Tobit

This paper aims to examine the factors affecting the level of development of countries using various regression models for limited dependent variables including binary logit, probit and Tobit analyses. In this manner, the paper may suggest a road map for high developed countries to achieve very high developed levels. For this purpose, Human Development Indices of 84 countries were involved in the analysis with respect to nine independent variables. The results of the all regression models indicate that determinants including life expectancy at birth, expected years of schooling, labour force participation rate (female-male ratio), and GDP per capita have statistically significant effects on the level of development.

We assess the relative efficiency of local municipalities using Data Envelopment Analysis and parametric analysis. As an output measure we compute a composite local government indicator of municipal performance, using data for Portuguese municipalities. This allows assessing the extent of possible municipal improvement relative to the "best-practice" frontier. Our results suggest that most municipalities could improve performance without necessarily increasing municipal spending. In a second stage efficiency scores are explained by means of a Tobit analysis with a set of relevant explanatory socio-economic factors playing the role of non-discretionary inputs, such as education and per capita purchasing power.

Corner solution responses are frequently observed in the social sciences. One common approach to model phenomena that give rise to corner solution responses is to use the tobit model. If the decision to participate in the market is decoupled from the consumption amount decision, then the tobit model is inappropriate. In these cases, the double-hurdle model presented in Cragg (1971, Econometrica 39: 829–844) is an appropriate alternative to the tobit model. In this article, I introduce a command, dblhurdle, that fits the double-hurdle model. The implementation allows the errors of the participation decision and the amount decision to be correlated. The capabilities of predict after dblhurdle are also discussed.

The positive portrayal of the nations praising Israel’s God in Tobit 14:6-7 stands in tension with more negative depictions of Gentiles elsewhere in the book. This essay explores the relationship between Jews and Gentiles and the role of Jewish witness in the book of Tobit, arguing that Tobit is not primarily concerned with Israel’s openness or inclusive attitude toward Gentiles but with God’s sovereignty and Israel’s superiority over the nations. Thus, witness is conceived not as active witness to the nations but as the natural overflow of Israel’s acknowledgment of God before the nations.

Wenn der Gott Israels in Tobit 14,6-7 von den Völkern gelobt wird, steht diese Darstellung im Gegensatz zu den eher negativen Beschreibungen Nichtjüdischer, die sonst im Buch zu finden sind. Dieser Aufsatz soll sowohl die Beziehung zwischen Juden und Nichtjuden im Buch Tobit untersuchen, als auch die Rolle vom jüdischen Zeugnis. Dabei wird die Auslegung vertreten, Tobit beschäftigt sich nicht in erster Linie mit der Offenheit der Juden gegenüber Nichtjuden, sondern mit der Souveränität Gottes und der Überlegenheit Israels gegenüber anderen Völkern. In diesem Sinne wird “Zeugnis” nicht als aktives Zeugnis an die Völker aufgefasst, sondern als das natürliche Ergebnis von Israels Anerkennung der Macht Gottes vor den Völkern.

This paper challenges a popular translation of Tob.8:7, arguing that Tobiah is not referring to a lack of passion in taking Sarah but is instead insisting that their union is legitimate, in line with how the term porneia is used in
Tob. 4:12 and other evidence.

This paper compares the performance of trip generation models. Trip generation estimates the number of trips to and from a traffic analysis zone. This process is the first stage of the conventional four-step travel forecasting framework. Although many approaches have been suggested for this step, regression and category analyses have been widely applied. The two methods have generated an acceptable level of performance from the perspective of transport planning. Critical problems, however, have also been observed. In the regression analysis, trip rates are treated as continuous variables that can be negative, which is obviously unrealistic. Furthermore, the method does not incorporate traveler behavior. For the category analysis, its arbitrary way of choosing independent variables and their strata has drawn critiques. The cell-by-cell calculation in this method also increases the concerns about unreliable estimation of trip rates. Censored regression, count data, and discrete choice models have been visited for the alternative of regression approach while the multiple classification method has been conceived for the substitute of the category analysis. A systematic examination of the performance among the models has not been discussed sufficiently yet, which is the motive of this paper. Six representative models – regression, tobit, Poisson, ordered logit, category, and multiple classification analyses – were applied to the home-based work trips in the Seoul metropolitan area. Cross-validation and back-casting were the key for checking the performance among the models. In this process, the measures of correlation, variance, and coincidence were compared. The category-type model was superior in overall performance."

These are notes on English stress, rhythm and intonation.

Part A is for students and Part B is for teachers.

The treatment here is “technical”, as by a linguist, but in very plain language. Even with poor formal English, L2 speakers who “sound right” will gain social acceptance, and this in turn will greatly accelerate their learning.

Firstly the concept of “the music of a language” is introduced. It is noted that languages are on a scale of “syllable timed” to “stress timed” (though this is not a simple matter). English is a stress-timed language. Both word stress and sentence stress are essential in English. However, proper word liaison and elision marks native speakers from non-native speakers. Some advice is given on how to practice privately and in a classroom. The importance of teacher talk as a model is noted.

The reception of Tobit and Judith in early Christianity poses complex problems, which can be illustrated by Jerome’s attitude toward them. His translations of the two books fit somewhat uncomfortably within his literary corpus, and Jerome knew it. He classified both books, along with four others, as outside the biblical canon but worthy of study for the purposes of edification. Out of these six books, he translated only Tobit and Judith. This paper explores possible motivations for Jerome’s selecting these two books and how he characterized them in his prefaces to his translations. As for the first issue, we will see that Jerome, along with other Fathers, considered Tobit and Judith to be authentic ancient Israelite literature and that this may have distinguished them from the other deuterocanonical books in his mind. As for how he characterizes them, his prefaces can be interpreted in two opposite directions. They are often read—and for good reason—as disparaging Tobit and Judith and perhaps even discouraging readers from making use of his translations. However, we will find that Jerome likely intended certain statements in the prefaces to be taken in the opposite sense. Especially his labeling Tobit and Judith as agiografa and his description of the translation procedure for Tobit suggest that Jerome wanted to endorse these books and his translations of them as valuable Christian reading material.

This is simply a work in progress, at the moment in skeletal form. It serves as the basis for a much longer work that will take into account not only the Second Temple Jewish context of the book but also its reception history, extending to the present.

ABSTRAK

Penelitian ini bertujuan mengukur dan menganalisis efisiensi teknis pertanian padi di Jawa Timur. Efisiensi teknis dievaluasi dengan menggunakan pendekatan non-parametrik DEA 2 tahap pada 2217 petani padi pada tahun tanam 2008. Tahap pertama pada metode ini adalah mengukur efisiensi petani menggunakan metode DEA berdasarkan asumsi Varible Return to Scale (VRS) dengan pendekatan input oriented, kemudian selanjutnya mengestimasi faktor-faktor yang mempengaruhi kinerja efisiensi menggunakan model regresi tobit. Asumsi Varible Return to Scale (VRS) menunjukkan bahwa terdapat 6 daerah yang berhasil mencapai nilai efisiensi maksimal (100%) yang artinya efisien secara teknis, sedangkan 13 daerah lainnya dalam kondisi inefisien. Ke-13 daerah tersebut berada pada kondisi Increasing Return to Scale (IRS) artinya daerah tersebut beroperasi pada skala optimal, dimana setiap penambahan input menghasilkan proporsi output yang cenderung meningkat. Hasil analisis regresi tobit menunjukkan menunjukkan bahwa jenis benih, jenis pupuk, jenis sawah, tidak ada hama/ OPT, akses kredit, dan bantuan pemerintah terbukti tidak signifikan secara statistik untuk menentukan pengaruh efisiensi hasil panen. Variabel sosioekonomi seperti luas lahan yang dikuasai dan pendidikan signifikan mempengaruhi hasil panen secara parsial. Secara simultan variabel-variabel tersebut tidak signifikan mempengaruhi hasil panen.

ABSTRACT

This study aims to measure and analyze the technical efficiency of paddy farming in East Java. Technical efficiency was evaluated by using a non-parametric DEA 2 stage approach in 2217 rice farmers in the 2008 planting year. The first step in this method was to measure farmers' efficiency using the DEA method based on the Assumption of Varible Return to Scale (VRS) with the oriented input approach, then further estimated the factors that affect the efficiency performance use the tobit regression model. Assumption of Varible Return to Scale (VRS) shows that there are 6 regions that succeed to achieve maximum efficiency value (100%) which means technically efficient, while 13 other areas in inefficient condition. These 13 areas are in the Increasing Return to Scale (IRS) condition, which means that the area operates at an optimum scale, where each input addition produces a proportion of output that tends to increase. The results of the tobit regression analysis showed that the types of seeds, types of fertilizers, types of rice fields, no pests / pests, access to credit, and government assistance proved not statistically significant to determine the effect of crop efficiency. Socioeconomic variables such as land area controlled and significant education affect partial yields. Simultaneously, these variables do not significantly affect the yields.

Judaism has never recognized Tobit as a canonical book, perhaps because of its roots in the northern Israel. Its reflections in the New Testament are scarce. Ancient Christian witnesses are usually favorable to the canonicity of the book of Tobit. It is present in many ancient biblical manuscripts (א, B, A, more then 30 minuscules). It was quoted by at least 79 authors, by many as Scripture. Some canon lists include it, other ones does not – when they are influenced by the Jewish canon. Some authors who failed to list Tobit in the canon have quoted it as Scripture. Accordingly, arguments for the canonicity prevail. Later ages accepted Tobit as canonical book. Protestants, despite some initial positive interest, have eliminated it. Tobit is canonical in the Catholic and Orthodox Churches. It contains valuable teachings, especially on family and marriage – it is the only biblical book concentrated on these subjects.

Readers have long wondered what is the meaning of the dog that briefly appears in the Jewish fairy tale known as the Book of Tobit. This article considers common answers such as influence from Ahikar, the Odyssey, influence of Persian culture and influence of folktale and goes into depth of the dog's significance in human culture, especially in connection with healing and defeating dragons and evil spirits and raises questions about the dog's possible connection to the archangel Raphael.

A brief overview of Adventism's relationship with the Apocrypha, spanning from the year 1842 until 1918. It updates the conclusions of the last previous study conducted by Ron Graybill and utilizes previously undiscovered documents and even writings by Ellen White to propose that Adventism's entanglement with the Apocryphal corpus is far reaching and vastly understudied in its importance for the study of Early Adventism and Ellen White.

Like the first volume in this series (WealthWatch, Pickwick, 2011) this volume attempts two things: (a) to examine the primary socioeconomic motifs in the Bible from a comparative intertextual perspective, and (b) to trace the trajectory formed by these motifs through Tanak into early Jewish and Nazarene texts. Where WealthWatch focuses on Torah, however, WealthWarn focuses on the single largest section of Tanak—the Prophets. Where the ancient Near Eastern texts surveyed in WealthWatch include the Epic of Gilgamesh, Atrahasis, and the Erra Epic, the texts examined here include Inanna's Descent, the Babylonian Creation Epic (enūma elish), the Disappearance of Telipinu, and the Ba`al Epic. Where the Jewish texts surveyed in WealthWatch include historical and sectarian texts, the texts studied here include Ezra-Nehemiah, the Epistle of Jeremiah and Tobit. Where the Nazarene texts in WealthWatch focus on the stewardship parables found in the Gospel of Luke, the texts examined here focus on several prophetic vignettes from the Gospel of Matthew and Acts of the Apostles.

In this study I examine the special multifunctionality of Raphael’s character. The author of Tobit 12 collects together various aspects occurring within the angelology of Palestinian Judaism of the last centuries BC, and relates these diverse characteristics to his protagonist, Raphael.  Below, firstly, in a predominantly technical section, I give an overview of the pericope, then, in the second part, I evaluate the data concerning the character and work of the angel in question.

Banking system is one part of financial institution that plays an important role in economic growth and development of a country. The aim of this study was to assess the determinants of Ethiopian commercial banks efficiency. The study was based on secondary source of data. Quantitative data were obtained from published and audited financial statements of commercial banks in the period of 2003 –2012. To this end, measuring the efficiency of decision-making units (DMUs) has been growing in today's banking system. The efficiency estimation of individual banks was evaluated using Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA). Likewise, to investigate the determinants of efficiency Tobit model was used. In Ethiopia banking industry embraces about nineteen commercial banks. Among which eight banks were selected as a sample size via purposive sampling techniques. The result of this study revealed deposit and liquidity has significant positive relationship with commercial banks efficiency.

The book of Tobit, which is dated to the Hellenistic period, is often compared with the model of the pious and innocent sufferer in the book of Job which is assumed to be the product of a late Persian or early Hellenistic scribal idea. It has been argued that in many ways, the author of Tobit directly alluded to Job's texts and put its literary framework and themes into a new historical context, the Assyrian Diaspora. However, both literary works are quite dissimilar in how they used various Israelite and non-Israelite materials and they substantially reflect different thoughts and interests. In this paper, I indicate how each book understands Jewish literary tradition and suggest that both books reflect their own intellectual background. This will be discussed in four areas; (1) suffering and theodicy, (2) dialogue, (3) retribution, law, and piety, (4) election, eschatology, and apocalyptic.

The objective of this paper was to determine the level of efficiency of smallholder maize farmers and to link the observed efficiency to farmers' socioeconomic and institutional characteristics in Boricha Woreda, Sidama Region of Ethiopia. A multi-stage sampling technique was used to select 204 sample farmers which were interviewed using structured questionnaire to obtain data pertaining to farm production, input usage, and other variables including socioeconomic and institutional factor. A Cobb-Douglas production function was employed to analyze the data. In the analysis, frontier 4.1c software was used to determine the levels of technical and economic efficiencies. Furthermore, descriptive statistics and a two-limit Tobit regression model were employed. It was established from a stochastic frontier model that maize yield was positively influenced by seed, labor, oxen, farm size, DAP and Urea fertilizers. The mean technical and allocative efficiencies were 72 and 70 percent, respectively while the mean economic efficiency was 53 percent. Tobit model results revealed that efficiency was positively and significantly affected by education, training, membership in cooperatives, access to credit, and family size whereas variables such as age, distance to extension center, distance to market, livestock and off-farm income affected it negatively. Based on the findings of the study policy implications for improvements in economic efficiency and productivity were drawn.

This paper examines the eschatology of the book of Tobit from a Jungian perspective according to Hicks-Keaton’s model of the already/not yet fulfilment of prophetic eschatological promises regarding God’s kingdom in Tobit’s time. The paper suggests, among others, that an underlying message of the book is that Tobit’s community should modify their strict retributional understanding of suffering so as to overcome the stultification of their current collective individuation cycle, bring to remembrance (anamnesis) the Original Wholeness from which they came (the God-image), and experience the conscious restoration or anamnesis of the future (not yet) psycho-social eschaton in the now (already).

This paper develops robust confidence intervals in high-dimensional and left-censored regression. Type-I censored regression models are extremely common in practice, where a competing event makes the variable of interest unobservable. However, techniques developed for entirely observed data do not directly apply to the censored observations. In this paper, we develop smoothed estimating equations that augment the de-biasing method, such that the resulting estimator is adaptive to censoring and is more robust to the mis-specification of the error distribution. We propose a unified class of robust estimators, including Mallow's, Schweppe's and Hill-Ryan's one-step estima-tor. In the ultra-high-dimensional setting, where the dimensionality can grow exponentially with the sample size, we show that as long as the preliminary estimator converges faster than n −1/4 , the one-step estimator inherits asymp-totic distribution of fully iterated version. Moreover, we show that the size of the residuals of the Bahadur representation matches those of the simple linear models, s 3/4 (log(p ∨ n)) 3/4 /n 1/4 – that is, the effects of censoring asymptoti-cally disappear. Simulation studies demonstrate that our method is adaptive to the censoring level and asymmetry in the error distribution, and does not lose efficiency when the errors are from symmetric distributions. Finally, we apply the developed method to a real data set from the MAQC-II repository that is related to the HIV-1 study.

In part one, this paper draws attention to striking similarities between the Book of Tobit and the Testament of Job, both of which make use of the figure of Job in shaping their narratives.  In part two, it is suggested that, rather than simply interpreting the biblical Book of Job, both of these works provide independent witnesses to a complex developing tradition about the charity-filled life of Job known to both authors.

In spite of substantial investments in developing and disseminating improved maize production technologies by successive governments and several development partners, technology adoption in Ghana remains low. The purpose of this study was to identify the factors that influence the extent of adoption of improved maize production technologies among farmers in northern Ghana. A Tobit regression model was used to analyse the determinants of the extent of technology adoption. Results of the study revealed that formal education, farming experience, extension contact, access to credit, and membership of a farmer-based organisation are significant determinants of the extent of adoption of all three technologies considered. Moreover, sex of household head did not influence the extent of adoption of improved seeds but was rather significant in the case of fertiliser application and row planting. The study recommends that projects/programmes and policies related to the introduction and dissemination of improved maize production technologies in northern Ghana should draw lessons from studies like this to ensure improved technology uptake.

The first archangels developed from the complex of earlier Jewish heroic warrior traditions, with its ideological mystification of the king's sons and other noble members of the inner court as heroic warriors. The chapter demonstrates the unity of conception in the terminology and functions of the Rephaim, Nephilim, Anakim, Gibborim, and King Og - as ancient heroic kings and nobility. The transition from the dominance of these Jewish hero-legends to the archangel legend took place during the politico-economic transition from local Judahite monarchy to tribute-paying Judean vassal. The transition is underway, but not yet complete, in the War Scroll from Qumran (1QM) and the book of Tobit.

This paper takes a fresh approach in identifying the presence of multiple authors in the Book of Tobit. Rather than relying upon narrative discontinuity or by creating a hypothetical scheme, the paper tracks 1) patterns of substitution and repetition, 2) divine epithets, 3) marriage rites and 4) both heavenly and earthly reasons to bring the couple together. This study should be helpful for the study of redaction more generally.  Page numbers may have altered in printing. 

CORRECTION: The paper leaves out the information that Isaac and Rebecca's marriage was appointed by God in Genesis 24:44. This is important data keeping in mind that Genesis Rabbah takes this point further by dating the appointing to Issac's binding on Mount Moriah.

The ambiguity over the canonicity of the book of Tobit within Jewish and Christian circles leads to a threefold understanding of the genre of Tobit; folktale/fairy-tale, legend and novella. Folktale is a more adequate description of the book to Tobit due to the idea of the book as
fiction, the hero motif and marriage. However, this is contested through the religious obligations of the character Tobit embodying themes of exile and a return to Israel. These views and other views will be compared throughout this essay. Concluding with the thoughts
of the final genre of Tobit as fairy-tale or novella.

Time use researchers frequently debate whether it is more appropriate to fit censored regression (Tobit) models using maximum likelihood estimation or linear models using ordinary least squares (OLS) to explain individuals' allocations of time to different activities as recorded in time-diary data. One side argues that estimation of Tobit models addresses the significant censoring (i.e., large numbers of zeros) typically found in time-diary data and that OLS estimation leads to biased and inconsistent estimates. The opposing side argues that optimization occurs over a longer period than that covered by the typical time diary, and thus that reported zeros represent measurement error rather than true non-participation in the activity, in which case OLS is preferred. We use the Australian Time Use Surveys, which record information for two consecutive diary days, to estimate censored and linear versions of a parental child care model for both 24-hour and 48-hour windows of observation in order to determine the empirical consequences of estimation technique and diary length. We find a moderate amount of measurement error when we use the 24-hour window compared to the 48-hour window, but a large number of zeros in the shorter window remain zeroes when we double the window length. Most of the qualitative conclusions we draw are similar for the two windows of observation and the two estimation methods, although there are some slight differences in the magnitudes and statistical significance of the estimates. Importantly, Tobit estimates appear to be more sensitive to window length than OLS estimates.

This essay on the Syriac versions of Tobit appears in Volume 2 of the Textual History of the Bible, edited by Armin Lange, concerning the Deuterocanonical Scriptures of the Old Testament, in particular in Vol.2C, in which the Book of Tobit is also included. According to the novelty of the methodological perspective of this work, we do not focus mainly on the most important testimonia textus, in view of the reconstruction of the original of each book, but rather we aim to examine all the known textual witnesses of each of the biblical books, paying therefore particular attention to the manuscript traditions, and considering specifically all the single linguistic traditions in which they come.
This article therefore presents: 1. Manuscripts and Editions - 2. Translation Character: The First Section (1:1-7:11); The Second Section (7:11 [1° brm]-14:15) - 3. Translation Technique and Inner-Translational Features - Text-Critical Value.

The instances where daughters are mentioned in the Greek books of the Old Testament are not numerous. They are interesting, however, and deserving of exegesis and interpretation. In Tobit and Ben Sira their relationship to fathers are stressed and this aspect is of importance, whether those relationships are good or strained. If the texts are compared with the Hebrew Bible, more light is thrown on the personalities of the daughters, and they are valued more highly. Some influence of the Greek civilization can be presupposed here. A link with the Mediterranean culture of honor and shame can also be traced, especially in Ben Sira.