Download or read book Applying Benford s Law for Assessing the Validity of Social Science Data written by Michael A. Long and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2023-12-31 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Benford's Law is a probability distribution for the likelihood of the leading digit in a set of numbers. This book seeks to improve and systematize the use of Benford's Law in the social sciences to assess the validity of self-reported data. The authors first introduce a new measure of conformity to the Benford distribution that is created using permutation statistical methods and employs the concept of statistical agreement. In a switch from a typical Benford application, this book moves away from using Benford's Law to test whether the data conform to the Benford distribution, to using it to draw conclusions about the validity of the data. The concept of 'Benford validity' is developed, which indicates whether a dataset is valid based on comparisons with the Benford distribution and, in relation to this, diagnostic procedure that assesses the impact of not having Benford validity on data analysis is devised.

Download or read book Applying Benford s Law for Assessing the Validity of Social Science Data written by Michael A. Long and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2023-11-23 with total page 221 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Benford's Law is a probability distribution for the likelihood of the leading digit in a set of numbers. This book seeks to improve and systematize the use of Benford's Law in the social sciences to assess the validity of self-reported data. The authors first introduce a new measure of conformity to the Benford distribution that is created using permutation statistical methods and employs the concept of statistical agreement. In a switch from a typical Benford application, this book moves away from using Benford's Law to test whether the data conform to the Benford distribution, to using it to draw conclusions about the validity of the data. The concept of 'Benford validity' is developed, which indicates whether a dataset is valid based on comparisons with the Benford distribution and, in relation to this, diagnostic procedure that assesses the impact of not having Benford validity on data analysis is devised.

Download or read book Statistical Methods Connections Equivalencies and Relationships written by Kenneth J. Berry and published by Springer Nature. This book was released on 2023-12-08 with total page 795 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The primary purpose of this book is to introduce the reader to a wide variety of interesting and useful connections, relationships, and equivalencies between and among conventional and permutation statistical methods. There are approximately 320 statistical connections and relationships described in this book. For each connection or connections the tests are described, the connection is explained, and an example analysis illustrates both the tests and the connection(s). The emphasis is more on demonstrations than on proofs, so little mathematical expertise is assumed. While the book is intended as a stand-alone monograph, it can also be used as a supplement to a standard textbook such as might be used in a second- or third-term course in conventional statistical methods. Students, faculty, and researchers in the social, natural, or hard sciences will find an interesting collection of statistical connections and relationships - some well-known, some more obscure, and some presented here for the first time.

Download or read book Benford s Law written by Steven J. Miller and published by Princeton University Press. This book was released on 2015-06-09 with total page 465 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Benford's law states that the leading digits of many data sets are not uniformly distributed from one through nine, but rather exhibit a profound bias. This bias is evident in everything from electricity bills and street addresses to stock prices, population numbers, mortality rates, and the lengths of rivers. Here, Steven Miller brings together many of the world’s leading experts on Benford’s law to demonstrate the many useful techniques that arise from the law, show how truly multidisciplinary it is, and encourage collaboration. Beginning with the general theory, the contributors explain the prevalence of the bias, highlighting explanations for when systems should and should not follow Benford’s law and how quickly such behavior sets in. They go on to discuss important applications in disciplines ranging from accounting and economics to psychology and the natural sciences. The contributors describe how Benford’s law has been successfully used to expose fraud in elections, medical tests, tax filings, and financial reports. Additionally, numerous problems, background materials, and technical details are available online to help instructors create courses around the book. Emphasizing common challenges and techniques across the disciplines, this accessible book shows how Benford’s law can serve as a productive meeting ground for researchers and practitioners in diverse fields.

Download or read book Benford s Law written by Mark J. Nigrini and published by John Wiley & Sons. This book was released on 2012-03-09 with total page 352 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A powerful new tool for all forensic accountants, or anyone whoanalyzes data that may have been altered Benford's Law gives the expected patterns of the digits in thenumbers in tabulated data such as town and city populations orMadoff's fictitious portfolio returns. Those digits, in unaltereddata, will not occur in equal proportions; there is a large biastowards the lower digits, so much so that nearly one-half of allnumbers are expected to start with the digits 1 or 2. Thesepatterns were originally discovered by physicist Frank Benford inthe early 1930s, and have since been found to apply to alltabulated data. Mark J. Nigrini has been a pioneer in applyingBenford's Law to auditing and forensic accounting, even before hisgroundbreaking 1999 Journal of Accountancy article introducing thisuseful tool to the accounting world. In Benford's Law, Nigrinishows the widespread applicability of Benford's Law and itspractical uses to detect fraud, errors, and other anomalies. Explores primary, associated, and advanced tests, all describedwith data sets that include corporate payments data and electiondata Includes ten fraud detection studies, including vendor fraud,payroll fraud, due diligence when purchasing a business, and taxevasion Covers financial statement fraud, with data from Enron, AIG,and companies that were the target of hedge fund short sales Looks at how to detect Ponzi schemes, including data on Madoff,Waxenberg, and more Examines many other applications, from the Clinton tax returnsand the charitable gifts of Lehman Brothers to tax evasion andnumber invention Benford's Law has 250 figures and uses 50 interestingauthentic and fraudulent real-world data sets to explain boththeory and practice, and concludes with an agenda and directionsfor future research. The companion website adds additionalinformation and resources.

Download or read book Sources of Bias and Quality of Data in Social Science Research written by Andreas Diekmann and published by . This book was released on 2004 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Surveys supply us with the statistical data for economic and administrative decisions. Errors in survey research may lead to wrong and costly decisions. For a better control of the quality of research, methodological standards and validity criteria should be communicated more clearly. In this paper, sources of bias in interviews, sampling, and data analysis are discussed. An often neglected sorce of bias is the fraudulent manipulation of data. How can faked data be detected? In a final section new tests using the Benford distribution are explored. However, more research is needed to ascertain the validity of Benford tests.

Download or read book Advances in Network Clustering and Blockmodeling written by Patrick Doreian and published by John Wiley & Sons. This book was released on 2020-02-03 with total page 425 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Provides an overview of the developments and advances in the field of network clustering and blockmodeling over the last 10 years This book offers an integrated treatment of network clustering and blockmodeling, covering all of the newest approaches and methods that have been developed over the last decade. Presented in a comprehensive manner, it offers the foundations for understanding network structures and processes, and features a wide variety of new techniques addressing issues that occur during the partitioning of networks across multiple disciplines such as community detection, blockmodeling of valued networks, role assignment, and stochastic blockmodeling. Written by a team of international experts in the field, Advances in Network Clustering and Blockmodeling offers a plethora of diverse perspectives covering topics such as: bibliometric analyses of the network clustering literature; clustering approaches to networks; label propagation for clustering; and treating missing network data before partitioning. It also examines the partitioning of signed networks, multimode networks, and linked networks. A chapter on structured networks and coarsegrained descriptions is presented, along with another on scientific coauthorship networks. The book finishes with a section covering conclusions and directions for future work. In addition, the editors provide numerous tables, figures, case studies, examples, datasets, and more. Offers a clear and insightful look at the state of the art in network clustering and blockmodeling Provides an excellent mix of mathematical rigor and practical application in a comprehensive manner Presents a suite of new methods, procedures, algorithms for partitioning networks, as well as new techniques for visualizing matrix arrays Features numerous examples throughout, enabling readers to gain a better understanding of research methods and to conduct their own research effectively Written by leading contributors in the field of spatial networks analysis Advances in Network Clustering and Blockmodeling is an ideal book for graduate and undergraduate students taking courses on network analysis or working with networks using real data. It will also benefit researchers and practitioners interested in network analysis.

Download or read book An Introduction to Benford s Law written by Arno Berger and published by Princeton University Press. This book was released on 2015-05-26 with total page 256 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book provides the first comprehensive treatment of Benford's law, the surprising logarithmic distribution of significant digits discovered in the late nineteenth century. Establishing the mathematical and statistical principles that underpin this intriguing phenomenon, the text combines up-to-date theoretical results with overviews of the law’s colorful history, rapidly growing body of empirical evidence, and wide range of applications. An Introduction to Benford’s Law begins with basic facts about significant digits, Benford functions, sequences, and random variables, including tools from the theory of uniform distribution. After introducing the scale-, base-, and sum-invariance characterizations of the law, the book develops the significant-digit properties of both deterministic and stochastic processes, such as iterations of functions, powers of matrices, differential equations, and products, powers, and mixtures of random variables. Two concluding chapters survey the finitely additive theory and the flourishing applications of Benford’s law. Carefully selected diagrams, tables, and close to 150 examples illuminate the main concepts throughout. The text includes many open problems, in addition to dozens of new basic theorems and all the main references. A distinguishing feature is the emphasis on the surprising ubiquity and robustness of the significant-digit law. This text can serve as both a primary reference and a basis for seminars and courses.

Download or read book The Three Cultures written by Jerome Kagan and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2009-04-27 with total page 329 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Jerome Kagan examines the basic goals, vocabulary, and assumptions of the natural sciences, social sciences, and humanities, summarizing their unique contributions to our understanding of human nature.

Download or read book Analyzing the Social Web written by Jennifer Golbeck and published by Newnes. This book was released on 2013-02-17 with total page 291 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Analyzing the Social Web provides a framework for the analysis of public data currently available and being generated by social networks and social media, like Facebook, Twitter, and Foursquare. Access and analysis of this public data about people and their connections to one another allows for new applications of traditional social network analysis techniques that let us identify things like who are the most important or influential people in a network, how things will spread through the network, and the nature of peoples' relationships. Analyzing the Social Web introduces you to these techniques, shows you their application to many different types of social media, and discusses how social media can be used as a tool for interacting with the online public. Presents interactive social applications on the web, and the types of analysis that are currently conducted in the study of social media Covers the basics of network structures for beginners, including measuring methods for describing nodes, edges, and parts of the network Discusses the major categories of social media applications or phenomena and shows how the techniques presented can be applied to analyze and understand the underlying data Provides an introduction to information visualization, particularly network visualization techniques, and methods for using them to identify interesting features in a network, generate hypotheses for analysis, and recognize patterns of behavior Includes a supporting website with lecture slides, exercises, and downloadable social network data sets that can be used can be used to apply the techniques presented in the book

Download or read book Statistics for the Social Sciences written by Russell T. Warne and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2020-12-17 with total page 612 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The second edition of Statistics for the Social Sciences prepares students from a wide range of disciplines to interpret and learn the statistical methods critical to their field of study. By using the General Linear Model (GLM), the author builds a foundation that enables students to see how statistical methods are interrelated enabling them to build on the basic skills. The author makes statistics relevant to students' varying majors by using fascinating real-life examples from the social sciences. Students who use this edition will benefit from clear explanations, warnings against common erroneous beliefs about statistics, and the latest developments in the philosophy, reporting, and practice of statistics in the social sciences. The textbook is packed with helpful pedagogical features including learning goals, guided practice, and reflection questions.

Download or read book The Despot s Guide to Wealth Management written by J. C. Sharman and published by Cornell University Press. This book was released on 2017-03-07 with total page 344 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: An unprecedented new international moral and legal rule forbids one state from hosting money stolen by the leaders of another state. The aim is to counter grand corruption or kleptocracy ("rule by thieves"), when leaders of poorer countries—such as Marcos in the Philippines, Mobutu in the Congo, and more recently those overthrown in revolutions in the Arab world and Ukraine—loot billions of dollars at the expense of their own citizens. This money tends to end up hosted in rich countries. These host states now have a duty to block, trace, freeze, and seize these illicit funds and hand them back to the countries from which they were stolen. In The Despot's Guide to Wealth Management, J. C. Sharman asks how this anti-kleptocracy regime came about, how well it is working, and how it could work better. Although there have been some real achievements, the international campaign against grand corruption has run into major obstacles. The vested interests of banks, lawyers, and even law enforcement often favor turning a blind eye to foreign corruption proceeds. Recovering and returning looted assets is a long, complicated, and expensive process. Sharman used a private investigator, participated in and observed anti-corruption policy, and conducted more than a hundred interviews with key players. He also draws on various journalistic exposés, whistle-blower accounts, and government investigations to inform his comparison of the anti-kleptocracy records of the United States, Britain, Switzerland, and Australia. Sharman calls for better policing, preventative measures, and use of gatekeepers like bankers, lawyers, and real estate agents. He also recommends giving nongovernmental organizations and for-profit firms more scope to independently investigate corruption and seize stolen assets.

Download or read book On the Inaccuracies of Economic Observations written by Peter A.G. van Bergeijk and published by Edward Elgar Publishing. This book was released on 2024-06-05 with total page 229 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This informative book reveals the pervasive nature of large inaccuracies in economic statistics. Drawing on numerous real-world examples including case studies from advanced and developing countries, Peter van Bergeijk presents profound insights into how downplaying these errors undermines the scientific rigour of economic analysis and outlines how to manage uncertainty in economic analysis moving forward.

Download or read book Cognitive Computing for Big Data Systems Over IoT written by Arun Kumar Sangaiah and published by Springer. This book was released on 2017-12-30 with total page 383 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book brings a high level of fluidity to analytics and addresses recent trends, innovative ideas, challenges and cognitive computing solutions in big data and the Internet of Things (IoT). It explores domain knowledge, data science reasoning and cognitive methods in the context of the IoT, extending current data science approaches by incorporating insights from experts as well as a notion of artificial intelligence, and performing inferences on the knowledge The book provides a comprehensive overview of the constituent paradigms underlying cognitive computing methods, which illustrate the increased focus on big data in IoT problems as they evolve. It includes novel, in-depth fundamental research contributions from a methodological/application in data science accomplishing sustainable solution for the future perspective. Mainly focusing on the design of the best cognitive embedded data science technologies to process and analyze the large amount of data collected through the IoT, and aid better decision making, the book discusses adapting decision-making approaches under cognitive computing paradigms to demonstrate how the proposed procedures as well as big data and IoT problems can be handled in practice. This book is a valuable resource for scientists, professionals, researchers, and academicians dealing with the new challenges and advances in the specific areas of cognitive computing and data science approaches.

Download or read book The Rubber Industry written by IARC Working Group on the Evaluation of the Carcinogenic Risk of Chemicals to Humans and published by . This book was released on 1982 with total page 492 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book Salsa Dancing into the Social Sciences written by Kristin Luker and published by Harvard University Press. This book was released on 2010-04-10 with total page 334 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: “You might think that dancing doesn’t have a lot to do with social research, and doing social research is probably why you picked this book up in the first place. But trust me. Salsa dancing is a practice as well as a metaphor for a kind of research that will make your life easier and better.” Savvy, witty, and sensible, this unique book is both a handbook for defining and completing a research project, and an astute introduction to the neglected history and changeable philosophy of modern social science. In this volume, Kristin Luker guides novice researchers in: knowing the difference between an area of interest and a research topic; defining the relevant parts of a potentially infinite research literature; mastering sampling, operationalization, and generalization; understanding which research methods best answer your questions; beating writer’s block. Most important, she shows how friendships, non-academic interests, and even salsa dancing can make for a better researcher. “You know about setting the kitchen timer and writing for only an hour, or only 15 minutes if you are feeling particularly anxious. I wrote a fairly large part of this book feeling exactly like that. If I can write an entire book 15 minutes at a time, so can you.”

Download or read book Introduction to Probability written by Joseph K. Blitzstein and published by CRC Press. This book was released on 2014-07-24 with total page 599 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Developed from celebrated Harvard statistics lectures, Introduction to Probability provides essential language and tools for understanding statistics, randomness, and uncertainty. The book explores a wide variety of applications and examples, ranging from coincidences and paradoxes to Google PageRank and Markov chain Monte Carlo (MCMC). Additional application areas explored include genetics, medicine, computer science, and information theory. The print book version includes a code that provides free access to an eBook version. The authors present the material in an accessible style and motivate concepts using real-world examples. Throughout, they use stories to uncover connections between the fundamental distributions in statistics and conditioning to reduce complicated problems to manageable pieces. The book includes many intuitive explanations, diagrams, and practice problems. Each chapter ends with a section showing how to perform relevant simulations and calculations in R, a free statistical software environment.