A Dishonest Budget?

The most recent Federal Budget leaves much to be desired.  There are spending cuts.  The Economist reports that although Mr Obama’s team projects that his budget will cause the deficit will fall “…from a post-war record 11% of GDP in the current fiscal year to 3.1% by 2021. That would stabilise the debt, albeit at…

Patient-centered health spending categories

Where do we spend our health care dollars?  A paper by Conway et al. in Health Services Research examines this question using data from the Medical Expenditure Panel Survey (MEPS) from 2007.  Typically, statistics break down health expenditures by payer (e.g., Medicare, Medicaid, private insurance) or setting (e.g., inpatient, outpatient, nursing home). “However, this is not…

Wednesday Links

Is Medicare’s risk adjustment methodology accurate? Wisconsinites don’t like budget cuts. Redd alert. Memory magic. Employer-based health insurance hurts entrepreneurship. The effect of China’s rapid urbanization on health.

An Alternative to Using Dummy Variables

Oftentimes, researchers use dummy variables to determine how observations classified into different categorical groups affect the dependent variable of interest.  One drawback with this approach is using too many dummy variables can create small cell sizes, creating an identification problem.  Alternatively, using broad groupings for dummy variables may give the appearance that the effect of…

How to be a good employee

What type of workers does a boss really value? The answer will vary depending on the boss, industry and specific job each worker has.  Today we consider one unique group of workers: polar explorers.   These men generally value the following in their peers and subordinates: ‘After all is said and done,’ said Wilson one…