Diagnostic and lifetime hospital costs of patients suffering from wild-type transthyretin amyloid cardiomyopathy in Denmark

Abstract

Aims

Wild-type transthyretin amyloid cardiomyopathy (ATTRwt) is a fast progressing and fatal disease associated with substantial delays in diagnosis. Between the first symptoms and diagnosis, patients are frequently hospitalized, primarily with cardiac symptoms. After diagnosis, patients continue to experience frequent hospital admissions. The objective of this study was to estimate the Danish diagnostic and lifetime hospital costs associated with the treatment of patients with ATTRwt both before and after they are diagnosed.     

Effect of type 1 diabetes on school performance in a dynamic world: new analysis exploring Swedish register data

This paper investigates if the effect of type 1 diabetes mellitus (T1DM) on school performance, documented in prior research, has changed in more recent birth cohorts of children using national Swedish population register data. The issue is of interest because management and treatment of the disease have improved over the last decades and, furthermore, because of changes in the educational grading system. Despite these changes, data indicate a persistent negative effect of T1DM on compulsory and upper secondary school grades with a standardized effect size of ?0.109 and ?0.070, respectively, and the results appear only marginally smaller compared to earlier findings in cohorts completing school under the previous grading system. Moreover, the results are consistent for alternative model specifications and econometric estimation strategies. Whereas access to new treatment technologies and improved diabetes management strategies has reduced the burden of diabetes in daily life, the results from this study indicate that continued efforts are needed to improve the situation in school for children with T1DM to prevent potential long-term socio-economic consequences.     

The Impact of Collective Agreements on Working Time in Denmark

This article examines the impact of collective agreements on the working time patterns of private-sector employees in Denmark. The expected effect would be a reduction in working hours and overtime and an increase in overtime compensation. On the basis of an individual-level survey of 1720 employees, it is shown that there is a clear union impact on working time behaviour, but that it varies by subject area. While in some areas there is a near total spillover of rules from collective agreements (the collective agreement has become a social norm), in others there is a clear 'union mark-down', and in still others collective agreements seem to make no impact at all.     

On the origin of shared beliefs (and corporate culture)

This article shows how corporate culture, in the sense of shared beliefs and values, originates (often unintentionally) through screening, self‐sorting, and manager‐directed joint learning. It shows that such culture will be stronger among more important employees and in older and more successful firms where employees make important decisions and the manager has strong beliefs. It further shows how a manager's beliefs influence culture, how culture persists despite turnover, and why the suggested link between culture and performance may be a case of inverse causality. It finally shows that, from an outsider's perspective, organizations may tend to overinvest in corporate culture.     

Making ads less complex,yet more creative and persuasive: the effects of conventional metaphors and irony in print advertising

Rhetorical tropes like metaphors and irony are widely used in print advertising. Current advertising literature assumes that these different tropes (metaphor, irony) are persuasive when they are sufficiently novel and complex to increase advertising elaboration. However, we propose that, in some cases, tropes can also be persuasive when they present conventional and concrete images of abstract product qualities. To test if conventionality can explain the persuasiveness of various tropes (metaphor, irony), we conducted a 2 (conventional metaphor vs. no metaphor) × 2 (conventional irony vs. no irony) multiple-message experiment. Results demonstrate that conventional metaphors are persuasive by reducing complexity and increasing creativity and ad appreciation. Conventional irony, in contrast, has little effect on persuasiveness. Thus, differentiating between various tropes (metaphor, irony) is important in predicting persuasion effects: advertisers should refrain from using conventional irony, but including conventional metaphors about abstract product qualities in print advertising is advisable.     

A role for a pan-European trade union movement?–possibilities in European IR-regulation

Steps towards internationalisation of the trade union movement are considered in the context of the process of political and economic integration taking place in the EU. The trade unions are trying–partly via the ETUC–to play a role at pan-European level. However, the European trade union movement is not a cohesive entity. Besides, it has no significant transnational power-resources. These factors suggest that any European IR-system will be based primarily on political regulation rather than on a system of collective agreements.     

Attitudes toward foreign assignments among Danish economists

This article addresses attitudinal issues toward foreign assignments and reports on data collected from a distinct sample of respondents—Danish economists. One of the much‐debated questions is whether foreign assignments are becoming less attractive, in particular among the younger employees, who tend to follow more narrow self‐interests and stay home. This is supposed to be reinforced by deteriorating corporate policies (i.e., offers being less attractive). The present study provides the basis for rather significant findings. The economists tend to look quite positively on expatriation (across age, gender, seniority, former foreign assignment, and unemployment), and this finding is supported by the fact that about 25% of the respondents already had experiences with foreign assignment. © 2004 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

Repositioning Global Staff Transfers: A Learning Perspective

In this article, we challenge the prevailing view that global staff transfers are a necessary cost of doing business globally by contending that such deployment is integral to successful strategic implementation. We use three scenarios—learning from failure, failure to learn, and lost opportunities—to illustrate how awareness of the consequences of decisions related to international staffing can facilitate their efficacy. Learning awareness therefore can lead to improved policies and outcomes for the management of global staff transfers and demonstrate the value HRM brings to the implementation process. © 2013 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

Portfolio performance evaluation with generalized Sharpe ratios: Beyond the mean and variance

This paper presents a theoretically sound portfolio performance measure that takes into account higher moments of distribution. This measure is motivated by a study of the investor’s preferences to higher moments of distribution within Expected Utility Theory and an approximation analysis of the optimal capital allocation problem. We show that this performance measure justifies the notion of the Generalized Sharpe Ratio (GSR) introduced by Hodges (1998). We present two methods of practical estimation of the GSR: nonparametric and parametric. For the implementation of the parametric method we derive a closed-form solution for the GSR where the higher moments are calibrated to the normal inverse Gaussian distribution. We illustrate how the GSR can mitigate the shortcomings of the Sharpe ratio in resolution of Sharpe ratio paradoxes and reveal the real performance of portfolios with manipulated Sharpe ratios. We also demonstrate the use of this measure in the performance evaluation of hedge funds.