Bystander Apathy –An Enquiry Into The Expression Of Humanity And Empathy In China (2013-2014)

Aim To explore the apparent lack of personal concern for the welfare of others in China? To develop concepts to understand this  social phenomena in natural  settings using ethnographic and participatory research. Research Question How can the knowledge derived from qualitative research be used to improve the welfare of the poor in Shanghai? Ethics The study was carried out within the guidelines of the declaration of Helsinki. The study was characterised by anonymity, beneficence, non maleficence, and the  maintainence of  the dignity of participants Method Collection of data. The principle data source was “observation” spot observation”(Baksh 1990)”, participant observation”(Hammersley and Atkinson 1983)vignettes(Finch 1987, Sani Bin Gabi 1990), oral history(narrative) Conclusion The study was conducted ethically. It was a worthwhile study attempted to deal with current problems. The publication of this paper can be used to stimulate further enquiry into the problem of those in need of social welfare in Shanghai and China, in the hope it will improve services where they are needed. Suggested solutions In a country where intergenerational family ties are so strong and “guanxi” exists it is paradoxical there is  little empathy for others. Confuscian values, changed family beliefs, and education at school and  university may assist in increasing empathy. Learnt conditioning, to ignore or dissociate, from another human being in   need of help, can be slowly overcome by implementing universal and improved changes in societal living conditions. This can be achieved  by improving social welfare programs, spearheaded by a compassionate government. There is a view that it is an egregious and transparent fiction, to promulgate and publically promote, the philosophies and policies of communism, yet allow these curable social ills to remain. ”Rex ipsa Loquiter”. The healthy should help the sick, the rich should help the poor and the employed should help the unemployed, Proportionately, in accordance with what they have they should give. The promotion of a “ forward thinking, humane, listening and open society, rather than a closed, narrow, opaque, inward looking “weltanschaung” would assist societal reform. We “bystanders”, we must all try to imagine we are in the  place  of those in need, and  feel aas they do, in their situation. We must follow the advice of Mencius (372-289BC) and develop and use “empathy” As Mencius  said, ”a  developed  human heart is the basis  of a moral life”

Improved Inference for Panel Data Model With Unknown Heteroscedasticity

In econometrics, three types of data are studied like cross-sectional, timeseries and panel data. Panel data is based on various observations, collected from same individuals over several time periods. It is combination of crosssectional and time-series data. The regression model formulated for such data is called panel data model (PDM). Heteroscedasticity is a usual problem in the PDM and it is desirable to concentrate on it for making robust inference. The ordinary techniques used for estimation of PDM do not lead e cient estimation and correct inference in the presence of heteroscedasticity. Moreover, presence of the high leverage points in given dataset may also lead to incorrect inference. Therefore, focus of this study is to bring improvement in inference of linear PDM su ering from heteroscedasticity of both known and unknown form. For linear regression model, White (1980) consistent estimator can be applied in the presence of heteroscedasticity in order to get correct inference. In context of the PDM, the amended version of White''s estimator has been presented by Arellano (1987). The variant of White''s estimator like HC5, the HCCME for true generalised least square (TGLS) and feasible GLS (FGLS) and some adaptive version of the HCCMEs have been proposed in this thesis for the PDM which are not available in the existing literature. Besides, Efron (1979), Freedman (1981) and Wu (1986) bootstrap estimators, another estimator is also available in the literature. This estimator is known as kernel estimator. The kernel bootstrap estimator of Racine and MacKinnon (2007) has been proposed for the PDM which is previously given only for linear regression model. In this work, improved inferences via kernel smoothing is also presented and compared with conventional approaches. For novelty of the approach, kernel version of Wu''s bootstrap estimator has been improved. In this work, heteroscedasticity related to unit speci c is studied as considered by Roy (2002), Aslam (2006) and Aslam and Pasha (2007). Roy''s adaptive estimator is studied for e cient estimation of the PDM. Adaptive based consistent estimators are given by Aslam and Pasha (2007). For this study, new versions of adaptive based consistent estimators are presented for the PDM. Empirical results are based on the Monte Carlo study as used by Roy (2002) and Aslam (2006). The results indicate that kernel based bootstrap show better performance than other considered estimators. The new versions of adaptive based consistent estimators perform better than the previous ones. Performance of estimators are justi ed in terms of interval estimation, size and power of test. Illustrative examples are also given in the thesis.