Country spreads and emerging countries: Who drives whom?

This paper attempts to disentangle the intricate relation linking the world interest rate, country spreads, and emerging-market fundamentals. It does so by using a methodology that combines empirical and theoretical elements. The main findings are: (1) US interest rate shocks explain about 20% of movements in aggregate activity in emerging economies. (2) Country spread shocks explain about 12% of business cycles in emerging economies. (3) In response to an increase in US interest rates, country spreads first fall and then display a large, delayed overshooting; (4) US-interest-rate shocks affect domestic variables mostly through their effects on country spreads; (5) The feedback from emerging-market fundamentals to country spreads significantly exacerbates business-cycle fluctuations.     

上海高龄体弱老人家庭亲属照顾者的生活满意度:照顾资源的作用

对上海城区697对75岁及以上的体弱老人及其家庭亲属照顾者作了抽样调查和统计分析。家庭亲属照顾者的照顾资源是影响高龄体弱老人生活满意度的显著因素。经济资源充分、家庭和朋友支持充足、健康自评相对好、运用积极应对策略的照顾者有较高的生活满意度。要提升家庭亲属照顾者的心理健康,首要的任务之-是增强照顾资源,包括经济的、健康的、心理的、社会的资源。     

Does indigenous and campesino traditional agriculture have anything to contribute to food sovereignty in Latin America? Evidence from Chile,Peru, Ecuador,Colombia, Guatemala and Mexico

The current challenge for world agriculture is to provide food for a growing population, within a context of environmental degradation and economic inequality. The challenge is how to produce accessible, healthy, diverse, nutritious, safe and abundant food in a way that is sustainable, allowing farmers to exert food sovereignty while at the same time addressing ecosystem conservation. The aim of this study is to explore the potential contribution of traditional agriculture to food sovereignty and also to understand the challenges that indigenous communities are facing today. Our case studies are from six Latin-American countries: Chile, Peru, Ecuador, Colombia, Guatemala and Mexico, where we carried out semi-structured, guided visits and field observations. Our results shed light on how traditional agricultural knowledge, techniques and practices can contribute to these issues, but also to the need of protecting and recovering the cultural and ecological heritage. There is a need to resolve public management issues, related to development investment, technological packages, cultural loss and gender. If these are not addressed, the potential contribution of ancient agricultural knowledge will fail to contribute to strengthen food sovereignty and maintain the local markets, which are also places for seed exchange, knowledge sharing and social networking.     

Productivity efficiencies in Ukrainian polyclinics: lessons for health system transitions from differential responses to market changes

Ukraine’s recent elections revealed deep divisions between eastern regions, which favored central economic planning, and western regions, which preferred more free market reforms. This study compares polyclinics in Ukraine to see if the inflexibility of Soviet-style planned economies results in lower economic efficiency in eastern regions. Using data from two geopolitical regions, Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) scores for polyclinic efficiencies are modeled as a function of demographic and economic determinants. Surprisingly, results indicate that polyclinics in western Ukraine are less efficient. Possible explanations, including case mix intensity, responsiveness to local preferences, physician entrepreneurial behavior and a legacy of inequitable funding, are discussed.

R&D cooperation with scientific institutions: a difference-in-difference approach

Economists and business managers have long been interested in the impact of research and development (R&D) cooperation with scientific institutions on the innovation performance of firms. Recent research identifies a positive correlation between these two variables. This paper aims to contribute to the identification of the relationship between R&D cooperation with scientific institutions and the product and process innovation performance of firms by using a difference-in-difference approach. In doing so, we distinguish between two different types of scientific institutions: universities and governmental research institutes. For the econometric analyses, we use data from the German Community Innovation Survey. In total, data from up to 560 German service and manufacturing firms are available for the difference-in-difference analyses. The results suggest that R&D cooperation with universities and governmental research institutes has a positive effect on both product innovation and process innovation performance of firms.     

Economic burden of hypoglycemia: Utilization of emergency department and outpatient services in the United States (2005–2009)

Objective: To estimate the economic burden of hypoglycemia on the healthcare system at the national level in the US between the years of 2005–2009.

Methods: This study analyzed the National Hospital Ambulatory Medical Care Survey (NHAMCS), including emergency department (ED) and outpatient department (OPD) components, and the National Ambulatory Medical Care Survey (NAMCS). The annual rates of ED and OPD visits associated with hypoglycemia were reported. Subsequent medical services after disposition were studied. The unit cost of specific medical service was estimated from the Medical Expenditure Panel Survey (MEPS). All annualized costs were adjusted to US 2009 dollars. We also estimated the rates of injury and ambulance use incurring within a visit for hypoglycemia.

Results: The total direct medical cost of hypoglycemia was estimated as $3.49 billion in 2005 and decreased gradually to $1.84 billion in 2009. The declining trend was correlated with hospital admissions from ED, which decreased from 170 665 in 2005 to 71,751 in 2009. Consequently, the estimated annual expenditure of hospitalization for hypoglycemia from ED declined over time by more than half ($2.90 billion in 2005, $1.25 billion in 2009). Injury was reported among 9.5% of the ED visits for hypoglycemia. Ambulances were used among 58% of the ED visits for hypoglycemia.

Conclusion: Hypoglycemia poses a significant burden on the healthcare system; however, annual direct medical cost of severe hypoglycemia in the US decreased over the 5 years studied, which is attributable to tremendous decrease in need of hospitalization following an ED visit.     

The Relationship between Brand Attachment and Consumers' Emotional Well-Being

The purpose of the study was to examine the relationship between brand attachment and emotional well-being of consumers based on the need for personal image management and feelings of arrogant pride. A study of 107 consumers of the Calvin Klein brand was performed. Data were analyzed using the structural equations modeling technique. The results indicated a positive relationship between brand attachment and emotional well-being of consumers. A relationship was also identified between brand attachment, image management, and emotional well-being, and brand attachment and arrogant pride. No relationship was identified between arrogant pride and emotional well-being.     

A two-stage translog marginal cost pricing approach for Floridian hospital outputs

Since the passage of the Affordable Care Act (ACA) of 2010, issues still remain regarding the mandated purchase of insurance to ensure more universal coverage. One such issue is the pricing of these insurance packages and whether or not the reimbursements will cover necessary services. Therefore, policy concerns exist that increasing the number of insured individuals may not curtail costs. Conversely, providers may not wish to treat patients covered by excessively frugal plans such as Medicaid; hence the trade-offs between access and cost control. In this article, we present findings from a cost function and a productivity approach to determine the marginal cost of providing inpatient hospital care for hospitals operating in Florida during 2005. Using these methodological approaches, we are able to use the marginal rate of transformation to determine the relative marginal costs while controlling for hospital technical and allocative inefficiency. Our work differs from earlier articles as we avoid the Greene problem for cross-sectional models through a two-step approach. By including both reimbursement rates under conditions of hospital efficiency, we can ascertain payment schemes that should, at least in theory, cover necessary costs for patient care without leading to excessive input usage.