Case statement: blueprint for fund raising success

The case statement is the primary document upon which an organization bases its appeal for financial and philosophical support. This author points out how a well-constructed case statement can impact on fund raising success.     

非正规经济中的女性权益保护

非正规经济作为与正规经济相对的概念,同样是整体经济的重要组成部分,并且是一种长期存在的经济活动.在我国转型时期,非正规经济处于增长态势,而在非正规经济中就业的人中,女性占有很大比例,她们所面临的主要困境是生存权利、劳动权利、社会保障权利易受到侵犯,因此,有必要通过修订相关法律、加强执法监督、完善司法救济程序等措施使女性得到相应救济,改善其生存和劳动条件,促进社会的可持续发展.     

The Optimal Timing of Adoption of a Green Technology

We study the optimal timing of adoption of a cleaner technology and its effects on the rate of growth of an economy in the context of an AK endogenous growth model. We show that the results depend upon the behavior of the marginal utility of environmental quality with respect to consumption. When it is increasing, we derive the capital level at the optimal timing of adoption. We show that this capital threshold is independent of the initial conditions on the stock of capital, implying that capital-poor countries tend to take longer to adopt. Also, country-specific characteristics, as the existence of high barriers to adoption, may lead to different capital thresholds for different countries. If the marginal utility of environmental quality decreases with consumption, a country should never delay adoption; the optimal policy is either to adopt immediately or, if adoption costs are “too high”, to never adopt. The policy implications of these results are discussed in the context of the international debate surrounding the environmental political agenda.      

Cost effectiveness of benralizumab for severe,uncontrolled oral corticosteroid–dependent asthma in Sweden

Abstract

Aim: We investigated cost effectiveness of benralizumab vs. standard of care (SOC) plus oral corticosteroids (OCS) for patients with severe, eosinophilic OCS-dependent asthma in Sweden.

Materials and methods: A three-state, cohort-based Markov model of data from three Phase III benralizumab clinical trials (ZONDA [NCT02075255], SIROCCO [NCT01928771], and CALIMA [NCT01914757]) was used to assess the incremental cost-effectiveness ratio of benralizumab vs. SOC plus OCS. Health outcomes were estimated in terms of quality-adjusted life-years (QALYs). The model included costs and disutilities associated with extrapolated OCS-related adverse events. Patients with severe asthma were defined as those receiving OCS ≥5?mg/day.

Results: Benralizumab demonstrated a cost-effectiveness ratio vs. SOC plus OCS of 2018 Swedish Kronor (SEK) 366,855 (€34,127) per QALY gained, based on increases of 1.33 QALYs and SEK 488,742 (€45,344) per patient. Benralizumab treatment costs contributed most to incremental costs. The probability of benralizumab’s being cost-effective with willingness-to-pay (WTP) thresholds between SEK 429,972 (€40,000) and SEK 752,452 (€70,000) ranged from 75% to 99%.

Limitations: Potential limitations of these analyses include the use of combined data from three different clinical trials, a one-way sensitivity analysis that did not include mortality and transition estimates, and Observational & Pragmatic Research Institute (OPRI) data from the UK as a proxy of the Swedish health care system.

Conclusions: The results of these analyses demonstrate that benralizumab has a high probability of being cost-effective compared with SOC plus OCS for a subgroup of patients with severe, eosinophilic asthma receiving regular OCS treatment and may support clinicians, payers and patients in making treatment decisions.     

Dynamic duopoly with learning through market experimentation

Summary This paper analyzes how learning behaviors can substantially modify the outcome of competition in an oligopolistic industry facing demand uncertainty. We consider the case of a symmetric duopoly game where firms have imperfect information about market demand and learn through observing the volume of their sales. The main body of the paper consists in showing how market experimentation can explain the existence ofprice-dispersion in an oligopolistic industry. We study this phenomenon and its dynamic evolution in the context of an Hotelling duopoly model; we then extend the analysis to general demand functions and toN-firm oligopolies. We discuss some implications of the public good aspect of information about market demand. We then conclude with a few comments on what happens when the value of information in the oligopolistic industry is negative.We are very grateful to Patrick Bolton for his helpful advice. We also wish to thank Richard Caves, Anthony Creane, Jean-Jacques Laffont, Andreu Mas-Colell, Eric Maskin, Jean-Charles Rochet, Margaret Slade, John Sutton, Jean Tirole, Mike Whinston and an anonymous referee.     

为都市儿童留出玩乐空间

近来，中心城市儿童在公共空间受到伤亡的报道越来越多。据北京的一次调查表明，“坠楼”是儿童受伤的主要原因，数量甚至多于交通事故。其原由是学校、公园、住宅小区关闭了玩乐场所，交通和停车把儿童从原本属于他们的玩乐空间挤压出去。     

江西经济形势分析与展望

进入新世纪以来，继2003年江西经济发展呈现一些转折性变化之后，2004年又显现一些阶段性特征。2004年，江西主经济指标提前一年完成“十五”计划，工业化进入中期阶段，人均生产总值预计达到1千美元，国民经济呈现既快又好的良好发展态势。展望2005年，在国际、国内环境总体趋好的大背景下，江西有可能在新的起点上实现更快更好的发展。     

Financial Flows to Eastern Europe: Determinants,Volatility and Sustainability Issues

MOCT-MOST: Economic Policy in Transitional Economies -     

Farm earnings, educational attainment, and role of public policy: Some evidence from Mexico

Using real household survey data from Mexico, this study evaluates

• 1. 

  (a) the impact of schooling on farm earnings through the “direct” and “allocative” effects of human capital;

• 2. 

  (b) the household demand for children's schooling;

• 3. 

  (c) using macro-level data, the association between children's school-participation and some policy variables.

The overall rate of return to household heads' schooling is estimated at 25%, and for wives, 19%. The allocative effect of schooling of household heads dominates over the direct effect. Mother's schooling and farm size exercise significantly positive effects on household demand for schooling; while in the macro model, policy variables, government expenditure and pupil-teacher ratio appear strong determinants of children's attainment of primary schooling.