The 'Parent Shift' program: incentives for nurses, rewards for nursing teams

To create new opportunities for nurses to reenter the workforce, a RN p.r.n. program must meet the needs of nurses who wish to make dual commitments to home and work. The Parent Shift program provides an innovative model of attracting and retaining nurses in a hospital workforce. Many nurses who joined the program were away from the field of nursing for many years and were drawn to the program because of the promise of flexible shifts and minimal requirements for participation. In this study, flexible shifts not only encouraged program entry, they were also a powerful motivator for continued program participation over time. Parent Shift nurse presence was perceived by nurse managers to decrease stressors and improve time efficiency of full-shift staff.     

Payments for environmental services in Costa Rica

Costa Rica pioneered the use of the payments for environmental services (PES) approach in developing countries by establishing a formal, country-wide program of payments, the PSA program. The PSA program has worked hard to develop mechanisms to charge the users of environmental services for the services they receive. It has made substantial progress in charging water users, and more limited progress in charging biodiversity and carbon sequestration users. Because of the way it makes payments to service providers (using approaches largely inherited from earlier programs), however, the PSA program has considerable room for improvement in the efficiency with which it generates environmental services. With experience, many of these weaknesses are being gradually corrected as the PSA program evolves towards a much more targeted and differentiated program. An important lesson is the need to be flexible and to adapt to lessons learned and to changing circumstances.     

Heterogeneous effects of merit scholarships: do program features matter?

This paper examines the role of program features in determining the effectiveness of merit scholarships on educational outcomes using data from the 2009 to 2014 American Community Survey. Exploiting the variation in the timing of program adoption as well as program features across states, I find that leniency of academic requirements for initial eligibility largely contributes to program effects on associate’s degree completion, whereas generosity of scholarship amount significantly increases college attendance and bachelor’s degree completion. The estimates also indicate that lower requirements for scholarship renewal appear to positively affect the likelihood of completing a degree in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics fields (STEM). The findings suggest that leniency and generosity are important determinants of program effectiveness on educational outcomes. It is thus relevant to take program features into account when designing merit scholarships.     

西部退耕农民社会保障问题研究

为退耕农民提供基本的生活和生产保障，才能使其全力地投入到退耕还林工作中去。本文主要从必要性、制度建设和相关配套制度三个方面来论述了如何为西部退耕农民建立一系列稳定的社会保障制度。     

重新评价"以粮为纲"政策及其生态环境影响

深入研究和客观评价“以粮为纲”政策及其生态环境影响,才能真正汲取其中教训。文章从“以粮为纲”政策的历史背景入手,即当时我国正处在“粮食问题”阶段、人口进入新的增长时期、“三年自然灾害”刺激;运用生态学的定律分析了“以粮为纲”政策的时代合理性;探讨了“以粮为纲”政策与生态环境的关系及其在内蒙古伊金霍洛旗的实际表现。结果表明,执行“以粮为纲”政策与生态环境破坏并不是必然的因果关系,之所以出现后来的结果是没有重视农业资源的高效利用、没有走内涵式农业发展道路。由此得到的启示是,必须将政策制定的良好愿望与科学的政策路径结合才能实现政策目标。     

Estimating the long-term effects of utility energy conservation programs: A Pacific Northwest example

The Bonneville Power Administration operated a Residential Weatherization Pilot Program from 1980 through 1982. The program provided free home energy audits to 7200 electrically heated homes in the Pacific Northwest and gave zero-interest loans to weatherize 4100 of these homes. The total cost of the program was almost $11 million.The pilot program and its regionwide successor are intended to provide benefits to the Pacific Northwest region for roughly 30 years in terms of reduced residential energy consumption. Therefore, it is important to determine the durability of the electricity savings due to the program. Estimates of long-term savings affect power supply planning in the region and influence the economics of the program itself (i.e., the level of funding that BPA can justify for the program).This article presents empirical results concerning the total and net energy-saving affects of the BPA pilot program 1, 2, and 3 years after participation. The total annual electricity saving experienced by households that received an energy audit and a weatherization loan averaged 5300 kWh 1 year after participation, increasing to 6000 and 6500 kWh 2 and 3 years after participation, respectively. The net annual electricity saving that can be directly attributed to the program for these audit plus loan households averaged 4500 kWh (15% of preprogram use) 1 year after participation and declined slightly to about 4300 kWh 2 years and 4200 kWh 3 years after participation.The article uses these empirical findings with a simple simulation model to estimate the effects of the program into the future. Assuming that electricity prices remain constant after 1984, total energy savings increase to a level of 7000 kWh, while net energy savings decrease to 3600 kWh for the audit plus loan households. Alternative electricity price scenarios are discussed.     

Coaching,Counseling, Case‐Working: Do They Help the Older Unemployed Out of Benefit Receipt and Back Into the Labor Market?

Intensified counseling, job search assistance and related policies have been found to be effective for labor market integration of the unemployed by a large number of studies, but the evidence for older and hard‐to‐place unemployed is more mixed. In this paper, we present key results for a large‐scale active labor market program directed at the older unemployed in Germany. To identify the treatment effects, we exploit regional variation in program participation. We use a combination of different evaluation estimators to check the sensitivity of the results to selection, substitution and local labor market effects. We find positive effects of the program in the range of 5–10 percentage points on integration into unsubsidized employment. However, there are also substantial lock‐in effects, such that program participants have a higher probability of remaining on public welfare benefit receipt for up to 1 year after commencing the program.     

Accomplice Witnesses and Organized Crime: Theory and Evidence from Italy

We develop an agency model of organized crime accounting for the main trade‐offs involved in the introduction of an accomplice‐witness program. We characterize the optimal policy and identify its main determinants in a framework where public officials can be dishonest. Our predictions are tested by using data for Italy before and after the introduction of the 1991 accomplice‐witness program. As predicted by the model and the earlier antitrust literature, the program appears to have strengthened deterrence and enhanced prosecution. Moreover, consistent with a novel prediction of our theory, the evidence suggests that the program efficacy is affected by the judicial system efficiency.     

医疗保险与消费:来自新型农村合作医疗的证据

本文利用农村引入新型农村合作医疗这一政策变化来研究医疗保险的获得对农村居民消费的影响。结果表明,新农合使得非医疗支出类的家庭消费增加了约5.6个百分点。这一正向作用随医疗保险保障水平的提高而增强,而且在没有医疗支出的家庭中仍然存在。同时,新农合对消费的正向影响在收入较低或健康状况较差的家庭中更强。这些结果都与医疗保险减少了预防性储蓄的假说相一致。另外本文发现,新农合的效果随农户在这个项目中的经历而变化。实际上只有在那些有村民获得保险补偿的村子,保险对消费的正向影响才显著,而且在这些村子中,新农合对新加入农户的消费的影响明显小于对参合一年以上农户的消费的影响。     

基于风险矩阵的风险投资项目风险评估

在对国内外风险投资项目风险评估方法进行分析的基础上,主要对风险矩阵方法在风险投资项目风险评估中的应用进行了探讨,构建了用于风险投资项目风险评估的风险矩阵,设计了利用风险矩阵进行风险评估的基本流程,以期为风险投资项目的风险评估提供一种科学、合理、简单易行的评估方法。     

JobKeeper: An Initial Assessment

We present details of the design and implementation of the 2020–2021 JobKeeper program and review the literature on its impacts. JobKeeper stimulated the macroeconomy and restrained job loss in the downturn. But because the program was not narrowly targeted, the cost per job saved was high and the impact most likely regressive. However, it would not have been possible to devise and implement a more targeted program in the available time, and as it was, JobKeeper was arguably implemented later than needed for maximum effectiveness. We therefore recommend that Australia consider establishing a short-time work program for use in future recessions.     

Heterogeneous effects of peer tutoring: Evidence from rural Chinese middle schools

Peer tutoring is a well-known type of peer-assisted learning, which has proven to be a cost-effective intervention. We designed a peer tutoring program that matches high-performing students as tutors to their low-performing classmates and provides non-monetary incentives for them to study together and improve the pair’s academic performance. We implemented the program and tested the effects in rural Chinese middle schools. The program significantly improved the tutors’ math scores and produced other benefits regarding study attitude and social behaviors. However, the program did not improve the tutees’ math scores and instead augmented their learning stress. The most compelling explanation is that the set-up of the program brought to light the tutees’ standing, by design, in the bottom half of their class.     

Has the Program 3×1 for Migrants Contributed to Community Development in Mexico? Evidence from Panel Data of 2000 and 2005

This paper examines how collective remittances contribute to regional development by using the community‐level two‐year panel data for the states of Jalisco and Zacatecas in Mexico, which have received the higher amounts of the budget of the Program 3×1 for Migrants. The results from empirical analyses show that the communities that received this program became better‐off between 2000 and 2005, according to the marginalization level. Further analyses suggest that specifically investment in roads, water supply, and non‐agricultural productive projects by the 3×1 program improved community welfare. The regression results on access to the program show, however, that neither the marginalization level nor the migration level determined the access to the program. This suggests that the 3×1 program was not necessarily targeted at the communities with higher marginalization and migration levels.     

Corporate Governance in Russia

This paper discusses a local, privately-run and federally-funded program for all individuals able to demonstrate their income is at, or below the poverty line. This free Certified Nursing Assistant training program enables successful participants to obtain appropriate employment in local hospitals. The program is complementary to job guarantee proposals promoted by a number of economists, and provides an example of how local job creation programs can incorporate job training to improve prospects for upward mobility.     

业务流程重组绩效综合评价——基于改进的FAHP

在回顾大量相关文献并对企业进行实际调查的基础上,界定了流程和业务流程绩效评价指标,利用模糊层次分析法,建立了BPR绩效综合评价模型,旨在降低BPR失败率高的潜在风险。研究结果表明,为提高HB电力公司的BPR绩效,应首选侧重保养方案,其次选侧重培训方案,而侧重技术方案和侧重维修方案对业务流程的综合性能少有改善。     

Do Recent PhD Economists Feel Prepared to Teach Economics?

A survey of recent economics PhDs who graduated from U.S. PhD programs and are now teaching in either the United States or Canada revealed that only half of the respondents who taught a stand-alone course during their doctoral program had any teacher preparation training. Those who did have training only felt “adequately” prepared for teaching. However, as a general rule, the respondents felt that they were well-prepared for teaching at the completion of their graduate program. The authors did not find significant differences in the responses of those who did complete formal pedagogical training during their doctoral program and those who did not. Those who completed training during their doctoral program appear to currently be more enthusiastic about training.     

美国能源部小企业创新研究计划评估情况综述

本文主要研究了美国小企业创新计划（SBIR）在能源部执行的情况，以及该计划在现阶段的成效。该计划很好的实现了美国国会对立法的目标。在对能源部小企业创新计划的研究中，国家研究理事会委员发现了计划中存在的不足，并对计划提出了改进的意见和建议，以完善能源部的小企业创新计划在实现国会立法目标的效果。     

以企业为实施主体的美国NII计划组织实施方法及其对我国重大专项组织实施的启示

美国NII计划类似于我国的重大专项,它切合经济社会发展的需求,承担培育重大战略产业、创造新经济增长点的使命。在美国NII计划的组织实施中,美国政府组建了推动"技术—产业—经济"战略布局的领导组织(IITF),制定了确保企业参与的五项原则以及为之服务的政府工作细则和目标,为企业建设NII创造了公平的市场法律环境、政策激励环境以及有效市场需求。 ?     

Does health insurance matter? Evidence from China’s urban resident basic medical insurance

In 2007, China launched a subsidized voluntary public health insurance program, the Urban Resident Basic Medical Insurance (URBMI), for urban residents without formal employment. We estimate the impact of the URBMI on health care utilization and expenditure by a fixed effects approach with instrumental variable correction, using the 2006 and 2009 waves of the China Health and Nutrition Survey. We explore the time variation of program implementation at the city level as the instrument for individual enrollment. We find that this program has significantly increased the utilization of formal medical services, including both outpatient care and inpatient care, but it has not reduced total out-of-pocket health expense. We also find that this program has improved medical care utilization more for children, members of the low-income families, and the residents in the relatively poor western region.