A budget impact analysis of lenalidomide in multiple myeloma Egyptian patients

Abstract

Introduction

The aim of this study was to estimate the budget impact of lenalidomide and dexamethasone (RD) versus bortezomib, cyclophosphamide and dexamethasone (VCD) in newly diagnosed multiple myeloma (NDMM) and relapsed refractory (RR) MM patients, from the perspective of the Egyptian Ministry of health (MoH).     

Can Benefits in Recreational Parks in Malaysia Be Transferred? A Choice Experiment (CE) Technique

This paper analyses benefit transfer in the case of recreational parks using the choice experiment (CE) technique. The CE was employed because it allows different changes in recreational park attributes to be taken into account. The analyses were performed in terms of transferability of valuation function and willingness to pay (WTP) values. The results for the valuation function suggest that the estimated coefficients between the two sites are not transferable. However, the estimated WTP values can be transferred. The results suggest the suitability of using the CE approach in analysing benefit transfer if the objective is to transfer the WTP values rather than the valuation function. Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Tourism development and environmental degradation in the United States: evidence from wavelet-based analysis

The recent literatures indicate that the tourism development (TD) has significant influence over the environmental degradation of both high-tourist-arrival and low-tourist-arrival countries. This study investigates the empirical influence of TD on environmental degradation in a high-tourist-arrival economy (i.e. United States), using the wavelet transform framework. This new methodology enables the decomposition of time-series at different time–frequencies. In this study, we have used maximal overlap discrete wavelet transform (MODWT), wavelet covariance, wavelet correlation, continuous wavelet power spectrum, wavelet coherence spectrum and wavelet-based Granger causality analysis to analyse the relationship between TD and CO₂ emission in the United States by using the monthly data from the period of 1996(1) to 2015(3). Results indicate that TD is majorly having the positive influence over CE in short, medium and long run. We find the unidirectional influence of TD on CE in short run, medium and long run in the United States.     

Monetary Policy and Sectoral Bank Lending in Malaysia

Abstract

Unlike most studies on the effect of monetary policy on bank lending, this article intends to answer the question whether the tightening of monetary policy in Malaysia before and after the financial crisis in 1997 affected differently the commercial bank lending to various sectors of the economy. To achieve the objective, Vector Autoregressive Regression (VAR) method was used to generate impulse response function and variance decomposition to trace the impact of a shock in monetary policy on bank lending in Malaysia. The results show that a monetary policy tightening in Malaysia gives a negative impact on all the sectors. Analyzing sectoral responses to monetary shocks, evidence is found that some sectors are more affected than the others. The manufacturing, agricultural, and mining sector seems to decline more than the aggregate bank lending in response to interest rate shock.     

Accounting for Variation in the Explanatory Power of the Psychometric Paradigm: The Effects of Aggregation and Focus

Most psychometric studies of risk perception have used data that have been averaged over participants prior to analysis. Such aggregation obscures variation among participants and inflates the magnitude of relationships between psychometric dimensions and dependent variables such as overall riskiness. However, most studies that have not averaged data over participants have also shifted the focus of analysis from differences among hazards to differences among participants. Hence, it is unclear whether observed reductions in the explanatory power of psychometric dimensions result from the change in the level of analysis or from the change in the focus of analysis. Following Willis et al.'s (2005 Willis, H. H., DeKay, M. L., Fischhoff, B. and Morgan, M. G. 2005. Aggregate, disaggregate, and hybrid analyses of ecological risk perceptions. Risk Analysis, 25(2): 405–428. [Crossref], [PubMed], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar]) analysis of ecological risk perceptions, we unconfound these two variables in a study of risk perceptions in Santiago, Chile, although we use more traditional hazards, attributes, and statistical procedures. Results confirm that psychometric dimensions explain less variation in judgments of riskiness and acceptability at the disaggregate level than at the aggregate level. However, they also explain less variation when the focus of analysis is differences among participants rather than differences among hazards. These two effects appear to be similar in magnitude. A simple hybrid analysis economically represents variation among participants' judgments of hazards' riskiness by relating those judgments to a common set of psychometric dimensions from a traditional aggregate‐level analysis.     

Performance evaluation of special education in China based on Data Envelopment Analysis

The existence of special schools aims to provide education opportunities and environment for physically and mentally disabled people. The provision of more exquisite and diversified services for parents, at ease, placing the children in the schools becomes an essential issue for current special schools. The special needs of students are more complicated that special schools have to overall study the service being more exquisite and diversified to correspond to the needs of students and parents. For this reason, the management of special schools takes the priority when discussing the function of special education institutions. Data Envelopment Analysis is applied to evaluate efficiency in this study. Shanghai, being the municipal city and the national central city of People’s Republic of China, presents the education quality at the head nationally. Special schools in Shanghai are therefore selected as the evaluated units in this study. The research results show strong efficiency of 1 DMU, revealing the good efficiency of special education execution, 4 DMUs with the efficiency between 0.9 and 1, revealing the efficiency being easily promoted, and 5 DMUs with the efficiency below 0.9, presenting obvious inefficiency. Moreover, the efficiency analysis with Malmquist shows the improvement of efficiency changes between two periods of special schools. Finally, suggestions are proposed according to the conclusion, expecting to assist in the development of special education in China.

     

Government Spending Efficiency on Economic Growth: Roles of Value-added Tax

This study examines the impact of government spending efficiency on the economic growth of 115 countries with value-added tax (VAT) system. We seek to examine the moderating role of the VAT system on the relationship between public spending efficiency and the economic growth. Using Generalized Method of Moments estimation based on two-step estimate, we found (1) government spending efficiency promotes economic growth, (2) the VAT system is found to enhance the effect of an efficient government spending on the economic growth and (3) the moderating role of the VAT system is further enhanced by quality of democracy and legislative strength of the government.     

Activity-based costing user satisfaction and type of system: A research note

This paper examines user perceptions of Activity-based costing (ABC) performance for three different types of system in a major information and communication provider in South East Asia. Few prior ABC studies have considered the effect of system type on ABC performance. The study draws on a survey of 54 developers and 181 users of 16 different ABC systems within the organisation to produce five performance constructs (cost accuracy, cost-benefit trade-off, ABC impact, information use, and decision action). The results show that both the development inputs and user performance perceptions varied with the type of system (embedded, stand-alone, ad-hoc). While embedded systems enjoyed far stronger inputs (e.g. top management support, rewards and recognition, task significance) and greater development team cohesion than stand-alone systems, they were perceived by users to perform significantly less well. These findings suggest that system type is an important factor in assessing ABC performance.     

Empirical Study of Scapegoat Theory Paradigm in the Exchange Rate Variable in the ASEAN 5

This paper attempts to explain empirically the effect of order flow as an unobserved variable on the exchange rate movements based on the theory of scapegoat. The theory of scapegoat appears as the answer to the imbalance in the relationship between macroeconomic fundamentals and the exchange rate. To analyze the validity of this theory in Indonesia, the Philippines, Malaysia, Singapore, and Thailand (ASEAN 5), we apply the two-stage least squares method. The empirical testing generates a fact that the paradigm of scapegoat theory works for four countries, namely Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore, and Thailand. Another finding is that the theory of scapegoat does not work for the Philippines. The implication of policy based on the results is the emphasis of policy that enables intervention in the foreign exchange market, the enhancement of monetary policy transparency in each country, as well as the management of capital flows more efficiently.