SOA. SQL Server can only be installed on Windows while BW and Cognos also support...
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...Online Shopping Behavior in Pakistan Arsalan S. Khan, Faisal Ahmed, Hassan Yousuf, Sohaib ul Hassan and Syed Abbas Zia Karachi School for Business & Leadership Arsalansalahuddinkhan@hotmail.com[->0] 1 Abstract The purpose of this paper is to study the consumer behavior of online shoppers in Pakistan in order to gain insights into their attitudes, preferences, decision-making frame work, and life styles. The target population for this study consisted of the urban consumers who are educated and belong to upper and upper-middle socio-economic classes. Within online shopping, two major categories could be established, namely “Electronics” and “Clothing”. As per our analysis, the experience expected from both the medium is different. For purchasing a commodity offline, the customer would rate the overall shopping experience higher as opposed to convenience. Now we had to establish that what type of goods would be preferred online as opposed to through brick & mortar, and vice-versa. Keywords: online, brick & mortar, electronics, clothingl. 2 Introduction To study the consumer behavior of online shoppers in Pakistan in order to gain insights into their attitudes and preferences, decision-making frame work, attributes for store selection and life styles encouraging online shopping. The target population for this...
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...system. It was first stated by Francis Crick in 1956 and re-stated in a Nature paper published in 1970. Variables: Control setup: Original DNA strand. Independent variable: The base pairing. Dependent variable: vasopressen protein Hypothesis: NONE Materials: pen or pencil, paper and lab sheet Procedures: Part A: • Make a data table and copy the letters into a section labeled DNA. • Create three more sections and label mRNA, tRNA, and amino acids. • Write down the letters that corresponds to the original DNA. Part B: • Starting from AUG in the RNA section, cirlce AUG and from there on put slashes every three letters. • Using figures 2 and 3, write down the names in three letters, below the t-RNA column, that corresponds to the t-RNA anticodons. • The proteain that should be deciphered is vasopressin. FIGURE 1 “Original DNA Sequence” A C G T A C A C G A T G A A G G T T T T A A C G G G A G C T C C T A T T A C G Figure 2: Base pairing rules for DNA with m-RNA and m-RNA to t-RNA DNA base bonds with m-RNA base bonds with t-RNA anticodes Adenine Uracil Adenine Thymine Adenine Uracil Cytosine Guanine Cytosine Guanine Cytosine Guanine FIGURE 3 [pic] Data Collection: data table with the four lines: DNA, m-RNA, t-RNA & amino acids. Analysis: 1. The nitrogen bases present in DNA are Adenine, Thymine, Cytosine...
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...friendo ship. I am grateful to Torbj¨rn Larsson, for always taken time for discussions cono cerning both research and teaching. I appreciate my friendship with Maud G¨the-Lundgren. o Thanks to Mathias Henningsson for good cooperation in teaching and J¨rgen o Blomvall for helping me with computer problems. Thanks to Kaj Holmberg for interesting discussions about decomposition methods. Thanks to Oleg Burdakov and Sven Erlander for encouragement. The group of PhD students has been important for me. Thanks to Maria Daneva, Elina R¨nnberg, Per-˚ke Andersson and Kristian Lundberg for supo A porting me and for all fun discussions. Thanks also to my former colleagues, I miss you all. Thanks to David Bredstr¨m for generating the routes in the second paper. o Thanks also to Anders Folkesson, Kent Hjelm, and Bertil Thunstr¨m at Sydved o Energileveranser AB for good cooperation. Thanks to Pamela Vang and Bj¨rn Lidestam for helping me improving the o English. Thanks to Monika Gustafsson and the other administrative staff who always are willing to provide. Many thanks to...
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...Kapitel 1 Normative (prescriptive) accounting theory Inte baserad på empiriska tester (som positive teorier är) utan de är baserade på vad researcher tror ska eller borde inträffa vid särskilda omständigheter. Teorier som föreskriver (prescribe) istället för förklarar (describe) särskilda handlingar kallas för normativa teorier eftersom att dom baseras på normer som researchern som lägger fram teorierna har. T.ex. säger hur vi ska ta till oss och använda redovisningsmetoder. Kapitel 2 Theories of regulation Public interest theory There is the public interest theory of regulation which propose that regulation be introduces to protect the public. It assumes that the regulatory body (usually government) is a neutral arbiter of the public interest and does not let its own self-interest impact on its rule-making processes. “The regulator does its best to regulate so as to maximize social welfare. Consequently, regulation is thought of as a trade-off between the costs of regulation and its social benefits in the form of improved operations of markets”. Regulation put in place to benefit society as a whole rather than vested interests. Regulatory body considered to represent interests of the society in which it operates, rather than private interests of the regulators. Assumes that government is a neutral arbiter. Criticisms of public interest theory Critics question assumptions that economic markets operate inefficiently if unregulated. Question the assumption...
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