Construction equipment is an important type of resources of heavy construction contractors. Since equipment breakdowns can cause project delays and significant financial losses, the contractors are eager to know those factors causing equipment failures directly or indirectly, related to equipment design, maintenance, and operations. Although Bayesian network can be used for diagnostic analysis ...

Although Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) is poised to displace barcodes, security vulnerabilities pose serious challenges for global adoption of the RFID technology. Specifically, RFID tags are prone to basic cloning and counterfeiting security attacks. A successful cloning of the RFID tags in many commercial applications can lead to many serious problems such as financial losses, brand d...

This paper presents the first quantitative analysis of gender disparities in selfemployment in urban China. It documents the extent of gender income inequality in selfemployment. By disaggregating self-employment into three occupational classes, it shows the gender segregation within self-employment—women were concentrated in the financially least rewarding segment—and identifies it as a main s...

the more frequently occurring security incidents, suggesting that more security is required for detecting and preventing unauthorised financial transactions entered by authorised users. To address the problem, and based on the observation that all authorised interbanking financial transactions trigger or are triggered by other transactions in a workflow, we have developed a security solution ba...

Today’s teachers face more frequent and more severe challenges than perhaps any generation of teachers that have come before them. Administrators attempt to support teaching in an environment of ever-increasing accountability and dwindling financial resources with new and innovative strategies. One such strategy employed by modern educators has been the Positive Behavior Interventions and Suppo...

The paper reviews the literature on these tax incentives, with special focus on long-term saving, housing, and household liabilities. The paper addresses several areas of policy intervention: (1) the interest rate effect on personal saving; (2) the effect of tax incentives on long-term mandatory saving programs; (3) government programs that target saving for home purchase; (4) government progra...

The simultaneous determination of financial default and political crises is studied in an open economy model. Political crises accompany default in equilibrium because of an information transmission conflict between the government and the public. Multiple equilibria are possible: if foreign lenders are pessimistic about the country’s stability, they demand a high interest on the debt, exacerbat...

This country case study is part of the Universal Health Coverage Collection. The World Health Organization defines universal health coverage (UHC) as a situation in which all people who need health services receive them, without incurring financial hardship [1]. UHC is currently perceived as a crucial component of sustainable development and listed as one of the possible goals of the post-2015 ...

for comments on an earlier draft of the paper, and to the participants of the Economics Seminar at the Stockholm School of Economics for their critical feedback. I also thank the Center for East Asian Studies at the University of Chicago and the American Compensation Association for their generous financial support. ABSTRACT The obsession over college prestige and the highly competitive environ...