Where does ceiling collide?

A legal upper limit on the price a seller may charge for a good or service, set below what an open market would otherwise reach. Friedman and Stigler's 1946 Roofs or Ceilings? The Current Housing Problem used the word for the wartime rent maximums and argued that holding rents under the market-clearing level produces shortages and rationing rather than cheaper housing. Glaeser and Luttmer's 2003 The Misallocation of Housing Under Rent Control measured how such caps push apartments to the wrong tenants. The referent is a policy limit on a money price, and it has nothing to do with a barrier to promotion, the base of a cloud, or a bunching of test scores.[1][2]

Unit

A maximum lawful price, in currency per unit of the good

Recovery means

Not applicable

Measured by

Assessed by comparing the capped price with the market-clearing price and the shortage, queue, or rationing that follows

An unofficial barrier that stops members of some groups, most often women, from rising past a certain level in an organization even when their qualifications match those who do rise. Hymowitz and Schellhardt's 1986 The Glass Ceiling in The Wall Street Journal used the phrase, and Morrison, White, and Van Velsor's 1987 Breaking the Glass Ceiling studied it in large firms. Cotter, Hermsen, Ovadia, and Vanneman's 2001 The Glass Ceiling Effect defined it more strictly as a group gap in attainment that grows larger at higher ranks. The referent is a pattern in career advancement, not a price cap, a cloud height, or a scale artifact.[3][4][5]

Unit

An unofficial limit on how far certain groups advance in a hierarchy

Recovery means

Not applicable

Measured by

Estimated as a group gap in promotion or attainment that widens toward the top ranks, net of measured qualifications

In aviation weather the ceiling is the height above the ground of the base of the lowest layer of cloud that covers more than half the sky, so it marks how much clear air lies below the clouds. Leyton and Fritsch's 2003 Short-Term Probabilistic Forecasts of Ceiling and Visibility Utilizing High-Density Surface Weather Observations treated the ceiling as the lowest broken or overcast cloud base and forecast it for flight safety. The referent is a physical height in the atmosphere, and it does not describe a maximum price, a barrier to careers, or a clustering of measurements.[6]

Unit

Height above ground of the lowest broken or overcast cloud base, in feet or metres

Recovery means

Not applicable

Measured by

Observed by ceilometer, ceiling balloon, or ceiling light and reported in routine aviation weather observations

A ceiling effect occurs when a test or scale is too easy or its range too narrow, so many respondents land at the highest possible score and real differences among the strongest cases can no longer be told apart. Terwee and colleagues' 2007 Quality criteria were proposed for measurement properties of health status questionnaires proposed a working rule that a ceiling effect is present when more than fifteen percent of respondents reach the top score. McBee's 2010 Modeling Outcomes With Floor or Ceiling Effects showed how to analyse such data with the Tobit model. The referent is a distortion in measurement, not a price limit, a career barrier, or a cloud height.[7][8]

Unit

A concentration of observations at the top of a measurement scale

Recovery means

Not applicable

Measured by

Flagged when a large share of respondents, for example more than fifteen percent, reach the maximum score and compress the upper range