Real-life cost of vitamin K antagonist treatment in patients with non-valvular atrial fibrillation in France in 2013

Aims: Data highlighting the cost drivers for non-valvular atrial fibrillation (NVAF) patients in terms of vitamin K antagonist (VKA) treatment and monitoring are lacking in France. This study aimed to evaluate the real-life daily cost of VKA treatment in 2013, in French patients suffering from NVAF.

Methods: This longitudinal observational study was performed using the EGB (Echantillon Généraliste des Bénéficiaires) database, a random sample of the French national insurance (NHI) database, which covers 80% of the population. All adult patients whose first NVAF anticoagulant treatment in 2013 was a VKA were analyzed. Costs were calculated for the duration of follow-up and then divided by the number of days of therapy. The analysis was performed both from the French NHI perspective (amount reimbursed by the NHI) and from a collective perspective.

Results: In this study, 3,254 NVAF patients treated with VKA in 2013 were included, and this sample comprised 52.6% males. The mean daily cost of VKA treatment was €1.13 (±1.18) according to the collective perspective (89.4% of this cost was associated to INR measurement) and €1.05 (±1.16) according to the NHI perspective.

Limitations: As diagnoses associated with procedures are not available in the EGB database, proxies were used, and an algorithm was created to define the AF population.

Conclusions: This analysis is the first to consider an exhaustive spectrum of the costs of VKA treatment in France using EGB data. VKA medication requires exhaustive follow-up, and, thus, associated costs are important. The results of the present study confirmed this close follow-up for VKA patients, making the cost of treatment by VKA nearly 10-times more expensive than the cost of medication itself.     

Nominal uniqueness and money non-neutrality in the limit-price exchange process

We define continuous-time dynamics for exchange economies with fiat money. Traders have locally rational expectations, face a cash-in-advance constraint, and continuously adjust their short-run dominant strategy in a monetary strategic market game involving a double-auction with limit-price orders. Money has a positive value except on optimal rest-points where it becomes a ??veil?? and trade vanishes. Typically, there is a piecewise globally unique trade-and-price curve both in real and in nominal variables. Money is not neutral, either in the short-run or long-run and a localized version of the quantity theory of money holds in the short-run. An optimal money growth rate is derived, which enables monetary trade curves to converge towards Pareto optimal rest-points. Below this growth rate, the economy enters a (sub- optimal) liquidity trap where monetary policy is ineffective; above this threshold inflation rises. Finally, market liquidity, measured through the speed of real trades, can be linked to gains-to-trade, households?? expectations, and the quantity of circulating money.     

Weak dependence, models and some applications

The paper is devoted to recall weak dependence conditions from Dedecker et al. (Weak dependence, examples and applications. Lecture Notes in Statistics, vol 190, 2007)’s monograph; the main basic results are recalled here and we go further in some new applications. We develop here several models of weakly dependent processes and random fields. Among them an ARCH(∞) model is considered with statistical applications to ordinary least squares. A last part aims at proving new asymptotic results for weakly dependent random fields. Such applications are indeed the main proof of the interest of this theoretical notion which measures the asymptotic decorrelation of a process.     

Creative Accounting and Investment Analyst Response

This paper investigates the impact of window dressing on stockbroker analyst evaluation of a company's annual accounting numbers. A new methodological approach is used involving a laboratory experiment in which a large sample of experienced investment analysts drawn from five of the top London houses processes real company accounts. The research was conducted in the first half of 1990 at the end of a long bull market. The participating analysts were not overly concerned about the quality of published accounting information and creative accounting was not then viewed as a serious problem. Contrary to our prior expectations we found little evidence of window dressing adjustments being made by the subjects in general. However, those subjects who did correct were significantly more experienced. Possible explanations for our results and potential implications for capital market behaviour and information processing are discussed.     

State prices,liquidity, and default

We show, in a monetary exchange economy, that asset prices in a complete markets general equilibrium are a function of the supply of liquidity by the Central Bank, through its effect on default and interest rates. Two agents trade goods and nominal assets to smooth consumption across periods and future states, in the presence of cash-in-advance financing costs that have effects on real allocations. We show that higher spot interest rates reduce trade and as a result increase state prices. Hence, states of nature with higher interest rates are also states of nature with higher risk-neutral probabilities. This result, which cannot be found in a Lucas-type representative agent model, implies that the yield curve is upward sloping in equilibrium, even when short-term interest rates are fairly stable and the variance of the (macroeconomic) stochastic discount factor is 0. The risk-premium in the term structure is, therefore, a monetary-cost risk premium.     

Distributed Visual Language Environments for Cooperation and Learning: Applications and Intelligent Support

An increasing number of collaborative learning environments is based on shared workspace systems using two-dimensional graph-structured visual representations such as argumentation networks and concept maps. We propose an integrated framework that allows for flexibly specifying a wide range of visual languages and plugging in components for operational semantics, adequate feedback and intelligent support. The generic application CardBoard provides card-based user interaction and collaboration by means of different languages in shared workspaces. To enhance modifiability, the interfaces between the distributed heterogeneous system components, particularly between intelligent components and user interfaces, have been standardised.     

Economic and Non-economic Satisfaction as Outcomes of Micro-enterprises’ Perceived Value from Banking Relationships

ABSTRACT

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to position economic and non-economic satisfaction as outcomes of micro-enterprises’ perception of value, and to determine the antecedents of perceived value within the business banking industry.     

Speculative pressure

The paper investigates the information content of speculative pressure across futures classes. Long-short portfolios of futures contracts sorted by speculative pressure capture a significant premium in commodity, currency, and equity markets but not in fixed income markets. Exposure to commodity, currency, and equity index futures’ speculative pressure is priced in the broad cross-section after controlling for momentum, carry, global liquidity, and volatility risks. The findings are confirmed by robustness tests using alternative speculative pressure signals, portfolio construction techniques, and subperiods interalia. We argue that there is an efficient hedgers-speculators risk transfer in commodity, currency, and equity index futures markets.     

The relationship among competitive advantage,catch-up,and linkage effects: a comparative study on ICT industry between South Korea and India

Service Business - This study examined the relationship among competitive advantage, catch-up, and linkage effects using Input–Output (IO) data of the information and communications...