Accurate loss reserves are essential for insurers to maintain adequate capital and to efficiently price their insurance products. Loss reserving for Property & Casualty insurance is usually based on macro-level models with aggregate data in a run-off triangle. The macro-level models may generate material errors in the reserve estimates when assumptions underlying the estimates evolve over time ...

Multilevel modeling has become a common analytic technique across a variety of disciplines including medicine and the social and behavioral sciences. However, because many researchers who use multilevel modeling in their research do not report if the data were screened for potential violations of distributional assumptions and outliers, it is unclear if these diagnostic procedures are being con...

ORGANIZATIONAL CULTURE, MACRO AND MICRO EMPOWERMENT DIMENSIONS, AND JOB SATISFACTION: AN APPLICATION OF CONCURRENT MIXED AND MULTI-LEVEL METHODS IN THE FEDERAL SECTOR Timothy L. Bailey, Ph.D. Touro University International 2009 This dissertation examined the interrelationship of organizational culture; macro (structural) and micro (psychological) empowerment; and job satisfaction. Specifically,...

Currently, the drug addiction literature is replete with micro-level theories of addiction that offer important insights into individual and small-group processes leading to addiction. However, few offer much consideration of macro-level matters (e.g., social structural and cultural). Macro theories of addiction are even more scarce. This inattention to macro-level factors may ultimately impede...

Reductionism assumes that causation in the physical world occurs at the micro level, excluding the emergence of macro-level causation. We challenge this reductionist assumption by demonstrating that, once causal power is properly defined and measured, it is possible for a macro level to “beat” the micro level. Here, this was done through a principled, well-defined measure of intrinsic cause-eff...

The demand for documenting outcomes of extension programs continues to increase. This study examined challenges to program evaluation and accountability. The challenges were categorized into two levels--macro level (national) and micro level (grass roots or state level). The findings indicated several challenges--five macro and six micro level challenges. Based on the review and personal experi...