Unexpected windfalls,education, and mental health: evidence from lottery winners in Germany

This paper investigates the causal impact of large unexpected windfalls on individual mental health, physical health, as well as health behaviors. I use a large individual-level panel data set of lottery winners from Germany between the years 2000 and 2011 and observe lottery winners before and after winning a large lottery prize. Mental health declines immediately after winning a large lottery prize for individuals with low education and low levels of financial literacy. While these individuals report being happier after winning the lottery, evidence from commonly used SF-12 measures of mental health indicates that winners with low education experience increased role limitations due to emotional problems, are more anxious, and have less energy after their win. The impact on various measures of mental health is highly robust, statistically significant, economically significant, and persists for up to two years after the win. Unexpected windfalls have no impact on the mental health of individuals with high education or high financial literacy. Winning the lottery has no impact on individuals’ health behaviors such as smoking or alcohol consumption, and it has no impact on doctor visits, hospital stays, or illness-related work absences regardless of education level.     

正当怀疑和应有关注理念在审计师非审计服务中的运用

正当怀疑和应有关注是审计师在执业过程中应始终坚持的重要理念。随着非审计服务的不断拓展，强调正当怀疑和应有关注理念，无论对于保证审计师非审计服务的执业质量，还是维护审计师审慎的职业形象，都具有重大意义。审计师应在提供非审计服务时始终保持正当怀疑和应有关注理念，并将其灵活地运用于具体实务。     

Dissertation abstract: “Essays in applied economics on the intervention of a third player in agency relationships”

Agency theory has established that appropriate incentives can reconcile the diverging interests of the principal and the agent. Focusing on three applications, this dissertation evaluates the empirical relevance of these results when a third party interacts with the primary contract. The analyses provided rely on either laboratory or natural experiments. First, corruption is analyzed as a two-contract situation: a delegation contract between a Principal and an Agent and a corruption pact concluded between this Agent and a third player, called Briber. A survey of the recent microeconomic literature on corruption first highlights how corruption behavior results from the properties of those two agreements. We thereafter show that the Agent faces a conflict in reciprocities due to those two conflicting agreements. The resulting delegation effect, supported by observed behavior in our three-player experimental game, could account for the deterrence effect of wages on corruption. Second, health care is governed by contradictory objectives: patients are mainly concerned with the health provided, whereas containing health care costs is the primary goal of health care administrators. We provide further insights into the ability of incentives to balance these two competing objectives. In this matter, our theoretical and econometric analysis evaluates how a new mixed compensation scheme, introduced in Quebec in 1999 as an alternative to fee-for-services, has affected physicians’ practice patterns. Free switching is shown to be an essential feature of the reform, since it implements screening between physicians. Finally, the demand for underground work departs from the traditional Beckerian approach to illegal behavior, due to the dependence of benefits from illegality on competitors’ behavior. We set up a theoretical model in which the demand for underground work from all producers competing on the same output market is analyzed simultaneously. We first show that competition drastically undermines the individual benefits of tax evasion. At equilibrium, each firm nonetheless chooses evasion with a positive probability, strictly lower than one. This Bertrand curse could then account for the “tax evasion puzzle” i.e. the overprediction of evasion in models that ignore market interactions. We thereafter show that allowing firms to denounce competitors’ evasion is not likely to solve this curse—by providing a credible threat against price cuts, it fosters illegal work. Empirical evidence from a laboratory experiment confirms these predictions. Without denunciation, experimental firms often choose evasion whereas evasion benefits are canceled out by competition. When introduced, denunciation is rarely used by firms, but the threat makes evasion profitable. JEL Classification K42, I18, D21, C25, C91     

长期护理保险在中国的选择-基于制度经济学的分析

为了解决人口老龄化背景下的老年护理问题,德国、日本先后于1995年1月1日、2000年4月1日启动长期护理保险制度。我国在1999年也已经进入老龄化国家行列,老龄化并呈加速趋势。我国农村家庭养老看护功能日益削弱、城镇养老机构数量不足、新型居家养老模式的资金来源不足。有必要借鉴德国、日本长期护理保险制度,采取城市的居家养老护理保险与农村的老年护理救助模式。基于制度经济学的角度,从价值支持、意识形态支持、成本支持与路径支持上论证了该制度的可行性。     

我国城乡居民健康公平性研究

本文采用历史的、比较的分析方法,运用基尼系数、洛伦茨曲线等分析工具,分别从筹资公平、服务提供公平和健康公平三个方面对我国城乡居民健康公平问题进行了定性与定量分析,得出了新型农村合作医疗制度的开展显著降低了城乡卫生服务筹资的基尼系数等一系列结果.根据研究结果,对城乡健康公平性与二元社会结构,与政府干预、市场调节之间的关系作了分析,并对提高城乡健康公平性提出了相关政策建议.     

Comprehensive assessment of patients with irritable bowel syndrome with constipation and chronic idiopathic constipation using deterministically linked administrative claims and patient-reported data: the Chronic Constipation and IBS-C Treatment and Outcomes Real-World Research Platform (CONTOR)

Abstract

Aims

To characterize a US population of patients with irritable bowel syndrome with constipation (IBS-C) or chronic idiopathic constipation (CIC) using CONTOR, a real-world longitudinal research platform that deterministically linked administrative claims data with patient-reported outcomes data among patients with these conditions.     

关于高校创造性教育的思考

创造性教育是高等教育的重要任务和目标。高校创造性教育的基础是心理健康教育。创造性教育与心理健康教育是相互作用、相互促进的互动关系；高校创造性教育的关键是个性教育。个性教育的最终目标是发展学生的创造力，使之成为创造型的人才；高校创造性教育的途径是教学活动。创造性人才的培养，有赖于学校创造性的教育，而学校实施教育的途径是教学。     

加强大学生心理健康指导的实践

大学生出现的心理问题日趋凸显,应充分认识加强心理健康指导的重要性,建立预警制度,加强心理指导和危机干预,发挥多方面作用,引导学生健康成长。     

疫情危机与商业银行数字化对策研究

疫情危机的发生导致社会经济链条断裂,供应链流通受阻,并不断向上下游和其他节点传导,引爆诸多潜在的风险点,对社会经济产生巨大负面影响。本文以商业银行为例,研究疫情危机对商业银行的影响和管理危机的对策。研究表明,疫情危机的发生既是对社会经济秩序的一种破坏,同时也会在应对危机过程中催生出一些新的行业、产业或经营模式的变化。面对疫情危机,数字化不仅仅是商业银行应对危机的有效手段,更是商业银行转型升级的新方向。全面推进数字化对于其他行业应对疫情危机同样具有示范和借鉴意义。     

The Attitudes of British National Health Service Managers and Clinicians Towards the Introduction of Benchmarking

This paper describes an empirical study, conducted in three acute hospitals, of the attitudes of central managers, medical managers and clinicians towards the adoption of benchmarking. Benchmarking was portrayed in The New NHS White Paper (1997) as an important means of improving efficiency over the next decade. The present paper examines the context of change and nature of benchmarking. Findings are presented in seven sections including: the understanding which respondents had of benchmarking; their willingness to be involved in benchmarking; the existence of strategies and policies for implementing benchmarking; the relevance of existing costing information; and the role of networks in facilitating benchmarking. The study concludes that the process of change adopted contradicted most of the factors associated with creating receptivity to change. Also, that the publication of the National Reference Costs seemed to have more relevance to resource planning at central National Health Service Management Executive level, than to effecting improvements at operational level in acute hospitals.