Description: Article from The Actuary, June 1983, volume no. 17, issue no. 6, that highlights since 1981, U.S. federal budget cutbacks have clamped down hard on the federal agencies that produce all kinds of statistics - demographic, economic and regulatory data. Actuaries, who use these federal statistics to develop mortality tables, to produce marketing studies, to examine economic trends, and to study health costs, should work with the federal agencies to restore this data.

Description: Review of the fifth and final report in the 1960 Census Monograph Series created by the Social Science Research Council. Makes a compelling case for the monograph providing a good historical and statistical analysis of the changing U.S. population and demographics.

Description: This article discusses two sets of blended by sex 1980 CSO mortality tables for use in determining minimum cash values and nonforfeiture benefits for life insurance policies issued in employee benefit plans which, because of the Norris decision, must provide equal benefits to men and women.

Description: This section contains reviews for the following books, Introduction to the Mathematics of Demography by Robert Brown, A Tale of Two Captains by John Baynes and Hugh Maclean, Abolitionist, Actuary, Atheist: Elizur Wright and the Reform Impulse by Lawrence Goodheart, The Federal Data Base Finder by Matthew Lesko and the Guardian Life Insurance Company, 1860-1920, A History of a German-American Enterprise by Anita Rapone. From Transactions of Society of Actuaries 1991, Vol. 43.

Description: The Society’s Committee to Recommend a New Mortality Basis for Individual Annuity Valuation was formed in 1980 at NAIC request because the margins in the 1971 IAM Table had eroded. This article describes the development of the 1983 Table a and shows how well the 1973 Experience Table fits the underlying data.

Description: This panel discussion session presents social indicators using a variety of statistical approaches and relates them to societal changes. The concept of using mortality data as a social indicator is also discussed.

Description: Presented at October 1985 Annual Meeting. Discusses the outlook for U.S. government statistics after budget costs and restraints, statistics of income, outlook for linked studies among the different agencies, plans for a 1987 National Medical Expenditures Survey, and the use of government statistics in marketing studies.

Description: Book review on Standards for Discussion and Presentation of Errors in Survey and Census Data by the American Statistical Association, Washington, D.C., 1975. The material will be of interest to actuaries and of help in preparing their own study reports. The guidelines discuss some relatively simple means of presenting error estimates for published data.

Description: This session is about the major factors affecting economic growth in the next five to ten years with major focus on expected population shifts, labor force growth, productivity movement, inflation factors and major components of demand and the outlook for 1980 for wages and prices, and describes how that outlook could be affected by various government policies. An assessment will be provided of the inflation outlook for the decade of the 1980's. From Record of Society of Actuaries Vol. 5, No. 4.

Description: In authorizing blended 1980 CSO mortality tables to compute minimum nonforfeiture values under Norris-affected policies, the National Association of Insurance Commissioners noted that no change was being made with respect to using separate male and female tables for minimum valuation reserves. The purpose of this article is to call attention to how blended cash values relate to reserves.