Societal burden of cluster headache in the United States: a descriptive economic analysis

Aim: To estimate direct and indirect costs in patients with a diagnosis of cluster headache in the US.

Methods: Adult patients (18–64 years of age) enrolled in the Marketscan Commercial and Medicare Databases with ≥2 non-diagnostic outpatient (≥30 days apart between the two outpatient claims) or ≥1 inpatient diagnoses of cluster headache (ICD-9-CM code 339.00, 339.01, or 339.02) between January 1, 2009 and June 30, 2014, were included in the analyses. Patients had ≥6 months of continuous enrollment with medical and pharmacy coverage before and after the index date (first cluster headache diagnosis). Three outcomes were evaluated: (1) healthcare resource utilization, (2) direct healthcare costs, and (3) indirect costs associated with work days lost due to absenteeism and short-term disability. Direct costs included costs of all-cause and cluster headache-related outpatient, inpatient hospitalization, surgery, and pharmacy claims. Indirect costs were based on an average daily wage, which was estimated from the 2014?US Bureau of Labor Statistics and inflated to 2015 dollars.

Results: There were 9,328 patients with cluster headache claims included in the analysis. Cluster headache-related total direct costs (mean [standard deviation]) were $3,132 [$13,396] per patient per year (PPPY), accounting for 17.8% of the all-cause total direct cost. Cluster headache-related inpatient hospitalizations ($1,604) and pharmacy ($809) together ($2,413) contributed over 75% of the cluster headache-related direct healthcare cost. There were three sub-groups of patients with claims associated with indirect costs that included absenteeism, short-term disability, and absenteeism?+?short-term disability. Indirect costs PPPY were $4,928 [$4,860] for absenteeism, $803 [$2,621] for short-term disability, and $3,374 [$3,198] for absenteeism?+?disability.

Conclusion: Patients with cluster headache have high healthcare costs that are associated with inpatient admissions and pharmacy fulfillments, and high indirect costs associated with absenteeism and short-term disability.     

The effect of the authenticity of the Catholic pilgrimage site on spiritual well-being and quality of life of pilgrims

With the growing interest in spirituality, there has been a corresponding rise in the number of pilgrimages. Modern pilgrims embark on pilgrimages not only for religious purposes but also for their own mental peace and health. To enhance our understanding of this trend we conducted an empirical survey of pilgrims visiting Saenamteo Catholic Martyrs' Shrine, a representative martyrdom site in Korea located on the Seoul Catholic Pilgrimage Route, the first Vatican-designated international pilgrimage site in Asia. The analysis showed that the authenticity of the pilgrimage site impacts both the religious and the existential aspects of spiritual well-being. However, while the existential aspect of spiritual well-being impacted on quality of life, the religious well-being was insignificant. These results indicate that modern pilgrims feel that their happiness and health, rather than their religion directly affects their quality of life.     

Derivatives Use, Information Asymmetry, and MNC Post-Acquisition Performance

We utilize a sample of US acquiring firms that engaged in international M&As to document the effects of corporate derivatives use on post-M&A long-term performance. We find that derivatives users outperform nonusers. Furthermore, we find that acquirers with derivative policies that are more comprehensive and sophisticated outperform those with less comprehensive and sophisticated policies. They, in turn, outperform acquirers with no existing policies in place. Our results are consistent with the notion that the use of derivatives lowers information asymmetry related agency problems. Furthermore, our evidence indicates that derivatives use is an important corporate activity that has a profound effect on post-M&A performance.     

Analysing inflation by the fractionally integrated ARFIMA–GARCH model

This paper considers the application of long-memory processes to describing inflation for ten countries. We implement a new procedure to obtain approximate maximum likelihood estimates of an ARFIMA—GARCH process; which is fractionally integrated I(d) with a superimposed stationary ARMA component in its conditional mean. Additionally, this long memory process is allowed to have GARCH type conditional heteroscedasticity. On analysing monthly post-World War II CPI inflation for ten different countries, we find strong evidence of long memory with mean reverting behaviour for all countries except Japan, which appears stationary. For three high inflation economies there is evidence that the mean and volatility of inflation interact in a way that is consistent with the Friedman hypothesis.     

Equity market valuation of human capital and stock returns

We investigate whether and how well firms’ stock market valuations reflect their employees’ collective skills and effectiveness relative to that of their industry peers and competitors. We devise a relative stock market valuation measure of human capital intangibles (EVHC) and find that portfolios of low EVHC firms systematically outperform portfolios of high EVHC firms by an average 1.34% per month. However, this is primarily a small firms effect, because for large firms the excess returns of the arbitrage portfolio that is long on the low EVHC stocks and short on the high EVHC stocks is zero. Our results suggest that reliance on human capital intangibles may proxy for risk not fully accounted for by conventional asset pricing models, or alternatively, that the market cannot correctly price human capital intangibles for small size firms.     

Structural Relationships among Health Benefits,Price Comparison,and Price Fairness

This study was to identify the crucial role of health benefits and price fairness in an environmentally friendly restaurant context and to examine relationships among health benefits, price comparison, and price fairness. Valid responses were collected from 421 visitors to an environmentally friendly restaurant. Results showed that the hypothesized model fits the data well but revealed no moderating effect of belief in health benefits on perceptions of price fairness. Therefore, an alternative model was proposed to reflect the findings from the original model that was statistically superior. Findings contribute to advancing knowledge about perceptions of price fairness in environmentally friendly dining services.     

Managerial myopia and the unintended real consequences of conditional conservatism

We examine whether the demand for conditional conservatism produces unintended real consequences that are exacerbated by managerial incentives to report higher earnings. We document a robust positive association between conditional conservatism and real earnings management (REM), particularly for firms whose CEOs face greater compensation incentives and capital market incentives to report higher earnings. Using mediation analyses, we find that conservatism has a negative indirect relation with future returns via REM over the next 1–3 years. In additional tests, we find that the relation between conservatism and REM is attenuated for firms with higher debt-to-equity, which suggests that debtholders moderate the negative relation between conditional conservative reporting and REM. Our findings suggest that, in contrast to its monitoring benefit, conditional conservatism can exacerbate managerial myopia, resulting in negative consequences for future firm value.     

基于地理探测器的内蒙古耕地水资源短缺时空变化特征及驱动力分析

[目的]明晰干旱半干旱区耕地水资源短缺的时空变化特征及驱动因素，是实现区域水资源可持续利用的首要前提，对保障区域乃至全国粮食安全和生态健康有着重要意义。[方法]文章以内蒙古为典型研究区，以水足迹理论为依据，通过构建耕地水资源短缺指数（Arable Land Water Scarcity Index,AWSI），分析2000—2018年内蒙古耕地水资源短缺指数时空格局及变化特征，并进一步借助地理探测器模型定量揭示研究区内气候、植被、地形、人口密度等11个自然和社会经济因素对耕地水资源短缺时空变化的影响差异。[结果]（1）内蒙古耕地水资源短缺指数总体呈西高东低的分布特征，西部耕地缺水压力较大。2000—2018年内蒙古耕地水资源短缺指数呈增加趋势，增加区域占总面积82%以上，主要分布在东部和中部地区。（2）自然因素主要决定内蒙古耕地水资源短缺的空间格局，其影响明显大于社会经济因素，但是2000—2018年社会经济因素的影响力在呈增大趋势。（3）自然因素中以蒸发量、年均温、降水量为主的气候因子在生态探测中共有19组显著差异，占据了影响因子中的主导地位。而在社会经济因素与自然因素的交互作用下，...     

Cross-national consumer research using structural topic modelling: Consumers' approach-avoidance behaviours

This study introduces structural topic modelling (STM), a sophisticated unsupervised machine-learning algorithm for text analysis, to compare Indonesian and Malaysian Muslim consumers' approach-avoidance behaviours toward Korean beauty products using social media data. The STM results revealed 16 topics for each country, including new common themes belonging to K-beauty culture and wannabe Korean skin. Intriguing differences were also observed between these countries. Korea-related constructs, such as Korea's image and wannabe Korean skin, were approach factors for only Indonesians. Korean cosmetic brand-specific topics were extracted for only Malaysians and were significantly associated with their behavioural responses. Unsuitable Korean beauty products and domestic product preferences were avoidance factors for Indonesians, but new product risks and conflicts between Muslim and Korean cultures for Malaysians. We demonstrate that STM is a helpful tool in cross-national research for corroborating and extending the existing theoretical frameworks. The practical implications are also provided for global marketers.     

Revisiting the valuation of deposit insurance

This study proposes a framework for pricing deposit insurance that evaluates the effect of depositor preference laws and the issuance of contingent capital bonds. Four main findings emerge from this study. First, traditional option pricing models of deposit insurance overestimate insurance premiums. Second, only large issuances of contingent capital bonds decrease deposit insurance premiums under depositor preference. Third, the issuance of contingent capital bonds can partially offset banks' excessive risk-taking caused by regulatory forbearance. Finally, although large banks have implied too-big-to-fail risks, the deposit insurer's costs from large banks are not nearly as high as reported in previous studies.