Measurement of Quality of Life and Well‐Being in France: The Drivers of Subjective Well‐Being

Ever since the publication of the Stiglitz Report, France has been heavily involved in the measurement of well‐being. The French Statistical Institute (INSEE) has expanded the scope of its existing surveys. It has also launched an innovative experimental survey which, drawing upon a single statistical source, aims for the first time to explore the different dimensions of both objective and subjective quality of life, as highlighted in the Stiglitz Report. It allows us to study, at the individual level, correlations between these dimensions and the accumulation of deprivations. It has enabled us to better understand the links between determinants generally referred to as objective dimensions of quality of life (such as health or education) and subjective well‐being. This information is of paramount importance for policy makers who cannot act directly on the level of people's satisfaction but can only act upon the levers of objective dimensions. This paper presents the main findings of the experimental survey.     

The Load Model: an alternative to QALY

Background: QALYs are widely used in health economic evaluation, but remain controversial, largely because they do not reflect how many people behave in practice. This paper presents a new conceptual model (Load Model) and illustrates it in comparison with the QALY model.

Methods: Load is the average annual weight attributed to morbidity and mortality over a defined period, using weightings based on preference judgements. Morbidity Load is attributed to states of illness, according to their perceived severity. When people are in full health, Load is zero (no morbidity). Death is treated as an event with negative consequences, incurred in the year following death. Deaths may be weighted equally, with a fixed negative weight such as ?100, or differ according to the context of death. After death, Load is zero. In a worked example, we use the standard gamble method to obtain a weighting for an illness state, for both Load and QALY models. A judge is indifferent between certainty of 1.5 years’ illness followed by death, or a 50/50 chance of 1.5 years’ full health or 1-year illness, each followed by death. The weightings calculated are applied to a hypothetical life, 72 years in full health followed by 3 years with illness then death, using both models. Three other hypothetical outcomes are also compared.

Results: For an example life, the relative size of the morbidity component compared with the mortality component is much higher in the Load model than in the QALY model. When comparing alternative outcomes, there are also substantial differences between the two models.

Conclusions: In the Load model the weight of morbidity, relative to mortality, is very different from that in the QALY model. Given the role of the QALYs in economic evaluation, the implications of an alternative, which generates very different results, warrant further exploration.     

技术生命周期视域下领域介入方向与时机研究——以图像处理技术领域为例

从专利文献数据出发，以Logistic曲线模型为研究方法，实证分析图像处理领域的整体技术发展及分支技术生命周期进程。研究发现，图像分割、图像识别技术方向及生物识别应用领域处于成长期，图像增强、图像去噪、图像重建、图像融合技术方向处于技术成熟期，而图像复原、图像编码技术及通信、医疗、交通、工业及遥感应用领域已经进入技术饱和期。结合图像处理领域分支技术方向及技术生命周期进展，可为相关创新主体介入领域的方向及时机提供参考信息。     

Corporate smart phones: professionals' conscious engagement in escalating work connectivity

This article explores how the adoption of company sponsored smart phones inflicts upon the lives of professionals. Drawing upon qualitative interviews at a law firm in Brazil, the experiences of new smart phone users are reported upon in detail. Increased accessibility, accuracy and speed in exchanges gave the users a sense of autonomy and flexibility. However, the technology also helped to intensify the organisation's hold on employees outside of regular working hours, reaching into new settings, time slots and social contexts. Employees expressed concerns regarding demands from superiors that negatively affected their private spheres, yet many of them paradoxically requested more efficient smart phone connectivity. The article focuses on the justifications, the different narrative strategies, employed by professionals for their conscious engagement in escalating work connectivity. It is suggested that these justifications display users' attempt to ‘dis‐identify’ with the role and practice they perform.     

《黑骏马》生命意识探析

张承志的《黑骏马》可谓显示草原民族情结的经典之作.白音宝力格和索米亚令人惋惜的爱情、奶奶抚养的无数生命和白音宝力格的最终回归,都源于草原民族对生命的尊崇.本文欲从三个方面探索《黑骏马》的生命意识.     

Effects of Firm Size,Financial Leverage and R&D Expenditures on Firm Earnings: An Analysis Using Quantile Regression Approach

As documented in the literature, the effects of firm size, financial leverage, and R&D expenditures on firm earnings are inclusive. Our hypothesis is that the inconsistent empirical results of such effects may be driven by the regression models implemented in data analysis. Using the quantile regression (QR) approach developed by Koenker and Basset (1978), this study analyses S&P 500 firms from 1996 to 2005. We find that the effects of firm size, financial leverage and R&D expenditures on firm earnings differ considerably across earnings quantiles. Comparing the results from the QR approach with those from the ordinary least squares (OLS) and least absolute deviation (LAD) methods, this study further explains the puzzling relationship between firm size, financial leverage, R&D expenditures and firm earnings.     

THE DECISION TO DEMUTUALIZE: AN EXPLORATION OF THE DRIVERS OF ORGANIZATIONAL CHANGE WITHIN THE AUSTRALIAN LIFE INSURANCE MARKET

The restructuring of the financial landscape that has occurred in the last three decades, has led to a reassessment of co‐operative models of organization. An outcome of this process has been the demutualization of mutual financial organizations. Using a case study approach this paper analyses the pressures on mutual structures encountered by Australian mutual life insurers. Such an approach provides a number of insights into the way in which firms adjust to changes in regulatory and competitive environments. It is concluded that a number of exogenous and endogenous forces combined to drive the process of organizational change.     

沈抚连接带“三生”空间的功能均衡性分析

随着人口增长和城市化发展,国土空间利用类型之间的竞争关系逐步增强,空间问题日益突显。自十八大报告明确提出"三生"空间以来,以生产、生活、生态划分的土地空间类型越来越被关注。该研究以沈抚连接带为研究区域,从土地空间的生产、生活和生态功能出发,构建"三生"功能评价指标体系。采用熵权法进行"三生"功能评价,利用GIS技术分析"三生"功能的空间格局。研究结果表明,"三生"功能均较强的街道具有较高的经济发展水平,如五三街道、李石街道,分值为64.96、54.59;生活功能较强的街道一般相邻城市,如五三街道、白塔街道、李石街道,分值为23.15、15.82、11.14,人均道路面积和公共服务设施完备度是主要影响因素;生态功能较高的街道多集中在浑河景观带和北部生态区,如高坎街道、满堂街道、东陵街道,分值为20.50、19.98、19.96,水面面积率、森林覆盖率和景观Shannon多样性是主要影响因素;生产功能较强的街道集中在建设快速区内,如李石街道、五三街道,分值为39.25、25.85,工业产值和服务业产值是主要影响因素。总体上看,受城市和经济建设活动影响强烈的街道的"三生"空间的功能不均衡性较为明显。     

The relationship between business diversification and productivity: considering the impact of process innovation at different corporate life cycles

This paper investigates the link between a firm's process innovation (PI) and its segment productivity at different life cycles. The results show that business diversification is negatively associated with a firm's productivity, and further reveal that a firm's PI moderates the above relationship. In addition, the corporate life cycle literature builds blocks for this study to explain that the involvement of administrative costs varies across life cycles when diversified firms get mature and bigger. Our empirical evidence indicates that the potential costs of a complex organisational structure contingent on business diversification at a firm's mature life cycle could be alleviated by the conduct of process innovation. As process innovation at different life cycles may alter managerial incentive that leads to different firm performance, the managerial implication is that diversified firms should appropriately engage in process innovation to prevent unfavourable liability from the development of their businesses.     

A Population Projection for Indonesia, 2010–2035

In the context of its long-term planning, from time to time the Indonesian government publishes an official population projection. The latest projection was released on 29 January 2014. In this article, I describe and evaluate the methods and assumptions used to produce the projection, and provide key results.