Channel design,coordination, and performance: Future research directions

The marketing literature has made significant progress toward a better understanding of how firms can effectively design and manage their channels of distribution. However, the complexity of today’s channel systems raises additional issues that remain unaddressed. The purpose of this article is to suggest promising research directions in this domain. We suggest several possible avenues to relate multiple channel design and management to channel-system, channel-relationship, and customer-level outcomes. In particular, we see a great opportunity to integrate multichannel customer management and traditional channel design research. We argue that future research should account for cross-level effects and incorporate variables at more than one relationship level.     

Financing North American economic cooperation

There are great opportunities to improve the standard of living of the people of North America. The smaller nations of the area especially stand to gain from these opportunities. The essential requirements are to improve productivity by increasing the size of the market, to encourage investment where it is most productive, and to facilitate the movement of workers to productive employment. The achievement of each of these goals requires that governments reduce the barriers which they have established to inhibit the free movement of people, capital, and ideas among the nations of North America. The United States has a special opportunity to play a leadership role in education and in financing the development of the area.     

A note on an anniversary

ASSA Paper. ASA Session on Schumpeter     

Bayesian Estimation of Prediction Error and Variable Selection in Linear Regression

An important statistical application is the problem of determining an appropriate set of input variables for modelling a response variable. In such an application, candidate models are characterized by which input variables are included in the mean structure. A reasonable approach to gauging the propriety of a candidate model is to define a discrepancy function through the prediction error associated with this model. An optimal set of input variables is then determined by searching for the candidate model that minimizes the prediction error. In this paper, we focus on a Bayesian approach to estimating a discrepancy function based on prediction error in linear regression. It is shown how this approach provides an informative method for quantifying model selection uncertainty.     

Internationalization and environmentally-related organizational learning among Chinese manufacturers

Globalization has caused Chinese manufacturers to develop quickly while simultaneously meeting green barriers to export products. Whether internationalization has led to improved environmental management practices among Chinese manufacturers is also a related question. Using survey data collected from 377 Chinese manufacturers in four industrial sectors, we find that international institutional pressures positively relate to domestic environmentalism of Chinese manufacturers and their adoption of environmentally-related organizational learning practices. Environmental learning is a viable method for Chinese manufacturers to ease their environmental burdens by replicating environmental management practices of their foreign counterparts. On the policy side, the Chinese government should follow other developed countries efforts to deploy environmental regulations and policies, further motivating environmental awareness and responses in the manufacturing industry.     

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.