Adverse Selection and the Decline in Private Health Insurance Coverage in Australia: 1989–95

The decline in private health insurance coverage over the period 1989–95 is analysed using the ABS National Health Surveys. Individuals' health status and health risk behaviours are found to be significant determinants of their decision to purchase private health insurance. At a point in time, the pool of the insured is very heterogeneous, with a mix of both good and bad health risks. It is found that the decline in insurance coverage over the period 1989–95 coincided with an increase in the degree of 'adverse selection' within the insured population.     

The Incredible Economics of Geoengineering

The focus of climate policy so far has been on reducing the accumulation of greenhouse gases. That approach, however, requires broad international cooperation and, being expensive, has been hindered by free riding; so far, little action has been taken. An alternative approach is to counteract climate change by reducing the amount of solar radiation that strikes the Earth—“geoengineering.” In contrast to emission reductions, this approach is inexpensive and can be undertaken by a single country, unilaterally. But geoengineering also has worrying consequences: it may harm some countries; it would not address ocean acidification; it would pose new risks. The fundamental challenge posed by this new technology is not free riding but governance: who should decide if and under what circumstances geoengineering should be used?     

New legislation affecting us nonprofits

In the summer of 1996, Congress passed and the President signed, four pieces of legislation of significance to the nonprofit sector: the Taxpayers Bill of Rights 2 (TBR2), the Small Business Job Protection Bill of 1996 (Small Business Act), the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996, and the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation (Welfare Reform) Act of 1996. Taken together, these four laws contain what are perhaps the most significant changes to the Internal Revenue Code since the Tax Reform Act of 1986, and what are certainly the most profound changes in the rules affecting tax-exempt organisations since the enactment of the 1969 legislation governing private foundations. This paper highlights the most significant features of these laws as they affect nonprofits.¹     

Is late really better than never? The farmer welfare effects of pineapple adoption in Ghana

Export agriculture offers potentially high returns to smallholder farmers in developing countries, but also carries substantial market risk. In this article we examine the intertemporal welfare impact of the timing of a farmer's entry into the export pineapple market in southern Ghana. We examine whether farmers who never cultivated pineapple are better or worse off than farmers who decided to adopt pineapple earlier or later relative to their peers and experienced a significant adverse market shock several years prior to our endline survey. We use a two‐stage least squares model to estimate the causal effect of duration of pineapple farming on farmer welfare. Consistent with economic theory, we find that earlier adoption of the new crop brings greater welfare gains than does later uptake. But we find that the gains to later uptake of pineapple—just before the market shock—are small in magnitude, just 0.1 standard deviations of a comprehensive asset index, indicating that the gains to adoption may be precarious and depend on the context, in particular on the severity of prospective market shocks.     

Incomplete Credit Markets and Commodity Marketing Behaviour

We use a simple theoretical model of seasonal market participation in the presence of liquidity constraints and transaction costs to explain the ‘sell low, buy high’ puzzle in which some households do not take advantage of inter‐temporal price arbitrage through storage and sell output postharvest at prices lower than observed prices for purchases in the subsequent lean season. We test our model with data from western Kenya using maximum likelihood estimation of a multivariate sample selection model of market participation. Access to off‐farm income and credit indeed seem to influence crop sales and purchase behaviours in a manner consistent with the hypothesised patterns.     

A narrative networks approach to understanding coordination practices in emergency response

This paper examines coordination practices in emergency response by adopting a narrative networks approach (Pentland & Feldman, 2007). We apply this approach in the analysis of qualitative data collected in an empirical longitudinal study (2003–2006) of emergency response across a geographical region of Greece. We provide an in-depth narrative analysis of two different emergency incidents and the efforts to coordinate those. The paper concludes with the implications of using a narrative networks approach for understanding the temporal and situated nature of coordination, while placing emphasis on the performativity of coordination practices.     

An integrated approach to managing absence supports greater organizational productivity

Both absenteeism and "presentee-ism" significantly erode productivity and impact the bottom line. The author discusses what drives absence, why companies are looking at total absence management, and how employers can implement integrated programs to reduce the impact of absence and associated productivity losses on their businesses.     

Communicating Ethical Values: A Study of Employee Perceptions

Communicating ethical values is a serious issue for a number of organizations. While ethical codes are useful, they cannot exist alone. Organizations must make certain codes reflect the ideals of individuals in the organization and the ethical expectations must be clearly communicated. This study examined the sources (people) and channels (ways messages were received) that affected how employees learned about ethics. Results showed that training and orientation programs were affirmed as sources of learning along with teaching others. Codes and handbooks were also identified as ways employees learned about ethics in their organization. Ethical issues were discussed more frequently with fellow employees than with supervisors suggesting that managers could be more proactive about discussing ethics with employees.