Sector and importer determinants of prices for traded intermediates

While the literature on traded goods prices emphasizes final goods prices and related consumer theory to explain variation in goods prices with importer characteristics, trade in intermediates actually constitutes about two thirds of total trade. We propose a mechanism for explaining variations in the prices of intermediates as a function of importer characteristics, wherein production is vulnerable to failure and the probability of failure declines in the quality of intermediates. Higher wages mean a greater opportunity cost of failure, leading to a stronger demand for high-quality intermediates where firms face higher wages. We find empirical support for this mechanism in the case of intermediate goods using IV regressions. In addition, our findings indicate that while the cost of labour explains about one fifth of variation in imported intermediate prices, it is a non-significant determinant of imported final goods prices.     

Cost-utility analyses of targeted immunomodulators in rheumatoid arthritis: systematic review

Abstract

Aims: Cost-utility (CU) modeling is a common technique used to determine whether new treatments represent good value for money. As with any modeling exercise, findings are a direct result of methodology choices, which may vary widely. Several targeted immuno-modulators have been launched in recent years to treat moderate-to-severe rheumatoid arthritis (RA) which have been evaluated using CU methods. Our objectives were to identify common and innovative modeling choices in moderate-to-severe RA and to highlight their implications for future models in RA.

Materials and methods: A systematic literature search was conducted to identify CU models in moderate-to-severe RA published from January 2013 to June 2019. Studies must have included an active comparator and used quality-adjusted life-years (QALYs) as the common measure of effectiveness. Modeling methods were characterized by stakeholder perspective, simulation type, mapping between parameters, and data sources.

Results: Thirty-one published modeling studies were reviewed spanning 13 countries and 9 drugs, with common methodological choices and innovations observed among them. Over the evaluated time period, we observed common methods and assumptions that are becoming more prominent in the RA CU modeling landscape, including patient-level simulations, two-stage models combining trial results and real-world evidence, real-world treatment durations, long-term health consequences, and Health Assessment Questionnaire (HAQ)-related hospitalization costs. Models that consider the societal perspective are increasingly being developed as well.

Limitations: This review did not consider studies that did not report QALYs as a utility measure, models published only as conference abstracts, or cost-consequence models that did not report an incremental CU ratio.

Conclusions: CU modeling for RA increasingly reflects real-world conditions and patient experiences which are anticipated to provide better information in the assessment of health technologies. Future CU models in RA should consider applying the observed advances in modeling choices to optimize their CU predictions and simulation of real-world outcomes.     

The IMF and the Liberalization of Capital Flows

We evaluate the claim that the International Monetary Fund precipitated financial crises during the 1990s, by pressuring countries to liberalize their capital accounts prematurely. Using data from a panel of developing economies from 1982–98, we examine whether the changes in the regime governing capital flows took place during participation in IMF programs. We find evidence that IMF program participation is correlated with capital account liberalization episodes during the 1990s. We verify the robustness of our results using alternative indicators of capital account openness. To determine whether decontrol was premature, we compare the economic and financial characteristics of countries that decontrolled during IMF programs with those of countries who did so independently, and find some evidence of IMF-led premature liberalizations.     

Heterodox Economic Thinking and Public Policy

Research on innovation and entrepreneurship policy (IEP) is almost exclusively concerned with the instrumental question of which policy measures are most effective in promoting “productive” entrepreneurial activities. The positive (political economy) and normative (welfare) dimensions are largely neglected. I focus on the latter, asking what could be a plausible normative rationale for innovation policy beyond the simple invocation of “growth” and the related use of orthodox criteria (such as “market failure”). This is a non-trivial issue, given (i) the ambiguous welfare implications of innovation in general, and (ii) the fact that standard notions of welfare cannot be consistently applied in an entrepreneurial, “Schumpeterian” economy. I suggest a dynamic criterion according to which IEP should ensure that individuals are able to engage in effective preference learning over time. This reconstruction of the normative basis of innovation policy helps clarify several contentious issues, among which are the desirability of selfemployment and the role of social security arrangements.     

A Re-examination of the Legalization of Casino Gambling from the Japanese Tourist Perspective: A 10-year Review

With the explosion of casino development in the Asia Pacific as well as the USA, casino gambling has become more culturally embraced as a recreational activity. The purpose of this study was to re-examine the legalization of casino gambling in Hawaii from Japanese-speaking tourists' perspective and compare these results with a previous study completed a decade before. With the continuing decrease of Japanese visitors to Hawaii, and with the importance of the Japanese market to Hawaii's economy, state officials are considering other forms of tourism to help revive the Japanese tourism market and increase Hawaii's global competitiveness. By analyzing the responses of the current Japanese-speaking tourists to Hawaii and comparing these responses with the Japanese tourists surveyed 10 years previously (1996), an attempt can be made to determine whether Japanese tourists in 2006 have changed their perception of the legalization of casino gambling in Hawaii. This research examines a number of challenges to consider concerning the legalization of gaming in an established tourism destination such as of Hawaii. Although the findings of this study indicate that the Japanese-speaking tourists have changed their perspective from past studies on the effects that legalization of casino gambling has in Hawaii, future research should focus on other segments of the tourist market.     

世界审计组织和最高审计机关的职责及贡献

在对政府审计面临的崭新挑战以及全球总体发展态势进行描述的基础上,从国际层面诠释了世界审计组织应对挑战所担负的职责及作出的贡献,并以奥地利最高审计机关为例证,从国家层面阐述了应对挑战作出的贡献,最后概述了从国际及各国政府审计发展中所获得的启示。     

Ascending price Vickrey auctions

We show that an ascending price auction for multiple units of a homogeneous object proposed by Ausubel (i) raises prices for packages until they reach those nonlinear and non-anonymous market clearing prices at which bidders get their marginal products and (ii) the auction is a primal–dual algorithm applied to an appropriate linear programming formulation in which the dual solution yields those same market clearing prices. We emphasize the similarities with efficient incentive compatible ascending price auctions to implement Vickrey payments when there is a single object or when objects are heterogeneous but each buyer does not desire more than one unit. A potential benefit of these common threads is that it helps to establish the principles upon which Vickrey payments may be implemented through decentralized, incentive compatible procedures.     

Revisiting agency and transaction costs theory predictions on vertical financial ownership and contracting: electronic integration as an organizational form choice

This paper provides an organizational economics foundation to guide managers in matching the comparatively more efficient organizational mode with transactional characteristics such as: (1) the degree of (human capital) asset specificity involved in the transaction, (2) the degree of uncertainty surrounding the transaction, and (3) the number of trading partners (suppliers and buyers) in the vertical supply chain. The key role of technology, and more specifically the e‐business infrastructure and its effects on organizational mode choice, is highlighted. The main results from this analysis suggest that changes in information technology are changing the nature of transaction costs leading to more efficient management through an electronic integration solution thus favoring contracting and outsourcing than would have been technologically possible when Williamson's Markets and Hierarchies (Markets and Hierarchies: Analysis and Antitrust Implications. Free Press: New York, 1975) was published. It is emphasized that the transaction cost economics principles are durable but that the breathless advances in information technology, especially in the past decade, have comparatively favored lower transaction costs of markets over hierarchies. Copyright © 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.