Public‐private partnerships in the health industry

This article compares the traditional government method of procurement of goods and services with various public‐private partnership methods and provides an overview of the various advantages and disadvantages of both. Governments face many challenges in meeting the basic needs of their people. The private sector is therefore becoming increasingly involved in the provision of a range of services. In South Africa, examples are the Maputo N4 Tollroad, various water and sanitation concessions, and even the building and running of prisons, all of which have received media coverage. Many of these forms of private sector involvement, and lessons learnt from these projects, could be transferred to the health care sector. The health industry is currently faced with the challenge of providing increased levels of service to a growing population. There has been much debate over the state of the nation's hospitals, all of which require some maintenance and at least a third of which need extensive, if not complete, replacement. This also applies to the equipment used in hospitals. Overseas, governments are looking to the private sector to work in partnership with them to address these concerns in terms of knowledge and expertise in delivering, financing and operating these services. By involving the private sector as a partner, governments can focus their energies on ensuring that adequate health policy frameworks are established and that the necessary health services are provided. The article identifies and highlights several ways in which the private sector and government could work together to solve many of the challenges facing the industry.     

Did the great influenza of 1918–1920 trigger a reversal of the first era of globalization?*

International Economics and Economic Policy - I revisit the 1918–20 pandemic and ask whether it led to a reversal in the rise of trade and financial globalization that preceded it. Using...     

Short sea and deep sea shipping markets in France

This paper examines the physical and organizational characteristics of maritime consignments sent from France by comparing those sent by deep sea shipping (DSS) with those sent by short sea shipping (SSS). It employs a very detailed survey that identifies individual shipments, and contains information on routing, mode and organization. The results confirm that the majority of deep sea consignments pass through the major ports, but the SSS market is shown to be more diverse. A link between the size of the hinterland and the type of trade is identified. Finally, the paper shows the importance of logistic service providers in SSS chains.     

Micro-economic applications of marginal changes in risk

Extending a recent definition, we propose a theorem on the impact of marginal changes in risk on the optimal decision of a risk averse individual. Several micro-economic applications are then provided.     

Selecting A Forecasting Method For Investory Control: A Safety Stock Based Criterion

The paper presents results related to the application of several forecasting methods to problems of inventory control. In particular it is shown that an accuracy measure based on an inventory control criterion is more useful in ranking the forecasting methods than currently used measures based on forecast errors. Résumé Cette étude présente des résultats reliés à l'application de plusieurs méthodes de prévision dans un contexte de gestion des stocks. Il est démontré en particulier qu'une mesure de précision basée sur un critère de gestion des stocks est plus utile pour évaluer les méthodes de prévision que les mesure usuelles qui fondées sur les erreurs de prévisions.     

Effectiveness of R&;D tax incentives in small and large enterprises in Québec

In this paper we evaluate the effectiveness of R&D tax incentives in Quebec, using manufacturing firm data from 1997 to 2003 originating from R&D surveys, annual surveys of manufactures and administrative data. The estimated price elasticity of R&D is –0.10 in the short run and –0.14 in the long run, with slightly higher elasticities for small firms than for large firms. We show that there is a deadweight loss associated with level-based R&D tax incentives that is particularly acute for large firms. For small firms it is not sizeable enough to suppress the R&D additionality, at least not for quite a number of years after the initial tax change. Incremental R&D tax credits do not suffer from this deadweight loss and are from that perspective preferable to level-based tax incentives.

Modernity/art and Marketing/aesthetics—a Note on the Social Aesthetics of Georg Simmel

This paper interrogates and contrasts representations of work and Utopia in two examples of popular culture. The examples are a sample of contemporary popular management books and a sample of work-related themes in the popular music of Bruce Springsteen. In comparing the two the paper examines how they both use utopian representations as a key element of their claims, yet do so in markedly different ways. It is argued that Springsteen uses a “voice from within” to explore the ambiguities and paradoxes that emerge from the gap between real experience and utopian desire. Conversely, popular management books tend to speak from a “voice from above” that actively suppress ambiguity and ignore power in order to reproduce the dominant ethos of contemporary capitalism. Thus while popular management provides uncritical support for its imaginary Utopia, Springsteen provides a compelling critique of the promises of economic freedom through capitalism—promises which management writers are so often complicit in (re)producing.