Experimental evidence that quorum rules discourage turnout and promote election boycotts

Many democratic decision making institutions involve quorum rules. Such rules are commonly motivated by concerns about the “legitimacy” or “representativeness” of decisions reached when only a subset of eligible voters participates. A prominent example of this can be found in the context of direct democracy mechanisms, such as referenda and initiatives. We conduct a laboratory experiment to investigate the consequences of the two most common types of quorum rules: a participation quorum and an approval quorum. We find that both types of quora lead to lower participation rates, dramatically increasing the likelihood of full-fledged electoral boycotts on the part of those who endorse the Status Quo. This discouraging effect is significantly larger under a participation quorum than under an approval quorum.     

Descent rules and strategic transfers. Evidence from matrilineal groups in Ghana

Traditional descent systems can roughly be divided into patrilineal and matrilineal. In the latter, a man's heir is not his own child but rather his sister's son. The paper examines the implications of this social norm for the pattern of inter-vivos transfers using household level data from rural Ghana, where the largest ethnic group is traditionally matrilineal. In particular, it tests the predictions of a model of strategic behavior according to which children should respond to the threat of disinheritance by increasing transfers to their parents during lifetime to induce a donation of land before the default (matrilineal) inheritance is enforced. I find that the credibility of customary norms enforcement, as proxied by the presence of a nephew in the father's household, significantly increases the probability of receiving transfers from children for Akans but not for the other groups. The effect is specific to nephews and not to other co-resident boys. This pattern of behavior can affect asset accumulation decisions across generations.     

Patient care automation: the future is now. Part 3. The five rules of automation

Five key principles for creating effective operations optimization-based patient care automation have now been established: (a) The old system architectures did not provide operations optimization; (b) primary patient care optimization (nurses and doctors) must be the central focus of any effective system; (c) the system must provide a platform that allows for eliminating both the retrospective and prospective (subterranean) paper records; (d) point-of-care data capture, including at the bedside, must be provided; and (e) integration around the patient is critical to success. Systems that ignore these principles will ultimately be doomed to repeat the problems of the manual system. Adherence to these principles opens a myriad of possibilities and provides a road map for how such a system should function. The next installment in this series of articles will address the ramifications of integration in system design and system use. The positive effects that such system designs can have on the realization of demonstrable benefits from system technology will also be reviewed.     

Tariff evasion and rules of origin violations under the Canada‐U.S. Free Trade Agreement

Abstract Using product‐level data on trade between Canada and the U.S., this paper presents evidence of tariff evasion and violation of the rules of origin occurring under the Canada‐U.S. Free Trade Agreement (CUSFTA). It shows that more imports go unreported at the destination country when tariffs are higher. Consistent with the tariff evasion hypothesis, this result implies that the trade creation effect of a free trade agreement may in fact be due to less underreporting. Further, this paper shows that the larger Canadian tariff preference margin for the U.S. is associated with more goods originating in third countries being transshipped through the U.S. territory for re‐export. The preference margin is also positively correlated with the value of excess imports from the U.S., which qualify for preferential treatment. Both results suggest the presence of persistent violations of CUSFTA’s rules of origin.     

对上市公司综合价值最大化的分析

对于企业财务管理目标，一直处于发展变化之中，先后经历了利润最大化、净收益最大化、股东权益最大化和企业价值最大化等阶段。然而，企业必须是社会中的企业，对于当前被人们广泛承认的企业价值最大化理论，仅仅站在企业自身的角度，忽略了其对社会的价值，对此，本文在企业价值最大化的基础上提出了企业综合价值最大化理论。     

《非货币性资产交换》准则变化及其问题探讨

非货币性资产交换准则是为适应证券市场的发展和企业经营方式的变化由财政部制定的,换入资产入账价值的计价引进了商业实质和公允价值理论,在损益的确认方面与国际惯例一致,更趋合理,但也存在判断的困难.     

管理创新对企业物流运作模式发展的影响

本文深入分析了物流企业在管理创新过程中存在的误区和导致企业物流运作能力较低的根源,同时从企业内部管理、信息技术和物流管理等方面探讨了管理创新对企业物流运作模式发展的影响.     

Nurses who do not nurse: factors that predict non-nursing work in the U.S. registered nursing labor market

Registered nurses (RNs) who work outside of nursing have seldom been examined. This aim of this study was to compare the 122,178 (4%) of RNs who are employed outside of nursing to those who work in nursing jobs in terms of sociodemographic, market, and political variables to determine if these groups are substantively different from one another. Using a logit regression model, wages were a significant predictor of working outside of nursing for unmarried nurses but not for married nurses. Married and unmarried male nurses were more likely to work outside of nursing. Baccalaureate education, children under age 6, higher family income, and years since graduation increased the odds of working outside of nursing for married nurses. Ultimately, identifying characteristics on which these groups differ may inform future policy directions that could target nurses who may leave nursing at a time when retention efforts might be effective to alter their trajectory away from the profession.