On BHPS data we measure various indices of social capital at the individual and household level, and use them as explanatory variables in standard consumption insurance tests. We find that two out of three aspects of social capital positively impact on consumption smoothing, by reducing the...

For many psychological test applications, the simple sum score across the items is used to make inferences about subjects. However, most of the item response theory models for psychological test data do not support such usage of the sum score. A simple test is proposed to assess whether the sum...

In this paper it is demonstrated how statistical inference from multistage test designs can be made based on the conditional likelihood. Special attention is given to parameter estimation, as well as the evaluation of model fit. Two reasons are provided why the fit of simple measurement models...

Warm (in Psychometrika, 54, 427–450, <CitationRef CitationID="CR12">1989</CitationRef>) established the equivalence between the so-called Jeffreys modal and the weighted likelihood estimators of proficiency level with some dichotomous item response models. The purpose of this note is to extend this result to polytomous item response...</citationref>

Survey items with multiple response categories and multiple-choice test questions are ubiquitous in psychological and educational research. We illustrate the use of log-multiplicative association (LMA) models that are extensions of the well-known multinomial logistic regression model for...

Objective: Pay-for-performance programmes have been widely implemented in primary care, but few studies have investigated their potential adverse effects on the intrinsic motivation of general practitioners (GPs) even though intrinsic motivation may be a key determinant of quality in health...

Disclosure of HIV status has been the focus of three decades of research, which have revealed its complex relations to many behaviors involved in HIV prevention and treatment, and exposed its central role in managing the HIV epidemic. The causes and consequences of disclosure acts have recently...

This paper estimates the impact of adolescent attitudes and behaviors - academic motivation as assessed by the child herself and behavioral problems as assessed by the mother or the teacher of the child at age 16 - on adult attitudes and behaviors including illegal drugs consumption, smoking,...