PHYSICIANS' COST SHIFTING BEHAVIOR: MEDICAID VERSUS OTHER PATIENTS

Much of the debate about rising health care costs in the United States centers on the notion of "cost shifting." Cost shifting is loosely defined as charging one set of patients a higher price to offset losses on another set of patients. One aspect of the cost shifting debate that the empirical work has ignored is whether or not doctors—as opposed to hospitals—practice cost shifting. The analysis here investigates this question using the Physicians' Practice Costs and Income Survey, 1983–1985 (PPCIS, expanded version)
Using variation across states in Medicaid reimbursements, the analysis finds that lower Medicaid reimbursements tend to lower the fees physicians charge, contradicting the standard cost shifting story. Evidence also suggests that lower Medicaid reimbursements tend to cause physicians to treat fewer Medicaid patients. These results are consistent with profit maximizing behavior for physicians and also with the hypothesis that physicians exert some monopoly power.     

Decomposition of Fraud‐Risk Assessments and Auditors' Sensitivity to Fraud Cues*

Practitioners and regulators are concerned that when auditors perceive management's attitude or character as indicative of low fraud risk, they are not sufficiently sensitive to high levels of incentive or opportunity risks in their overall fraud‐risk assessments. In this study, we examine whether a fraud‐triangle decomposition of fraud‐risk assessments (that is, separately assessing attitude, opportunity, and incentive risks prior to assessing overall fraud risk) increases auditors' sensitivity to opportunity and incentive cues when perceptions of management's attitude suggest low fraud risk. In an experiment with 52 practicing audit managers, we find that auditors who decompose fraud‐risk assessments are more sensitive to opportunity and incentive cues when making their overall assessments than auditors who simply make an overall fraud‐risk assessment. However, this increased sensitivity to opportunity and incentive cues appears to happen only when those cues suggest low fraud risk. When opportunity and incentive cues suggest high fraud risk, auditors are equally sensitive to those cues whether they use a decomposition or a holistic approach. We discuss and examine potential explanations for this finding.     

Endogenous Group Formation

While the rules governing the formation of groups engaging in collective action may have significant impact on group size and behavior of members, most experiments on public goods have been conducted with the subjects in exogenously fixed groups or of fixed sizes. We study endogenous formation of groups in a public‐goods provision game by allowing subjects to change groups under three sets of rules: free entry/exit, restricted entry with free exit, and free entry with restricted exit. We find that the rules governing entry and exit do have a significant impact on individual behavior and group‐level outcomes.     

陕西区域经济发展水平的聚类分析

本文以陕西省十个地级市及杨凌示范区为研究对象,选取反映区域经济发展水平的重要指标,通过对原始数据的采集处理,运用系统聚类分析的方法对社会经济发展水平进行聚类.最终将陕西省各地级市的经济发展水平划分为5类,分别进行客观评价,并就经济发展不平衡的现状提出了一些相应的对策建议,以期为有关部门的政策制定提供参考.     

保险人与保险中介协同竞争的博弈均衡分析

由于保险市场的不确定性,为求得生存与发展,采取协同竞争策略是保险人与保险中介在博弈中的最优选择。当参与人之间存在信息不对称时,协同竞争体现为激励机制选择。利益分配机制是协同竞争的基本前提之一,解决利益分配机制不畅的通常手段是运用委托—代理理论来设计一个激励契约,以诱使保险中介从自身利益出发选择对保险人最有利的行动。     

规范政府采购专家评审机制 完善市场经济体制

本文从政府支出的角度,分析了政府采购制度在健全我国社会主义市场经济体制中的作用,并阐明依法规范政府采购专家评审机制,充分发挥政府采购评审专家作用,是实现我国《政府采购法》的关键。     

应用型本科院校大学生创新创业教育提升探究

应用型本科院校应在做好传统教育的同时大力提升创新创业教育,培养大学生创新创业能力。研究阐述了大学生创新创业教育的意义,介绍了应用型本科院校大学生创新创业教育现状,指出了应用型本科院校创新创业教育过程中存在的问题并提出了相应的改进建议。