Physician and hospital funding options in a public system with decreasing resources

Methods of physician and hospital reimbursement have been the subject of many debates over the years. Structuring a method of payment for physicians under a publicly funded system is particularly difficult when considered in relation to methods of hospital funding. In this paper, we present a mathematical model that simulates physician and hospital behaviour in a publicly funded health care system under a variety of funding scenarios. The model assumes both doctors and hospitals are constrained profit satisficers. Given this assumption, and a reduction in funding to the institution, the model searches for a resource allocation that will achieve target incomes for both decision-making groups through changes to case mix and/or reductions in the fixed or variable costs of production.Results indicate that when physicians are funded on a fee-for-service basis, the hospital funding method in place may have little impact on resource allocation following a budget reduction. When physicians are funded via salary, conflict between the two groups is reduced, but under supply is more likely to occur. These results raise important questions regarding the type of hospital funding model that should be in place.Unlike earlier approaches, our model jointly simulates the behaviour of both hospitals and health care providers. By including both actors, it provides a mechanism for investigating the interaction between physicians and hospitals under a variety of funding scenarios. Given that hospital-physician systems respond to funding reductions by reducing the fixed costs of production or by decreasing the variable costs of production, the model can be used to identify a range of alternative case mix, case cost, and cost-sharing scenarios.     

The global economic costs of the need to treat polluted water

We estimate the global costs and other implications of the need to treat wastewater before it can be re-used. We extend the World Trade Model by creating water treatment sectors and provide alternative sources of water for satisfying users’ quantity and quality requirements. The database distinguishes qualities and quantities of water endowments, sectoral water requirements, and wastewater discharges. We estimate that global water treatment costs could be reduced by several trillion dollars if water endowments were maintained at higher quality than currently is the case. Under scenarios where water quality degrades further, the treatment costs more than double even without taking account of likely increases in quality requirements. This modeling framework provides a starting point not only for more detailed empirical investigations of water management strategies, but also for examining prospects and associated costs for recovering other resources, such as metals, which can be reused multiple times.     

Evaluation of a Renewable Energy Scenario in India For Economic and Co2 Mitigation Effects

Renewable energy technologies (RETs) are attractive for sustainable energy supply and CO₂ mitigation. In this paper, a CGE model is used to analyze the effects of rapid reduction of costs of solar power generation, an important RET, in India. Alternate scenarios of cost reduction of solar power, hybrid scenarios with a carbon tax and a scenario of only carbon tax are compared with a reference scenario. Simulation results show that under such a scenario, high penetration of solar technology, economic gains, and modest emission reduction are achieved. The analysis shows that compared to accelerated solar technology scenario, a carbon tax achieves superior mitigation. Broad policy implications for developing countries are drawn in the context of global climate change debate.     

网络技术与企业创新方案价值的提升

价值工程学属边缘学科,涉及多学科的交叉与相互渗透.本文章拟在企业创新方案的征集过程中试行仿生管理技术,以解决这一边缘学科研究所面临的多学科攻关与高投入的矛盾.关键是通过信息高速公路与国内外专家建立合作,通过“执行”或“不执行”国内外专家的企业创新方案,通过正反馈或负反馈调节企业创新方案的研究方向及细节,建立具有银行和保险功能的国际性价值工程组织和与之相配套的基金和资料库,帮助参与该级织的企业技术创新,并保证献计献策的专家从中获益,以促进该企业的发展.     

Time horizons of environmental versus non‐environmental costs: evidence from US tort lawsuits

One explanation for a positive correlation between environmental and financial performance at the firm level is a bias in firms' investment evaluation processes caused by systematic differences between environmental and other investment opportunities. One of these systematic differences, often hypothesized but still unverified, is that environmental costs occur farther in the future than other costs. We empirically test this hypothesis, and find statistically significant support for it. In our data set the mean time lag for environmental costs was more than ten years, compared with five years for the control set costs. Such a difference could induce managers to accept too much environmental liability if they evaluate investments using discounted cash flow methods with a discount rate based on the firm‐wide cost of capital. Copyright © 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd and ERP Environment.     

环境会计在能源类企业中的应用分析

企业是国家经济发展的主要推动力量,但是也是造成环境污染的恶首罪魁,尤其是能源类企业,更是环境的高伤害企业,对于环境保护负有不可推卸的重大责任。在能源类企业中推行环境会计实施具有划时代的意义,将其环境成本纳入企业会计核算体系之中,对环境成本进行科学合理的确认和计量,管理和控制企业的环境资源,是能源类企业走可持续发展的必由之路。     

LAND MARKETS AND THE EFFECT OF REGULATION ON FORMAL-SECTOR DEVELOPMENT IN URBAN INDONESIA

Until recently, urban land and housing markets in Indonesia seemed to function well. Informal-sector development provided low-income housing affordably. Through government programs, formal-sector developers could build housing for all but the poor. Since 1989, however, daily conversation pictures land speculation as rampant and formal-sector housing as rising beyond the means of the middle class. Newspapers carry stories of conflicts between small landowners and large developers with government officials in between. This article investigates this situation by addressing two related questions: are urban land prices rising “too fast?”; how do land regulations and development practices affect costs, and who pays these costs? The article includes quantitative estimates of urban land prices, changes in urban land supply, movement of land through the permitting process, and the effect of development regulations on costs. Data come from a literature survey and interviews of some of the largest formal-sector developers in Indonesia. A principal finding concerns a development regulation called a “location permit” and the “social function” of land in Indonesian law. Although helpful as a means of assembling land in Indonesia's highly fragmented land markets, location permits allow formal-sector developers to hold land off the market and pay low prices to small landowners. Ultimately, the “social function” of land under Indonesian law holds down the price formal-sector developers pay for land, but not at the price at which they sell their product. The article concludes by proposing reforms to the regulatory process.     

Fundraising for regional environmental issues: Public perceptions of who is financially responsible for the local environment

Environmental nonprofit organizations attract less than 5 % of total philanthropic giving. Given the seriousness of the environmental challenges facing the globe, it is imperative to identify barriers to and best practices in soliciting environmental giving. Past studies have identified the difficulty in soliciting funding for macro-level environmental concerns or for concerns considered to be public goods; however, little research has been conducted about giving to regional environmental concerns. Our research questions were as follows: (a) from what type of sources do residents believe environmental protection for regional environmental concerns should be funded?; (b) how willing are residents to contribute financially to regional environmental concerns?; and (c) to what extent do residents trust nonprofit organizations to address regional environmental concerns? We surveyed Florida residents (n = 548) about the conservation of the Ocklawaha River and the breaching of the Rodman Reservoir, an area with pressing environmental concerns and heavily frequented for economic and recreational use. Findings suggest that (a) participants believe government agencies, not nonprofits, should fund restoration projects, (b) participants trust nonprofits more than government to accomplish restoration goals, and (c) participants are more interested in contributing via taxes than via donations. Considerations for fundraising are discussed.     

A multimodal,multicommodity, and multiperiod planning problem for coal distribution to poor families

Tackling poverty has been one of the greatest global challenges and a prerequisite to sustainable development of countries. Countries implement nationally appropriate social protection systems and measures to address poverty. This paper addresses an aid system adopted by the government in Turkey where significant amounts of coal is distributed to poor families each year. The objective of the coal aid system is to complete the delivery of coal to poor families by the start of winter. However, an analysis of the data from previous years indicates that the distribution to many families cannot be completed on time. This results from the fact that planning is done manually and by trial-and-error as there is no system that can be used for distribution planning. This paper describes the planning problem encountered and develops a mathematical model to solve it. The proposed model is a multimodal, multicommodity, and multiperiod linear programming (LP) model. The model can be used to develop and update a distribution plan as well as to answer several what-if questions with regard to capacities, time constraints, and so forth. The model is solved using CPLEX for several problem instances obtained under different scenarios using data for the year 2012. The results show that at least 9% cost savings and about 40% decrease in distribution completion time can be achieved when the model is used. We analyze scenario results qualitatively and quantitatively and provide several insights to the decision makers. As a part of quantitative analysis, we develop regression models to predict optimal costs based on several factors. Our main contribution is to provide an efficient and effective tool to handle a large-scale real-world problem. The model has also helped to prove that the organization responsible for distribution planning may move from the current planning practice to an all-encompassing top-down approach.     

Neural networks for GEFCom2017 probabilistic load forecasting

This report describes the forecasting model which was developed by team “4C” for the global energy forecasting competition 2017 (GEFCom2017), with some modifications added afterwards to improve its accuracy. The model is based on neural networks. Temperature scenarios obtained from historical data are used as inputs to the neural networks in order to create load scenarios, and these load scenarios are then transformed into quantiles. By using a feature selection approach that is based on a stepwise regression technique, a neural network based model is developed for each zone. Furthermore, a dynamic choice of the temperature scenarios is suggested. The feature selection and dynamic choice of the temperature scenarios can improve the quantile scores considerably, resulting in very accurate forecasts among the top teams.     

Pains and gains of environmental management system certification for the sustainable development of manufacturing companies: Heterogeneous effects of industry peer learning

Environmental sustainability is a growing global concern. Environmental management systems (EMS) could be an effective strategic tool to help firms deal with their sustainable development. However, whether EMS certification pays off financially and how it takes effect can be debated. Thus far, these questions remain largely under‐researched. In particular, the effects of EMS certification on financial performance are inconclusive, and the reasons explaining the effects are underdeveloped. This study aims to enrich the current research by exploring the mediating and moderating roles from the perspective of cost‐efficiency trade‐offs to reveal how EMS certification affects financial performance. Applying a PROCESS procedure analysis and causal mediation analysis to a sample of 1,751 Chinese listed manufacturing firms from 2008 to 2016, this study shows that the effect of EMS certification on firms' financial performance is insignificant because their operating costs burden increases while their marketing efficiency and managerial efficiency improve. For the first time, this study demonstrates the moderating role of industry peer learning, as the mediating effects decrease with the growth of industry peer learning.     

Green supply chain decision modeling under financial policy,with or without uniform government emission reduction policy

This paper investigates green supply chain decision making under different government policies. The problem is explored under centralized and decentralized scenarios. We verified the advantages of simultaneous government implementation of financial and uniform manufacturing policies and found that, with increased public awareness of environmental protection, government subsidy also increases: when environmental protection awareness is sufficiently strong, the government does not have to set uniform policy. Finally, by parametric and numerical analyses, our research identified the conditions under which social welfare is maximized. The results facilitate scientific policy development and provide a reference for promoting green supply chain operations.     

环境成本内在化对我国纺织行业出口贸易的影响

我国纺织行业的比较优势是依靠未完全实现环境成本内在化而实现的,如果贸易各国实行环境成本内在化,那么我国纺织出口部门的比较优势将发生改变。环境成本内在化影响了各国贸易竞争力,改变了出口商品的比较优势。基于以上考虑,文章以纺织行业为例,运用ADF检验、协整关系检验、Granger因果检验得出结论:出口规模的扩大增加了环境污染的排放;通过建立多元线性回归模型验证了环境成本量化以后,环境成本对国际贸易竞争力的影响是负的,即环境成本越大,国际贸易竞争力就越小。     

Small businesses and the environment: turning over a new leaf?

Previous studies on the environmental practices of small and medium‐sized enterprises (SMEs) in the UK and beyond have portrayed owner‐managers as laggards who underplay their firm's environmental impacts and resist environmental management due to its perceived cost. Yet a recent cross‐sector survey of 220 UK SMEs suggests that this intransigent stance may be slowly changing. Responses indicate a high percentage of owner‐managers actively involved in recycling, energy efficiency, responsible buying and selling, and efforts to reduce their carbon emissions. Owner‐managers saw it as their responsibility to help solve environmental problems and were reportedly willing to accept the costs of tougher environmental regulations and taxation. Business owners were motivated not just by the ‘push’ of legislation and environmental concern but by the ‘pull’ of potential cost savings, new customers, higher staff retention and good publicity for their firms. The survey also found that owner‐managers had resonance with the Stern Review's (2006) conclusions that the benefits of strong early action on climate change outweigh the costs, and that a transition to a low‐carbon economy will bring opportunities for business growth. This indicates that SMEs may be coming round to the idea that there is a business case for sustainability, although there is still some scepticism on the overall profitability of environmental action. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd and ERP Environment.     

THE ECONOMICS OF THE GREENHOUSE EFFECT

Abstract. The recognition that economic activity is contributing to climatic change, with attendant costs that may be of large magnitudes, has set in motion a substantial research effort. This paper seeks to review the contribution of economics to analysis of the greenhouse effect and to the policies and instruments suggested as means of mitgiating its damage.
A brief overview of the causes and consequences of global warming is given, and a number of energy-economy forecasting models are examined. As the costs of global warming depend upon the extent to which preventative and adaptive measures are undertaken, the techniques available to evaluate these costs are surveyed.
We examine extant targets for greenhouse gas emissions reduction, and explore the frameworks within which optimal policy targets can be designed. The paper also considers the narrower question of (minimized) abatement costs, and surveys the types of models used to estimate them.
The merits of alternative policy instruments are examined, paying particular attention to the role that risk and uncertainty, and the costs of monitoring and implementation of policy under conditions of imperfect information, may play in the choice of instruments. Problems of international co-operation in the development of abatement policy are examined, and we consider the compensations (across both nations and generations) that are likely to be necessary conditions for effective action.     

The shale oil revolution and the global oil supply curve

We focus on the implications of the shale oil boom for the global supply of oil. In order to derive testable implications, we introduce a simple stylized model with two producers, one facing low production costs and one higher production costs but potentially lower adjustment costs, competing à la Stackelberg. We find that the supply function is flatter for the high cost producer and that the supply function for shale oil producers becomes more responsive to demand shocks when adjustment costs decline. On the empirical side, we apply an instrumental variable approach using estimates of demand-driven oil price changes derived from a standard structural VAR of the oil market. A main finding is that global oil supply is rather vertical, with a short-term elasticity around 0.05. A rolling sample reveals that the shale oil boom does not appear to have fundamentally changed the contours of global oil production, but there is evidence for the oil supply curve to become more vertical in Saudi Arabia and more price responsive in the United States.     

Research and Development,Uncertainty, and Analysts’ Forecasts: The Case of IAS 38

This study analyzes the consequences of the capitalization of development expenditures under IAS 38 on analysts’ earnings forecasts. We use unique hand‐collected data in a sample of highly research and development (R&D)‐intensive German‐listed firms over the period 2000–2007. We find that the capitalization of development costs is significantly associated with both higher individual analysts’ forecast errors and forecast dispersion. This suggests that the increasing complexity surrounding the capitalization of development costs negatively impacts forecast accuracy. However, for firms with high underlying environmental uncertainty, forecast errors are negatively associated with capitalized development expenditures. This indicates that the negative impact of increased complexity on forecast accuracy can be outweighed by the information contained in the signals from capitalized development costs when the underlying environmental uncertainty is high. The findings contribute to the ongoing controversial debate on the accounting for self‐generated intangible assets. Our results provide useful insights on the link between capitalization of development costs, environmental uncertainty, and analysts’ forecasts for accounting academics and practitioners alike.     

Multiproduct price competition with heterogeneous consumers and nonconvex costs

This paper extends the oligopolistic model of price competition to environments with multiple goods, heterogeneous consumers, and arbitrary continuous cost functions. A Nash equilibrium in mixed strategies with an endogenous sharing rule is proven to exist. It is also shown that, in environments with fixed costs and constant marginal costs, all (symmetric and asymmetric) equilibria exhibit price dispersion across stores. Furthermore, the paper identifies scenarios in which prices will necessarily be random. In these markets, stores keep each other guessing because, given the fixed costs, they would incur a loss if their price strategies were anticipated and beaten by competitors. This is interpreted as an important economic feature that is possibly behind random price promotions such as weekly specials.     

Simulation decomposition for environmental sustainability: Enhanced decision-making in carbon footprint analysis

Environmental sustainability problems frequently require the need for decision-making in situations containing considerable uncertainty. Monte Carlo simulation methods have been used in a wide array of environmental planning settings to incorporate these uncertain features. Simulation-generated outputs are commonly displayed as probability distributions. Recently simulation decomposition (SD) has enhanced the visualization of the cause-effect relationships of multi-variable combinations of inputs on the corresponding simulated outputs. SD partitions sub-distributions of the Monte Carlo outputs by pre-classifying selected input variables into states, grouping combinations of these states into scenarios, and then collecting simulated outputs attributable to each multi-variable input scenario. Since it is a straightforward task to visually project the contribution of the subdivided scenarios onto the overall output, SD can illuminate previously unidentified connections between the multi-variable combinations of inputs on the outputs. SD is generalizable to any Monte Carlo method with negligible additional computational overhead and, therefore, can be readily extended into most environmental analyses that use simulation models. This study demonstrates the efficacy of SD for environmental sustainability decision-making on a carbon footprint analysis case for wooden pallets.