Health Care Reform: Separating Insurance from Income Redistribution

Most systems of health care financing in EU member states currentlyinclude elements of income redistribution. The paper analyzesthe effects of shifting this kind of redistribution to the taxsystem and argues that this reform could create two types ofefficiency gains. On the expenditure side, it would facilitatethe adoption of more incentive-compatible insurance contracts,for example through the introduction of copayment schemes. Onthe revenue side, income redistribution through the general taxsystem is likely to imply a shadow price of public funds thatis lower than if redistribution is carried out through wage-basedinsurance contributions.     

Integrating Management Control and Human Resource Management in Public Health Care: Swedish Case Study Evidence

The debate on management reforms in the public health care sector has largely overlooked the role of human resource management (HRM) and its potential interaction with traditional management control (MC) mechanisms. This paper explores which factors associated with the integration between MC and HRM may foster organisational learning in a public health care setting. A case study in a public dental practice is used for examining this issue. Apart from highlighting the influence of various task characteristics, the case study suggests that the vertical as well as horizontal dimensions of integration are important to consider in this context. Implications for further research are discussed.     

Multimarket Contact and Profitability in Banking: Evidence from Italy

In this paper we test the theory according to which multimarket contact is a crucial factor hampering competition among firms, because it lowers the incentive to behave aggressively in one market if there is fear that rivals retaliate in other common markets. We consider the Italian banking industry in the period 2002–2005, employing both market-level and firm-level data. The empirical evidence supports theory predictions, since profitability is positively related to the average number of contacts among banks, and appear to be higher for those credit institutions experiencing more links. This result has also policy implications, given the increasing consolidation (and hence the growing number of interactions in local markets) that has characterized this sector in the last years.

Tax avoidance in government-owned firms: Evidence from Italy

This paper studies whether and why government-owned firms avoid taxation to a greater extent than wholly privately-owned firms do. By considering a sample of Italian listed corporations for the period between 2006 and 2011, it was found that government ownership had a systematically negative effect on corporate effective tax rate, with a prevalence of tax-planning policies focused on the long term. Managers of local government-owned firms focused on minimizing costs, even if this was to the detriment of national tax-revenue collection.     

通货膨胀的门限效应与金融—经济增长关系——基于中国数据的经验研究

在探讨金融与经济增长关系的研究中,一个重要的研究问题就是金融发展与经济增长之间关系是否取决于通货膨胀的水平。基于门限效应回归模型,本文利用中国1952年至2008年的年度数据将通货膨胀作为门限变量进行了实证研究。研究结果表明金融发展与中国的经济增长之间存在着统计意义上显著的非线性关系,通货膨胀处于门限值以下金融发展促进经济增长,而通货膨胀超过门限值金融发展则不再显著地促进经济增长。这启示我们强调金融发展的增长效应时,政策制定者需要将通货膨胀率保持在其发生结构性变化水平以内。     

Institutional Investment and the Turn-of-the-Month Effect: Evidence from REITs

Many studies have hypothesized that the turn-of-the-month effect is caused by institutional investment. However, there is little evidence to support this hypothesis. This study provides an empirical test that measures the impact of the level of institutional investment on the turn-of-the-month effect using a sample of REITs over the period 1980 to 2004. We find that a significant change in the turn-of-the-month effect occurred following the Omnibus Reconciliation Act of 1993 which relaxed the requirements on the level of institutional investment in REITs. The evidence suggests that the dramatic rise in institutional holdings can account for a good part of this change. However, the impact of institutional investment may not be as large as some researchers have suspected. There is no evidence to suggest that institutional investment impacts returns on the day when the turn-of-the-month effect is most pronounced, suggesting that this calendar anomaly is not caused exclusively by institutional investors in the market.

Expenditure Incidence in Africa: Microeconomic Evidence

In this paper, we examine the progressivity of social sector expenditures in eight sub‐Saharan African countries. We employ dominance tests, complemented by extended Gini/concentration coefficients, to determine whether health and education expenditures redistribute resources to the poor. We find that social services are poorly targeted. Among the services examined, primary education tends to be most progressive and university education is least progressive. The benefits associated with hospital care are also less progressive than other health facilities. Our results also show that, while concentration curves are a useful way to summarise information on the distributional benefits of government expenditures, statistical testing of differences in curves is important.     

The Reversal of the Monday Effect: New Evidence from US Equity Markets

This article re-examines the Monday effect in the US stock market from 1964–1999 using daily returns from three large-cap indexes and two small-cap indexes. In the period before 1987, Monday returns are significantly negative in all five US stock indexes, confirming previous empirical findings. In the post-1987 period, we uncover a significant reversal of the Monday effect in the large-cap indexes (NYSE, S&38;P500 and DJCOMP), since Monday returns are significantly positive. Furthermore, significant differences in the persistence and reversal of the Monday effect are found between large-cap and small-cap stock indexes.     

The real impact of a one-off fiscal restriction: empirical evidence of a flypaper effect in Flemish municipalities

This paper analyses the effects of a one-off fiscal restriction on Flemish local government spending. The authors provide evidence of a ‘flypaper effect’: fiscal restriction stimulated the sensitivity of local spending to grants. This means that higher-level governments (regional/national/supranational) need to take a flypaper effect into account when considering one-off fiscal restrictions on lower-level governments.     

美国医疗保险扩面改革之路的里程碑

虽然美国有两大类三大层次的医疗保险体系,但没有实现如其他大多数发达国家那样的全民医保,缺乏一张覆盖全国的社会医疗网络,始终是美国近10年来备受诟病的社会问题.没有医疗保险的问题始终处于社会政策争议的前沿和核心.之前克林顿总统失败的改革方案核心就是实现全民医保,15年后,奥巴马新医改方案又明确将扩大覆盖面作为其改革的重中之重.然而,历经波折得以通过的奥巴马医改法案却依然面临诸多反对和抗议,其中最为核心的是关乎强制参险的条款.2012年6月28日,美国最高法院裁定奥巴马医疗保险改革的大部分条款合乎宪法,最具争议的强制参险也得以保留,这意味着美国在实现全民医保时代的进程中向前迈出了一大步.     

第一大股东持股的区间效应——基于上市公司的实证分析

实证结果表明,第一大股东对公司绩效同时存在激励效应和壁垒效应,第一大股东持股比例与公司绩效呈显著的N型相关关系,即在第一大股东持股占据绝对控股地位(40%)之前,第一大股东的持股具有积极的治理功能;超过了这个区间,大股东的持股对公司绩效则具有消极作用;而随着第一大股东持股的进一步上升(65%以上),控股股东吸取个人利益的动力又会弱化,大股东股权的增加又会导致公司绩效的增加。此外,第一大股东性质对权益激励的影响也因第一大股东持股区间的不同而异,仅在20%~40%这个区间范围内,国家股与公司绩效呈现负相关关系且结果并不显著,而在其他的区间范围,国家股的持有与公司成长性呈现显著的正相关。     

官员晋升竞争与边界效应:以省区交界地带的经济发展为例

本文运用中国1997～2003年县级面板数据,系统考察了省区交界地带与非交界地区经济发展的差异。我们发现,位于省界线上的县级区域的人均GDP显著低于非省界上的县级地区;而国境线上的县域经济发展则不受边界因素的影响。交界省份越多,位于交界线附近的县份经济发展越落后。交界线上的两省经济差距越接近,交界地区的县域经济的发展相对来说越落后。所有这些经验发现与中国地方官员的政治锦标赛理论相一致,而其他相关理论无法给予一致的解释。     

Evaluation of Efficiency in Primary Health Care Centres: An Application of Data Envelopment Analysis

The aim of this paper is to analyse one of the principal problems in primary health care management: the evaluation of efficiency in primary health care centres. Given the special characteristics of measuring outcome in primary care it is necessary to evaluate the performance of centres from a quality perspective too. The methodology used, DEA (Data Envelopment Analysis), allows us to introduce quantitative and qualitative variables in a sample of primary care centres in a Spanish province. Once the efficiency of the different centres is known, we investigate the sensitivity of the methodology to changes in the definition of outputs used.     

The Value of Market Information in Banking Supervision: Evidence from Italy

We examine the potential use of signals arising from financial markets as a complement to the information set available to banking supervisors. We provide empirical evidence on Italian banks, using a unique dataset matching accounting ratios, market variables, and supervisory ratings. To verify what type of signal they are able to convey, we analyze the behavior of four equity-based indicators for the Italian banks listed on the Milan stock exchange. We then investigate whether the same indicators provide additional information for supervisors. Econometric results confirm the informative content of market variables and their complementarity with supervisory information.JEL Classification: Bank, banking supervision, early warning, market discipline     

The Reversing Weekend Effect: Evidence from the U.S. Equity Markets

The well-known weekend effect has been reversing in Major U.S. indices from late 1980s to late 1990s. The correlation between Monday and Friday returns also exhibited a declining trend, and fluctuated around zero in the 1990s. A power ratio method is developed to measure consistently the relative contribution of Friday and Monday returns to the return of the week in each individual year. The revealed dynamics of the anomaly explains why previous researchers report different or conflicting findings. The anomaly may not be necessarily related to firm size.     

财政支出、银行信贷与经济增长——来自2008年汶川大地震的新因果证据

学术界就财政支出与银行信贷如何影响经济增长这一问题一直未能达成共识.本文将2008年汶川大地震作为研究窗口,在财政支出和银行信贷由于震后出台的行政命令与政策外生化的研究前提下,综合使用合成控制法(SCM)、系统广义矩估计(System GMM)、回归控制法(RCM)、交叉滞后模型(Cross-lagged Panel Model)等方法,检验了地震后财政支出、银行信贷和经济增长的具体变化以及相互作用方向.研究发现:尽管汶川地震后财政支出和银行信贷显著增加,促进了经济增长,但由于震后四川省的直接经济损失较大,最终四川省在短期内GDP明显减少.这一发现明确了财政支出、银行信贷以及经济增长之间的因果关系与作用方向:首先,在中国,财政支出与经济增长之间的因果关系符合“凯恩斯假设”,即财政支出的增加“因果性地”决定了GDP的增长.其次,增加银行信贷能够“因果性地”促进GDP增长.最后,财政支出增加促进了银行信贷的扩张,而非公共投资“挤出”了私人投资.     

我国省际公共卫生与基本医疗服务供给状况评估

公共卫生与基本医疗作为一项保障和促进公众健康的社会公益事业,与公众的基本生命安全息息相关,是我国基本公共服务的重要内容.本文运用层次分析法,构建出公共卫生与基本医疗供给状况评估的指标体系,并对2009年我国31个省区市的供给状况进行综合评价.结果表明,我国的公共卫生与基本医疗供给状况与地区经济发展水平无严格的正相关关系,但存在一定联系,且省际间差异明显,供给状况较不平衡.未来工作重点在西部省份及个别东中部省份的状况改善.     

Audit as Leviathan: Constructing Quality Registers in Swedish Health Care

This paper explores the rise of an audit practice: the national quality registers in Swedish health care. Based on actor‐network theory, the study tells the story of an actor‐network formed by physicians in the 1970s who mobilized themselves around a common object; to develop the knowledge‐base of medical professionals. However, over time more actors became persuaded of the potential of the network and associate themselves with it, resulting in reformed registers. The study shows how the network develops into a macro‐actor, a Leviathan in health care, how this macro‐actor comes to affect health care practices and how it contributes towards maintaining a new governance regime.     

Comparing the Impact of News: A Tale of Three Health Care Sectors

Abstract:   This paper examines the impact of news on the volatility of equity returns in three sectors of the health care industry – health care service providers, producers of drugs and supplies, and third‐party payors. The news impact is found to be asymmetric in that bad news (i.e., a negative shock) has a significantly greater effect on volatility than good news. Intra‐industry differences in health care equity market performance are documented and are consistent with the fundamental attributes of these sectors including the degree of price and cost pressures facing firms, the physical capital requirements of firms, the search behavior of health care customers, and the presence of alternative market opportunities.     

Monthly Pattern and Portfolio Effect on Higher Moments of Stock Returns: Empirical Evidence from Hong Kong

Using a direct test, this paper studies the month-of-the-year effect on the higher moments of six industrial stock indices of the Hong Kong market. We also examine the portfolio effect on skewness and kurtosis across month of the year to see if such an anomaly exists. The empirical results support a weak month-of-the-year effect in higher moments of stock returns. Using a complete sample of all possible combinations for each portfolio size, we show that portfolio effect varies across month of the year for both skewness and kurtosis. In particular, our results show that diversification does not necessarily provide benefits to rational investors when the stock return distribution is non-normal, even though portfolio formation can reduce standard deviation. In June, August and October, diversification across industrial sectors results in a more negatively skewed and leptokurtic return distribution, which is not preferred by investors with risk-aversion. Two (one) possible explanations for the portfolio effect on skewness (kurtosis) are also provided. Our empirical results add new evidence to the existence of anomalies in the Hong Kong stock market. This revised version was published online in August 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.