We propose a new method to find spatially adaptive smoothing splines. This new method breaks down the interval [0, 1] into p disjoint sub-intervals. Then we define p functional components in [0, 1], which have two importantfeatures. First, the purpose of each of these p components is to estimate...

Die vorliegende Dissertation will einen Beitrag zur Messung von Krankheitsbelastung, Einkommensstruktur und Ausbildungsrenditen im ländlichen Westafrika leisten. Ihr Forschungsgegenstand ist die Erhebung und Analyse von Mortalitäts-, Morbiditäts- und sozio-ökonomischen Daten im...

A time series analysis was performed on medical scheme statistics with the aim of determining current and future demographic and economic trends. This would enable one to reach a better perspective on the current and future financial dilemma presently experienced by medical schemes. Data for the...

In the ¯rst of the essays, I reassess the relationship between premarital cohab-itation and marital instability both theoretically and empirically. It has become astylized fact that premarital cohabitation is positively correlated with the likelihood ofmarital dissolution. This is...

In applied work economists often seek to relate a given response variable y to some causal parameter mu* associated with it. This parameter usually represents a summarization based on some explanatory variables of the distribution of y, such as a regression function, and treating it as a...

In randomized clinical trials where the effects of post-randomization factors are of interest, the standard regression analyses are biased due to unmeasured confounding. The instrumental variables (IV; Angrist et al., 1996) and G-estimation procedures under structural nested mean models (SNMMs;...

Diese Arbeit umfasst eine Darstellung des Grossman-Modells und der Akkumulation von Gesundheitskapital. Es werden ältere empirische Untersuchungen (Wagstaff) vorgestellt und aus methodischer Sicht kritisiert, verbesserte ökonometrische Methoden vorgeschlagen und deren Anwendung in aktuellen...

I develop an empirical model that estimates a firm-specific accrual noise ratio (ANR), an operational and statistically grounded measure of accrual reliability, and test the measure's construct validity. The model allows accrual reliability to vary across firms, which is particularly important...

This paper has two main contributions. Firstly, we introduce a new approach, the latent instrumental variables (LIV) method, to estimate regression coefficients consistently in a simple linear regression model where regressor-error correlations (endogeneity) are likely to be present. The LIV...

Results from this study indicate that non-adherence in hemodialysis (HD) sessions marginally affects health care costs and does not significantly increase the likelihood of kidney transplantation failure. This dissertation explores the impacts of non-adherence in HD sessions on health care costs...