Attachment--and loss.

In this book, Andrew Harvey sets out to provide a unified and comprehensive theory of structural time series models. Unlike the traditional ARIMA models, structural time series models consist explicitly of unobserved components, such as trends and seasonals, which have a direct interpretation. As a result the model selection methodology associated with structural models is much closer to econometric methodology. The link with econometrics is made even closer by the natural way in which the models can be extended to include explanatory variables and to cope with multivariate time series. From the technical point of view, state space models and the Kalman filter play a key role in the statistical treatment of structural time series models. The book includes a detailed treatment of the Kalman filter. This technique was originally developed in control engineering, but is becoming increasingly important in fields such as economics and operations research. This book is concerned primarily with modelling economic and social time series, and with addressing the special problems which the treatment of such series poses. The properties of the models and the methodological techniques used to select them are illustrated with various applications. These range from the modellling of trends and cycles in US macroeconomic time series to to an evaluation of the effects of seat belt legislation in the UK.

Forecasting, Structural Time Series Models and the Kalman Filter

Problem: Localities and states are turning to land planning and urban design for help in reducing automobile use and related social and environmental costs. The effects of such strategies on travel demand have not been generalized in recent years from the multitude of available studies. Purpose: We conducted a meta-analysis of the built environment-travel literature existing at the end of 2009 in order to draw generalizable conclusions for practice. We aimed to quantify effect sizes, update earlier work, include additional outcome measures, and address the methodological issue of self-selection. Methods: We computed elasticities for individual studies and pooled them to produce weighted averages. Results and conclusions: Travel variables are generally inelastic with respect to change in measures of the built environment. Of the environmental variables considered here, none has a weighted average travel elasticity of absolute magnitude greater than 0.39, and most are much less. Still, the combined effect o...

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Travel and the Built Environment

The present report is submitted in response to General Assembly resolution 61/106, by which the Assembly adopted the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities and the Optional Protocol thereto. As requested by the Assembly, a brief overview of the status of the Convention as at 3 August 2007 is presented. The report also contains a brief description of technical arrangements on staff and facilities made necessary for the effective performance of the functions of the Conference of States Parties and the Committee under the Convention and the Optional Protocol, and a description on the progressive implementation of standards and guidelines for the accessibility of facilities and services of the United Nations system. Recent efforts of the United Nations and agencies to disseminate information on the Convention and the Optional Protocol are also described.

わかりやすい障害者の権利条約 : 知的障害のある人の権利のために = Convention on the rights of persons with disabilities

Cost Effectiveness in Health and Medicine.

Fundamental shifts in the structure of labour markets, work systems, and employment relations of industrialized countries have outpaced changes in legislative, social and political mechanisms As a result, a growing number of workers are exposed to precarious employment experiences, which we define as experiences that give rise to instability, lack of protection, insecurity, and social and economic vulnerability These experiences represent a potentially significant occupational health risk Our central objective is to develop a detailed framework that outlines the key aspects of work experiences that makes them precarious, and to consider links between these aspects and downstream health effects

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Precarious employment experiences and their health consequences: towards a theoretical framework.

Objectives The objective of this study was to determine the strength of evidence on the effectiveness of two policy levers—the experience rating of workers’ compensation insurance and the enforcement of occupational health and safety regulation—in creating incentives for firms to focus on health and safety issues. 

Methods An extensive systematic literature review was undertaken in an effort to capture both published and grey literature studies on the topic. Studies that met specific subject-matter and methods criteria underwent a quality assessment. A qualitative approach to evidence synthesis, known as “best-evidence” synthesis, was used. This method ranks the strength of evidence on a particular topic on the basis of the number, quality, and consistency of studies on the topic.

Results There was moderate evidence that the degree of experience rating reduces injuries, limited to mixed evidence that inspections offer general and specific deterrence and that citations and penalties aid general deterrence, and strong evidence that actual citations and penalties reduce injuries.

Conclusions Although experience rating is a key policy lever of those providing workers’ compensation insurance, there is much to be learned about its merits. Few studies have concerned the topic, and most have used crude proxy measures or exploited natural experiments. There have been many more studies on the merits of regulation enforcement, even though here too measures were often crude. Nonetheless, this synthesis indicates that general deterrence is less effective in reducing injury incidence and severity, whereas specific deterrence with regard to citations and penalties does indeed have an impact.

Systematic review of the prevention incentives of insurance and regulatory mechanisms for occupational health and safety

Introduction We present the results of a systematic literature review of disability management interventions to answer the question: “what is the credible evidence that incremental investment in disability management interventions is worth undertaking?” Methods We identified studies through searches in journal databases and requests to content experts. After assessing the quality of studies that met content requirements, we employed a best-evidence synthesis approach. Studies were stratified across several dimensions for evidence synthesis, with industry as the core stratification criterion. Results We identified 17 disability management interventions with economic analyses, of which eight were of high or medium quality. We found strong evidence supporting the economic merits of multi-sector disability management interventions, but could not make a positive statement about the remaining five industry clusters with studies. For stratification by intervention components, we found moderate evidence for interventions that included an education component, moderate evidence for those with physiotherapy, limited evidence for those with a behavioural component, and moderate evidence for those with a work/vocational rehabilitation component. For stratification by intervention features, we found moderate evidence for interventions that included a work accommodation offer, contact between health care provider and workplace, early contact with worker by workplace, ergonomic work site visits, and interventions with a return-to-work coordinator. Conclusions We found credible evidence supporting the financial benefits of disability management interventions for one industry cluster and several intervention components and features.

A systematic review of disability management interventions with economic evaluations.

OBJECTIVE:: We reviewed the occupational health and safety intervention literature to synthesize evidence on financial merits of such interventions. METHODS:: A literature search included journal databases, existing systematic reviews, and studies identified by content experts. Studies meeting inclusion criteria were assessed for quality. Evidence was synthesized within industry-intervention type clusters. RESULTS:: We found strong evidence that ergonomic and other musculoskeletal injury prevention interventions in manufacturing and warehousing are worth undertaking in terms of their financial merits. We also found strong evidence that multisector disability management interventions are worth undertaking. CONCLUSIONS:: While the economic evaluation of interventions in this literature warrants further expansion, we found a sufficient number of studies to identify strong, moderate, and limited evidence in certain industry-intervention clusters. The review also provided insights into how the methodological quality of economic evaluations in this literature could be improved. Language: en

A systematic review of occupational health and safety interventions with economic analyses.

Background: We review economic analyses in studies of workplace-based occupational health and safety interventions in order to report on evidence of their financial merits and assess the quality of application of economic evaluation methodologies. The focus of the review is interventions applicable to an office setting. Materials and Methods: We draw on several systematic reviews to identify studies that consider both the costs and consequences of an intervention, or simply the consequences in monetary terms. Results: In total, we identified 23 studies which we included in our final synthesis. More than half of these studies considered only the consequences in monetary terms, rather than both the costs and consequences associated with the intervention. Conclusions: In reviewing the studies, we identified a number of methodological shortcomings which we discuss in detail. A key message from our review is that there is a need for economic expertise in the multidisciplinary research teams evaluating workplace-based occupational health and safety interventions.

Emile Tompa

Papers

Precarious employment experiences and their health consequences: towards a theoretical framework.

Systematic review of the prevention incentives of insurance and regulatory mechanisms for occupational health and safety

A systematic review of disability management interventions with economic evaluations.

A systematic review of occupational health and safety interventions with economic analyses.

Practice and potential of economic evaluation of workplace-based interventions for occupational health and safety.