Medical interventions among pregnant women in fee-for-service and managed care insurance: a propensity score analysis

This paper extends earlier research on the effect of managed care on the receipt of four medical interventions for pregnant women: ultrasound, induction/stimulation of birth, electronic fetal monitor, and Caesarean delivery. Propensity score methods are used to account for sample selection issues regarding insurance choice. Managed care enrollees are more likely to receive an ultrasound, which may be indicative of receiving better prenatal care. Managed care plans reduce the rate of Caesarean deliveries, but such limitations may be beneficial given the substantial medical evidence that Caesarean deliveries are over-utilized. The results indicate that insurance coverage does influence treatment intensity, but that utilization controls and provider financial incentives do not adversely affect care for pregnant women.     

Surrogate Money Managers in the 1990s: Marketing Strategy for Financial Services Retailers

This paper presents a study of financial surrogate usage among adult consumers. A scale to discriminate between heavy users and non-users the Desire for Financial Surrogacy Scale (DFSS) is developed and tested in a mail survey. Financial surrogacy usage is found significantly associated with biological sex, income, degree of financial opinion leadership, but not significantly associated with need for financial control, anxiety about money management, and risk-aversiveness. The DFSS is found to be the best discriminator between user groups. Marketing implicatiom of increased knowledge of who heavy users are and what they want are discussed in reference to new consumer segments, product innovation, and promotion.     

New directions in emissions trading: the potential contribution of new institutional economics

Once an arcane topic even among environmental economists, emissions trading systems have substantially increased during this past decade in the USA. Moreover, the implementation of these systems has necessitated increased involvement of professionals in many fields besides economics. This paper reviews the practical experience of the six major types of emissions trading systems, focusing on credit market development, participation and results, including transaction costs. Five more recent applications of emissions trading also are considered, as well as the possibility of inter-pollutant trading. While inter-pollutant trading has been successfully used for chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs), the applicability of this experience is probably very limited. Additionally, it would be highly premature to attempt an evaluation of these newer emissions trading systems, some of which have yet to be even partially implemented. In order to improve these latter and future programs, the paper considers the potential contribution of the New Institutional Economics (NIE) to emissions trading. The NIE is used to develop theoretical insights and a series of predictions about the performance of a range of emissions trading systems.     

Welfare impacts of maize–pigeonpea intensification in Tanzania

This article examines the driving forces behind farmers’ decisions to adopt improved pigeonpea and maize and estimates the causal impact of technology adoption on household welfare using data obtained from a random cross‐section sample of 613 small‐scale farmers in Tanzania. We use seemingly unrelated and recursive bivariate probit regressions to test the endogeneity and joint decision making of pigeonpea–maize production. A double hurdle model is used to analyze the determinants of the intensity of technology adoption conditional on overcoming seed access constraints. To address the impact of adoption on welfare, the article employs both propensity score matching and switching regression techniques. Results from bivariate probit models show that unobservable factors cause both decisions to be correlated but the finding does not support the conjecture that both decisions are made jointly. Overall the analysis of the determinants of adoption identifies inadequate local supply of seed, access to information, human capital, and access to private productive asset as key constraints for pigeonpea technology adoption. The causal impact estimation from both the propensity score matching and switching regression suggests that maize/pigeonpea adoption has a positive and significant impact on income and consumption expenditure among sample households.     

Audio broadcast technology: Prospects in the USA

In the primary context of the USA, the authors discuss technological possibilities compatible with present equipment, which offer some limited improvements in audio broadcasting. They then analyse more radical possibilities which may greatly increase the number of audio delivery channels. Anticipating a substantially different audio broadcasting system by the year 2000, the authors outline the challenges presented by the various possibilities to public policy makers.     

Testing the addition hypothesis in Vroom's force model

Although Vroom's force model hypothesized that the products of multiplying expectancy E_ij and valence V_j combine additively, no methodologically adequate test of the addition hypothesis has existed. This research reports initial graphic and statistical tests of the validity of the addition hypothesis. Eleven of 22 subjects met both a statistical and graphic criterion for rejection of the addition hypothesis. An alternative hypotheses should be considered by expectancy theorists.     

Diversity in product symbolism: The case of female executive clothing

Many social roles are associated with and identified by product symbols. Yet, frequently, there is much ambiguity among consumers regarding which products denote a given role, and the specific products which communicate desired role attributes. The study examines factors influencing the diversity of clothing symbols associated with the female executive role. A conceptual framework focusing on role-related variables, aesthetic versus instrumental attitudes towards clothing, and information sources consulted in relation to clothing choice is developed and tested on data from a national survey of female executives.