Washington Statistical Society
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April 2005

Contents:



Last Call To Request A Paper Newsletter

Beginning with the May edition of the WSS News, electronic mail will become the default mode of delivery. What exactly does this mean? If you currently receive the newsletter in hard copy and have not notified us that you wish to continue receiving the newsletter in that form, we will switch your delivery to email if we have a valid email address. New members who join the WSS after April 1 will begin to receive the newsletter electronically. For both old and new members, if we do not have a valid email address, we will write you to obtain one or an indication that you would really prefer the hard copy version. No WSS member will be cut off, but as we have announced on numerous occasions, it is in the interest of the organization to move as many members as we can to electronic delivery. This will save the organization thousands of dollars annually in printing and postage costs, which will allow a further reduction in dues, which were lowered for the first time in memory on January 1. There will be other benefits to the organization as well. Electronic delivery is more timely, so more members will be aware of sessions scheduled early in the month. An expanded email list will also allow us to reach a larger share of the membership with announcements of late-breaking sessions and changes due to weather and other events. Lastly, the several board members who have spent an inordinate amount of time this year trying to reconcile electronic and surface mail lists will not have to go through that again.

If you currently receive the newsletter in hard copy, you were sent both the paper and electronic versions this month. We hope that this helps to persuade you of the merits of electronic delivery. It will also tell us how many of the nearly 500 email addresses that were sent these additional copies are invalid, so that we can work to obtain correct addresses by May 1.

If you wish to continue receiving the newsletter in hard copy, contact the WSS secretary, Courtney Reiser, at (301) 763-4142 or courtney.n.reiser@census.gov.

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WSS Short Course

The WSS is offering a short course providing an introduction and appraisal of the recent developments in sample survey methods on April 20, 2005. Topics include: survey design and inferential issues, analysis of survey data with emphasis on graphing data and resampling methods, design and estimation in multiple frame surveys, and small area estimation. Registration is due by April 8, 2005. Pleae use this linkfor further details.

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14th Federal Forecasters Conference
Capturing the Impact of International Trends in Our Forecasts

April 21, 2005

Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) Conference and Training Center
2 Massachusetts Avenue, N.E.
Washington, DC

Global market forces and other international developments have always shaped America's destiny. Thus, forward thinking public policy must recognize and anticipate both domestic and international trends in population migration, economic activity, technological advances, education, military developments, political changes, and other components of our interdependent world. The challenge for forecasters is to spot and adequately predict those trends that cross international boundaries in a manner that supports enlightened decision making in the United States. The 2005 Federal Forecasters Conference will engage this challenge by seeking to highlight how major international forces are identified and incorporated into projections and plans of importance to public policy.

Sponsoring Agencies

  • Bureau of Health Professions
  • Bureau of Labor Statistics
  • Bureau of Transportation Statistics Department of Veterans Affairs
  • Economic Research Service
  • Internal Revenue Service International Trade Administration
  • National Center for Education Statistics
  • U.S. Census Bureau
  • U.S. Geological Survey
  • U.S. Postal Service

Partnering Organization

  • Center for Economic Research, George Washington University

For More Information

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Second Conference on Information and Entropy Econometrics
Theory, Method, and Applications in Honor of George Judge

September 23-25, 2005
American University, Washington DC

Conference Objectives: This conference will (i) study and explore Information-Theoretic (IT) solutions for linear and nonlinear estimation and inference problems, (ii) facilitate the exchange of research ideas in that field, (iii) promote collaboration among researchers from different disciplines, and (iv) highlight the major trends in Information and Entropy Econometrics.

The Second IEE Conference will concentrate on the most recent (theoretical and applied) research in linear and non-linear IT and entropic procedures (Bayesian and non- Bayesian), with emphasis on modeling and measuring information. In addition, the conference will deal with the interpretations and meaning of the solutions to IT estimation and inference (e.g., statistical meaning, complexity and efficiency as well as informational meaning). Both theory and innovative applied papers will be included. Conference topics include theory and methods and applications in various fields. The deadline for submitting a paper for presentation is April 30, 2005. The registration deadline is to be determined.

Program and Advisory Committee: Anil Bera, U. Illinois; Bertrand Clarke, UBC; Amos Golan, American U. (Chair); Alastair Hall, NCState; Yuichi Kitamura, Yale; Essie Maasoumi, SMU; Eric Renault, UNC at Chapel Hill; Ehsan Soofi, U. Wisconsin-Milwaukee; Michael Stutzer, U. Colorado-Boulder; Arnold Zellner, U. Chicago.

For additional and updated information about the conference, please look at the conference Web page at http://www.american.edu/cas/econ/faculty/golan/conference2.htm or contact Amos Golan at agolan@american.edu.

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Changed Your Email Address?

If your email address has changed, please notify us. Send your new address and your old address to Vince Massimini at svm@mitre.org. If you are an ASA member, you should also notify the ASA. You can update your email address on-line through the Members Only feature on the ASA web page (www.amstat.org). You will need your six-digit ASA member ID, which is printed on the label of your ASA journals and Amstat News.

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SIGSTAT Topics for 2005

April 20, 2005 - PROC ROBUSTREG - Robust Regression Method, Speaker: Charlie Hallahan

The experimental ROBUSTREG procedure in SAS/STAT version 9 provides resistant (stable) results in the presence of outliers by limiting the influence of outliers. ROBUSTREG provides four robust methods: M estimation by Huber (1973), Least Trimmed Squares (LTS) estimation by Rousseeuw (1984), S estimation by Rousseeuw and Yohai (1984), and MM estimation by Yohai (1987). Charlie Hallahan will be the speaker.

May 11, 2005 - PROC QLIM - Qualitative and Limited Dependent Variable Models, Speaker: Charlie Hallahan

The QLIM (Qualitative and Limited dependent variable Model) procedure analyzes univariate and multivariate limited dependent variable models where dependent variables take discrete values or dependent variables are observed only in a limited range of values. This procedure includes logit, probit, tobit, and general simultaneous equations models. The simultaneous equations model can contain discrete choice and limited endogenous variables as well as continuous endogenous variables. Charlie Hallahan will be the speaker.

SIGSTAT is the Special Interest Group in Statistics for the CPCUG, the Capital PC User Group, and WINFORMS, the Washington Institute for Operations Research Service and Management Science.

All meetings are in Room S3031 (Food Safety and Nutrition Room), 1800 M St, NW from 12:30 to 1:30. Enter the South Tower and take the elevator to the 3rd floor to check in at the guard's desk.

First-time attendees should contact Charlie Hallahan, 202-694-5051, hallahan@ers.usda.gov and leave their name. Directions to the building and many links of statistical interest can be found at the SIGSTAT website, www.cpcug.org/user/sigstat/

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Note From The WSS NEWS Editor

Items for publication in the June WSS NEWS should be submitted no later than April 26, 2005. E-mail items to Michael Feil at michael.feil@usda.gov.

The biographical information of the candidates for the Board of Directors will appear in the May issue.

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Click here to see the WSS Board Listing (pdf)
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