Most Britons, for instance, still have variable-rate mortgages, although the proportion with fixed-rate home loans is rising (thanks, in part, to lower inflation).

ECONOMIST: The single currency

To examine this phenomenon further, I ran multiple regression analyses with the party score as the dependent variable and various institutional data points (controlling for tuition, proportion of students receiving Pell grants, overall enrollment, average SAT scores and whether schools were public or private) as the independent variables.

FORBES: Play Hard, Work Little: Life on America's College Campuses

Last year, there was a significant increase in the ratio of variable staff costs to total staff costs, rising to 13.4 percent and as a proportion of revenue, rising to 7.8 percent, representing the highest ratios for the last 10 years.

FORBES: Will There Be A Hollywood Ending For Madison Avenue?