Treatment patterns,complications, and direct medical costs associated with ankylosing spondylitis in Chinese urban patients: a retrospective claims dataset analysis

Aim: To describe treatment pattern, complications, and direct medical costs associated with ankylosing spondylitis (AS) in Chinese urban patients.

Methods: The 2013 China Health Insurance Research Association (CHIRA) urban insurance claims database was used to identify patients with AS. The identified patients were stratified by AS treatments for the comparisons of well established AS-related complications and direct medical costs. Conventional regression analyses adjusted the collected patient baseline characteristics to confirm the impact of treatments on complications and direct medical costs.

Results: Of the identified 1299 patients with AS, 18.0% received non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAID), 11.2% received immunosuppressant, 48.2% received NSAID plus immunosuppressant, 4.6% received biologic agents, and 17.9% received medications without indication for AS. Biologic group was associated with the lowest proportion of AS-related complications (8.3%) that was confirmed by multiple logistic regression analysis (odds ratio = 0.200, p?=?.017). The biologic group was also associated with highest direct medical costs (median: RMB?=?14,539) that were confirmed by the multiple generalized linear model (coefficient = 1.644, p?Conclusions: Biologics were not commonly used for AS in Chinese patients likely due to their high cost. Future studies are needed to confirm the potential long-term clinical benefits associated biologic treatment for AS.     

What drives the disappearing dividends phenomenon?

We study the determinants of dividend payout policy and examine the role of liquidity, risk and catering in explaining the changes in propensity to pay. Our results indicate that risk plays a major role in firms’ dividend policy. The evidence substantiates from a large sample of firms representing 18 countries over the sample period from 1989 to 2011. For firms in the US, France, UK and Other European markets, liquidity is additionally an important determinant of dividend policy. We find that, although catering incentives persist only among firms in common law countries and not in civil law countries, after adjusting for risk there is little support for catering theory even among firms incorporated in common law countries. Our results indicate that catering incentives reflect the risk-reward relationship in the changing propensity to pay dividends.     

A study of environmental policies and regulations,governance structures,and environmental performance: The role of female directors

This paper seeks to contribute to the existing business strategy and the environment literature by examining the effect of governance structures on environmental performance within a unique context of improving environmental governance, policies, regulations, and management. Specifically, we investigate the extent to which corporate board gender diversity, including the proportion, age, and level of education of female directors, affects environmental performance of Chinese publicly listed corporations. Using one of the largest Chinese data sets to date, consisting of a sample of 383 listed A‐shares from 2011 to 2015 (i.e., observations of 1,674), our findings are threefold. First, we find that the proportion and age of female directors have a positive effect on the overall corporate environmental performance. Second, our findings indicate that the proportion and age of female directors also have a positive effect on the three individual environmental performance components, namely, environmental (a) strategy, (b) implementation, and (c) disclosure. Finally, and by contrast, we do not find any evidence that suggests that the level of education of female directors has any impact on environmental performance, neither the overall environmental performance measure nor its individual components. Our findings have important implication for regulators and policymakers. Our evidence is robust to controlling for alternative measures, other governance and firm‐level control variables, and possible endogeneities. We interpret our findings within a multitheoretical framework that draws insights from agency, legitimacy, neo‐institutional, resource dependence, stakeholder, and tokenism theoretical perspectives.     

中国金融发展与产业结构升级关系研究

针对中国金融发展和产业结构升级关系,从金融规模、金融深化程度和股票市场发展反映金融发展情况,采用中国1993—2008年反映金融发展和产业结构升级的指标数据,基于ECM模型对金融发展和产业结构关系进行实证分析。结果表明：金融市场化程度、金融发展规模对产业结构升级影响显著,股票市场的发展对产业结构升级影响不显著。针对实证结果,要深化金融体制改革,建立结构合理的金融体系;加快我国股市制度改革和机制改革的步伐;扩大金融发展规模,从而促进产业结构升级。     

Does liquidity drive stock market returns? The role of investor risk aversion

In this paper, we explore the relations between liquidity, stock returns, and investor risk aversion as captured by the variance risk premium (VRP). This is motivated by theoretical and empirical evidence in the literature which suggests that investor risk aversion negatively correlates with asset liquidity, and ample empirical evidence documenting liquidity risk premium. We use monthly US data from January 1999 to December 2018 and show that innovations in the VRP Granger-cause stock returns, which in turn drive liquidity. Our findings are consistent with predictions of prior theories and highlight the predictability of the VRP. They also contribute to the on-going debate on the causal relation between stock returns and liquidity. Finally, we explore the channels through which the VRP impacts liquidity and find that the VRP influences market and momentum factors, and that movements in these factors lead to changes in liquidity.

     

水资源环境与沿岸城市的可持续发展——以赤水河流域为例

近年来,赤水河沿岸城镇经济发展迅速,但流域内大多数县、市处在粗放工业化发展阶段,以矿产资源开发,特别是煤炭和硫铁矿资源开发为主的资源型重污染工业成为流域上、中游各县主导产业,加重了水资源的污染,对中游的白酒基地造成极为不利的影响,对中、下游的旅游产业发展带来副作用。文章分析了赤水河流域经济发展与水资源保护的关系,提出了适合赤水河流域可持续发展的对策措施。     

和谐社会建设中的西部省域创新能力评价研究

区域创新能力的提高是构建社会主义和谐社会的重要先决条件,面对我国东西部发展不平衡的现状,和谐社会的建设要以西部区域创新能力的提高为突破口。从区域创新的角度出发,通过建立评价指标体系,利用因子分析法对我国西部12个省域进行了区域创新能力评价,并提出了和谐社会建设中提高西部省域创新能力的建议。