Browsing by Subject "Survey"

As part of the technological growth in HR, companies are developing and adopting AI-enabled solutions for recruitment of qualified talent for a job opening. AI-enabled recruiting tools provide a variety of potential benefits to an organization: from improving overall efficiency and lowering hiring costs, to automating repetitive tasks and removing human biases. AI-enabled tools in recruiting also introduce concerns about dehumanization of the hiring process, increased discrimination, and accidental exclusion of qualified candidates. These benefits and concerns are discussed at the HR executive level in industry and in academic contexts; however, the data on the perspectives of HR practitioners is much more limited. Studies show that only 32 percent of companies include individual practitioners within the talent acquisition technology discussions. HR practitioners leverage AI-enabled tools in hiring and, therefore, should be aware of and able to mitigate potential risks of leveraging AI-enabled tools. Lack of consideration of perspectives of HR practitioners on the benefits and risks of AI-enabled tools increases the possibility of ethical concerns and legal liability for the individual companies (Nankervis, 2021). HR executives need take into consideration the perspectives of HR practitioners who work with AI-enabled tools as this awareness is likely to help the businesses successfully realize their talent management goals. This paper is based on the hypothesis that the perspectives of HR practitioners on the use of AI-enabled tools in hiring differ from the perspectives of HR executives and need to be addressed to ensure that organizations can successfully and ethically implement AI-enabled tools within organizations. Robinson 2019, states that “examination of the practitioners’ perspective [is] a valuable part of AI technology adoption, if organizations hope to have employees support and embrace the accompanying changes." This paper contributes to the examination of practitioner’s perspectives by identifying an information gap that may influence attitudes of individual HR practitioners on the use of AI-enabled recruiting tools. The paper provides additional insights into the attitudes of individual HR practitioners in the United States (U.S.) through a new small-sample survey finding. The survey findings highlight the different attitudes that individual HR practitioners have towards the use of AI-enabled recruiting tools, especially when compared with those of HR executives. This survey is an initial step for more robust research and lays the foundation for follow up research topics. Finally, the paper provides recommendations that can help organizations ethically implement AI-enabled tools by ensuring the attitudes of individual HR practitioners are taken into consideration.

Background: Universal healthcare has been promoted by organizations including the World Health Organization and United Nations as a means of ensuring healthcare access for vulnerable populations. Despite momentum towards universal healthcare, especially among Southeast Asian nations, little research has been conducted to understand healthcare equity in nations that have already implemented universal healthcare. This paper assesses equity in healthcare access in Brunei Darussalam using results from the Brunei Darussalam Health System Survey (HSS).

Methods: Data were gathered using a nationally-representative survey of 1,197 households across four districts in Brunei Darussalam. The Health System Survey aimed to measure individual's expectations and utilization of the Brunei national healthcare system. Data were analyzed using descriptive statistics and multinomial logistic regression to identify respondent- and household-level characteristics that affect healthcare utilization and expenditures.

Results: HSS data suggest that healthcare utilization in Brunei varies by ethnicity, district of residence, health status, and income. When compared to other ethnic groups, Chinese households were significantly less likely to utilize public healthcare and significantly more likely to utilize private healthcare services. Indigenous groups also demonstrated significantly lower rates of private healthcare utilization compared to other ethnicities. Temburong district had the lowest rates of both private and public healthcare utilization and was associated with a 2.67 decreased likelihood of using public healthcare in the past six months. When stratifying for health status, data indicate that healthcare utilization in Brunei is proportional to healthcare need, with 93 percent of respondents in poor health reporting using government hospitals 12 or more times in the past six months compared to 76 percent of respondents in excellent health reporting using healthcare only once in the past six months. Income was also found to be positively associated with increased healthcare expenditures and private healthcare use.

Conclusion: This study highlights an example of a universal healthcare system in Southeast Asia and indicates that a well-funded universal healthcare system can reduce significant utilization disparities. Substantial financial resources do not, however, guarantee equity among rural and minority populations and universal healthcare efforts should incorporate measures to understand and address barriers to healthcare among these groups.

An estimated 234.2 million major surgical procedures are performed annually worldwide, yet the wealthiest third of the world's population receives 73.6% while the world's poorest third receives only 3.5%. Approximately one-third of the global population has no access to basic surgical care. Knowing that large unmet surgical need in a community can lead to high morbidity and mortality in the population, the purpose of this novel study was to assess the level of surgical conditions in rural Gadchiroli, India as well as to conduct a quantitative assessment of the barriers to surgical care. In this retrospective, cross-sectional needs assessment, a study-specific survey was administered in a clinic-based setting. Of the 500 participants, 141 (28.2%) reported surgical conditions, for a total of 175 surgical cases, in the preceding two years. The conditions with the highest prevalence were hydrocele, anorectal processes, dysfunctional uterine bleeding, cataracts, appendicitis, and spondylosis with neurologic claudication. Assessment of the conditions by a healthcare provider occurred in 133 (76.6%) of the cases of which only 32 (24.1%) reported having undergone surgery during the two year period. Overall, in this population, the burden of surgical disease is higher than previously expected and while willingness to undergo surgery is high, the completion rate is quite low. Certain factors appear to predict difficulty in seeking or receiving surgical care, including lost wages (p=0.027), the amount of time that family members need to stay in the hospital to help (p=0.038), and time away from work (p=0.045). Targeting these factors is a first step towards addressing the unmet surgical needs in this rural community.

The two years of Master of Science in Statistical and Economic Modeling program is the most rewarding time ever in my life. This thesis acts as a portfolio of project and applied experience while I am enrolled in the Master of Science in Statistical and Economic Modeling program. This thesis will summarize my graduate study in two parts: Simulation Study of Exchangeability for Binary Data, and Summary of Summer Internship at Center for Responsible Lending. The project of Simulation Study of Exchangeability for Binary Data contains materials from a team project, which jointly performed by Sheng Jiang, Xuan Sun and me. Abstracts for both projects are below in order.

(1) Simulation Study of Exchangeability for Binary Data

To investigate tractable Bayesian tests on exchangeability, this project considers special cases of nonexchangeable random sequences: Markov chains. Asymptotic results of Bayes factor (BF) are derived. When null hypothesis is true, Bayes Factor in favor of the null goes to infinity at geometric rate (true odds is not one half). When null hypothesis is not true, Bayes Factor in favor of the null goes to 0 faster than geometric rate. The results are robust under misspecifications. Simulation studies are employed to see the performance of the test when the sample size is small, prior beliefs change and true parameters change.

(2) Summary of Summer Internship at Center for Responsible Lending

My summer internship deals with a survey data from Social Science Research Solution about auto financing. The dataset includes about one thousand valid responses and 114 variables for each response. My efforts on exploratory statistic analysis unfolded many interesting findings. For example, African Americans and Latinos are receiving 2.02% higher APR on average than white buyers, excluding the effects of relevant variables. And what's more, a Fisher's Exact Test of Significance is widely used to discover the significance of a series of variables. Results are presented in organized neat tables. Findings are included in weekly reports. One example finding is that warranty add-­‐‑ons of a financed car has significant impacts on all three aspects of a loan, which is Annual Percent Rate, Loan Amount, and Monthly Payment.

The Global South, and particularly Latin America, experienced a remarkable expansion in conditional cash transfer (CCT) programs in the last fifteen years. Although a large literature examines the effects of CCTs on human development, the political behavioral consequences remain underexplored. In the dissertation, I address this gap by analyzing the effects of CCTs on political participation and policy. I also explore the implications of these effects for human development.

My central argument is that CCTs increase political participation among beneficiaries, and both program transfers and conditionalities contribute to these positive effects. More specifically, CCTs provide beneficiaries with politically relevant resources, including civic skills and access to state officials and community leaders. These resources reduce the costs of political participation and facilitate more involvement in political activities, particularly in more demanding forms of participation. In addition, I argue that CCTs increase the private provision of local services and influence the outcomes of some non-national elections.

To test this argument, I use four main sources of data: (1) existing survey data from Latin America in 2012; (2) original survey data from Mexico in 2014; (3) experimental data from Mexico in 1998-2000; and (4) in-depth interviews and focus groups from Mexico in 2012. Multilevel models and linear regression models are used to estimate the effects of CCTs on political behavior and service provision. The in-depth interviews and focus groups help to unravel more of the causal mechanism that connects CCTs to political participation.

The evidence largely supports my argument. I find that CCTs increase participation in a wide variety of political activities, including electoral and non-electoral activities. In addition, the pathways to increased participation include improved civic skills and increased access to state officials and local leaders. Moreover, CCTs increase the private provision of sewerage services.

I conclude that CCTs have both desirable and undesirable consequences. On the one hand, CCTs increase democratic political participation, improve civic skills, reduce the distance between beneficiaries and government officials, and increase access to local services. The increased access to sewerage services creates an indirect pathway to improved human development outcomes. On the other hand, CCTs reduce the pressure on local officials to provide local services, and in some contexts contribute to electoral rewards for undeserving incumbent parties.