Building Small City and Town Sams and CGE Models

In this paper we attempt to describe both the data sources and organizational methods that allow for effective and easily created SAMs and regional computable general equilibrium (CGE) models. Small cities of around 100,000 people will face very different constraints than a town of 2000 people. Unfortunately, most CGE models typically describe relatively large geographical areas and are therefore not able to capture the uniqueness of individual cities within the region. An illustrative example using these methods demonstrates that the economic impacts vary substantially over different municipalities to the same economic shock.     

How does managed care do it?

Integrating the health services and insurance industries, as health maintenance organizations (HMOs) do, could lower expenditure by reducing either the quantity of services or unit price or both. We compare the treatment of heart disease in HMOs and traditional insurance plans using two datasets from Massachusetts. The nature of these health problems should minimize selection. HMOs have 30% to 40% lower expenditures than traditional plans. Both actual treatments and health outcomes differ little; virtually all the difference in spending comes from lower unit prices. Managed care may yield substantial increases in measured productivity relative to traditional insurance.     

Detecting food emergencies: Lessons from the 1979 Bangladesh crisis

Much of the work done on Bangladesh's vulnerability to food emergencies has focused on the famine of 1974. However, it is also instructive to consider the experience of 1979, when outright famine was narrowly averted, although there were certainly excess deaths from starvation in some localities. This paper outlines the main features of the crisis and considers the degrees of usefulness of available macroeconomic indicators of stress which might be taken as a basis for government action in the future. The paper concludes by briefly outlining the kinds of action which are likely to be most appropriate to arresting a developing food emergency in Bangladesh.     

Report: Performance Management—The Key to Higher Standards in Schools?

The object of this article is to make a critical review of a series of official documents which have emanated from the Department for Education and Employment (DfEE), since the Labour Government came to office in 1997, on performance management in schools. This technique is seen by the Government as crucial in improving standards in schools. The key documents are shown in the list of references at the end of the article, and our review is divided into two parts: the first considers the defining features of performance management in schools and the role which the Government sees it playing in improving standards; the second part explores some key tensions in the performance management framework.     

New development: The UK coalition government and the future of public sector pensions

This article presents a critical analysis of the contemporary attack on public sector occupational pensions in the UK. It traces the implications of the attack for future pensions policy on this issue.     

The experience sampling method: examining its use and potential in tourist experience research

Though a valid and widely used approach in leisure, recreation, and psychology, the experience sampling method (ESM) is rarely used in tourism studies as a way to collect data on immediate conscious experiences during tourist events. This paper examines the use of ESM as it relates to tourist experience research. We begin by introducing ESM before exploring the application of this method to emerging smartphone technology. We then introduce a research approach, which incorporates the use of a digital ESM modified to act as a predominantly qualitative procedure, using voice recording software, to study the experience of educational tourists in Peru. The data gathered using this approach are analysed to examine the application and operational aspects of ESM. We consider the methodological implications of this research method by presenting findings on the length of qualitative discussions, reported mood, qualitative content related to ESM procedures, and post-trip recollection of ESM. The discussion that follows focuses on evidence of participant burden, reactivity, and anthropomorphism related to the use of smartphones as data collection tools. This paper concludes by outlining future research areas, with specific reference to spatial aspects, affect, and smartphone use, which expand the potential of ESM in tourist experience studies.