Determinants of pension plan fees in Spain

Pension plans and funds represent a substantial part of the welfare systems in both Europe and Spain. One of the most important factors in the choice of a plan or fund is the performance it obtains. In view of the influence that fees have on performance, the objective of this study is to analyse the variables that determine the management and custodial fees of individual pension plans. The Spanish market for pension plans and funds sets legal caps on these fees, and at the same time the majority of them are commercialized and managed by financial institutions, which can in turn generate a conflict of interests. In this article, we estimate models with censured variables and our findings show how the average investment per plan, the legal status and the size of the management company to which the plan belongs, and the style of the plan are all relevant determinants of the management fee. In turn, the custodial fee is determined by the legal status of the custodial company, the size, the return and the type of plan.     

从经济学角度看劳动者的违约金承担与劳动合同期

面对我国《劳动合同法》的出台,作者试图突破现有法理学研究的局限性,以违约金的补偿性质为前提,通过违约金计算模型的建立,从经济学的成本收益角度对劳动者的违约金承担和劳动合同期限等问题进行本质上的分析和探讨,以从经济理论上证明我国《劳动合同法》中取消劳动者违约金和限制劳动合同期等规定的一般合理性,并进一步对培训费用分摊等法律问题和改善劳动者弱势地位的办法等提出了具体的看法和建议。     

DETERMINANTS OF CHILD SUPPORT: A PILOT SURVEY OF ABSENT PARENTS

The proportion of children living in single-parent households has risen dramatically during the past two decades. Approximately half of these children live in poverty. A major factor in this impoverishment is non-custodial parents'failure to provide child support. Much is known about child support behavior from the custodial parent's perspective, but little research has focused on the noncustodial parent's perspective. The Survey of Absent Parents (SOAP) was initiated to remedy this gap. This paper describes the results of the SOAP pilot survey of linked custodial and non-custodial parents in three counties in Florida and three counties in Ohio. It reports the results of multivariate analyses of the predictors of (i) child support award levels, (ii) child support payments as reported by custodial and non-custodial parents, and (Hi) compliance with child support awards as reported by custodial and non-custodial parents. The results indicate that custodial and non-custodial parents have very different perspectives on how much child support is paid. The main factors predicting payments across these two populations are (i) the non-custodial parent's situation measured by his current income and marital status, (ii) the custodial parent's situation measured by her current income–excluding child support payments–and marital status, (Hi) program interventions such as formulas used to set award levels, payment through the court, and wage withholding, and (iv) the warmth of the relationships between the former partners and between the father and the child.     

Long‐term care and pay‐for‐performance programs

Pay‐for‐performance programs are gradually spreading across Asia. This paper builds on the longer experience in the United States to offer lessons for Asia. The Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services has introduced several pay‐for‐performance programs since 2012 to encourage hospitals to improve quality of care and reduce costs. Some state Medicaid programs have also introduced pay‐for‐performance for nursing homes. Long‐term care providers play an important role in hospital pay‐for‐performance programs because they can affect the readmission rate and also total episode payments. A good pay‐for‐performance program will focus on improving quality of care that affects health outcomes. In addition, that quality must vary across providers and be measurable. Furthermore, it is important that the measures be reported in a timely way, that both demand and supply respond to the measures, and that the measures be risk adjusted. Empirical data from Medicare beneficiaries in the state of Michigan show that mean episode payments and readmission rates in skilled nursing facilities vary widely and are sensitive to the number of observations. These practical matters create challenges for implementing pay‐for‐performance in practice. There is an extensive literature review of pay‐for‐performance in long‐term care in the United States and in Asia.     

A preliminary look at readmission and mortality among chronically critically ill and other medically complex Medicare patients

Chronically critically ill and other medically complex patients (CCI/MC-Ps) are those who are hospitalized with long-term intensive care needs and require extended periods of hospital-level care. CCI/MC-Ps may be at higher risk for readmission and mortality than other populations due to the severe nature their illnesses. This article examines factors that lead to increased probability of hospital readmission or mortality among CCI/MC Medicare patients. Logistic regression analyses are used to examine mortality and readmissions among the CCI/MC population. Numerous factors including length of stay in the acute hospital, age and gender affect whether a patient is readmitted to the acute care hospital within 90 days of discharge or dies within 60 days following a hospital stay.     

Identifying the relationship between length of hospital stay and the probability of readmission

We estimate the effect of hospital length of stay (LOS) on the probability of 30-day readmission for 516,768 patients hospitalized with heart failure in California from 2005 to 2011. We use hospital crowding as an instrumental variable to control for bias from omitted health characteristics. Our results suggest that the literature, which has for 30 years identified readmission rates increasing with LOS, has not controlled for omitted variable bias when estimating the benefits from a patient’s hospital stay.     

Career duration in the NHL: pushing and pulling on Europeans?

Using a panel of National Hockey League players from 2000 through 2013, we analyse the determinants of career length in the league. In our analysis, we include both performance variables and nationality of origin to determine their importance in determining career length. We find that European-born players have shorter careers than North American-born players holding performance constant and Russian-born players have even shorter careers than other Europeans. We further find that Russian-born players have even shorter careers than other players after the 2005 lockout. These shorter careers are consistent with both exit discrimination against European and Russian players who are pushed out of the league as well as voluntary exit by European and Russian players who are pulled out of the league due to opportunities in their home countries.     

Exploring how innovation strategies at time of crisis influence performance: a cluster analysis perspective

This paper analyzes the connection between innovation activities of companies – implemented before crisis – and their performance – measured at time of crisis. The companies listed in the STAR Market Segment of the Italian Stock Exchange are analyzed. Innovation is measured through the level of investments in total tangible and intangible fixed assets in 2006–2007, while performance is captured through growth – expressed by variations of sales, total assets and employees – profitability – through ROI or ROS – and productivity – through asset turnover or sales per employee in the period 2008–2010. The variables of interest are analyzed and compared through statistical techniques and by adopting cluster analysis. In particular, a Voronoi tessellation is also implemented in a varying centroids framework. In accord with a large part of the literature, we find that the behaviour of the performance of the companies is not univocal when they innovate.     

‘JUMPS’ IN MACROECONOMIC MODELS: AN EXAMPLE WHEN EIGENVALUES ARE COMPLEX‐VALUED*

The dynamic properties of continuous‐time macroeconomic models are typically characterised by having a combination of stable and unstable eigenvalues. In a seminal paper, Blanchard and Kahn showed that, for linear models, in order to ensure a unique solution, the number of discontinuous or ‘jump’ variables must equal the number of unstable eigenvalues in the economy. Assuming no zero eigenvalues and that all eigenvalues are distinct, this also means that the number of predetermined variables, otherwise referred to as continuous or non‐ ‘jump’ variables, must equal the number of stable eigenvalues. In this paper, we investigate the application of the Blanchard and Kahn results and establish that these results also carry through for linear dynamical systems where some of the eigenvalues are complex‐valued. An example with just one complex conjugate pair of stable eigenvalues is presented. The Appendix contains a general n‐dimensional model.     

Politics, the WTO and Trade Disputes: Evidence from US Cases

Do political variables play a significant role in trade disputes and does the World Trade Organization (WTO) ameliorate disputation? This paper uses US data to assess the role of the WTO and political variables in trade disputes. The data suggest that political factors are significant in the initiation of trade disputes and in their length of adjudication. The WTO disputes that require the formation of adjudication panels take fewer months to complete than under the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade system, but overall the WTO appears not to play a significant role in reducing the number of disputes or shortening their duration.     

中国订单农业违约风险因素评估——来自山东的经验

目前高违约率严重制约了订单农业的发展,如何防范违约风险成为风险管理的关键内容。风险评估的目的在于分析各风险因素对违约风险的影响程度,为制定风险防范措施提供依据。本文结合山东的实际,采取AHP分析方法,从公司、农户、契约和外部市场四个层面,建立了一个包含26项指标的评估指标体系,并构建风险评估模型,以评估风险因素。     

Market microstructure and security pricing in the warsaw market

The speed with which information is impounded in security prices is evaluated with respect to several market microstructure variables in the context of a dynamic, rapidly-changing market, the Warsaw Stock Exchange. The dynamic nature of this market allows for predictions concerning pricing efficiency in more mature markets as they merge or expand their number of offerings. The results indicate that the performance of the Warsaw Exchange compares favorably with that of the average security traded on the NASDAQ. To the extent that recent mergers of several exchanges have had the effect of engaging more market participants and enhancing trading opportunities through expanded hours, trading efficiency has been positively affected. There is also weaker support for the view that consolidating securities on fewer exchanges will improve informational efficiency as well.     

Hospitalization with acute exacerbation of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and associated health resource utilization: A population-based Danish cohort study

Abstract

Objective:

Health resource utilization (HRU) and outcomes associated with acute exacerbation of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (AECOPD) are not well described. Therefore, a population-based cohort study was conducted to characterize patients hospitalized with AECOPD with regard to HRU, mortality, recurrence, and predictors of readmission with AECOPD.

Methods:

Using Danish healthcare databases, this study identified COPD patients with at least one AECOPD hospitalization between 2005–2009 in Northern Denmark. Hospitalized AECOPD patients’ HRU, in-hospital mortality, 30-day, 60-day, 90-day, and 180-day post-discharge mortality and recurrence risk, and predictors of readmission with AECOPD in the year following study inclusion were characterized.

Results:

This study observed 6612 AECOPD hospitalizations among 3176 prevalent COPD patients. Among all AECOPD hospitalizations, median length of stay was 6 days (interquartile range [IQR] 3–9 days); 5 days (IQR 3–9) among those without ICU stay and 11 days (IQR 7–20) among the 8.6% admitted to the ICU. Mechanical ventilation was provided to 193 (2.9%) and non-invasive ventilation to 479 (7.2%) admitted patients. In-hospital mortality was 5.6%. Post-discharge mortality was 4.2%, 7.8%, 10.5%, and 17.4% at 30, 60, 90, and 180 days, respectively. Mortality and readmission risk increased with each AECOPD hospitalization experienced in the first year of follow-up. Readmission at least twice in the first year of follow-up was observed among 286 (9.0%) COPD patients and was related to increasing age, male gender, obesity, asthma, osteoporosis, depression, myocardial infarction, diabetes I and II, any malignancy, and hospitalization with AECOPD or COPD in the prior year.

Limitations:

The study included only hospitalized AECOPD patients among prevalent COPD patients. Furthermore, information was lacking on clinical variables.

Conclusion:

These findings indicate that AECOPD hospitalizations are associated with substantial mortality and risk of recurrence.     

Reimbursement schemes for hospitals: the impact of case and firm characteristics

We contribute to the debate on high-powered versus low-powered incentives in regulation by studying their heterogeneous impacts on different subpopulations, using data from the introduction of a high-powered prospective payment system (PPS) for hospital reimbursement in Germany. While no overall effect on quality or cost saving is found, our results support hypotheses drawn from an incentive and selection perspective: PPS reduces the length of stay of older relative to younger patients, of more severe relative to less severe cases, and in smaller relative to larger hospitals. Hospitals which adopted PPS earlier provide higher quality under PPS as proxied by the case-specific readmission rate. Our study also contributes to the health economic literature on hospital reimbursement as our data permits us to identify the treatment effect via different timings of adoption of PPS and to use a more accurate quality measure by following patients even when readmitted to other hospitals.     

Technological Competence And Firm Economic Performance In Zimbabwe's Manufacturing Industry

Using data obtained from firm interviews, the paper attempts to relate, statistically, economic performance with technology. The firms interviewed belong to four industries: food and beverages (ISIC 31), textiles and clothing (ISIC 32), wood and furniture (ISIC 33), and metalworking (ISIC 34). An aggregate, synthetic, technology variable was built using data on three components: transfer of technology channels, manpower technical skills, and technological efforts. The transfer channels component comprised three sub-components: number of licensing contracts, number of technical assistance agreements, and number of expatriate technical personnel. The skills component also included three sub-components: number of engineers, number of scientists, and number of middle level technical personnel employed. The technical efforts component was formed by the addition of two normalized sub-components: R&D expenditures and number of uses made of technical support services. All these variables were measured at the individual firm level. The paper explores first the relationship between technology (as defined above) and two potential explanatory variables: size of firm and foreign ownership. In a second statistical exercise, the technology variable is incorporated, with traditional factors of production, in a production function. In the last statistical exercise, firm performance indicators were related to technology. Based on the availability of reliable data, the two performance indicators selected were: output per worker and whether the firm exported part of its output or not. The possible incidence of sectoral (industry) effects was also taken into account. It could be concluded that the sample data used shows a statistically significant, though not very strong, effect of the technology variable on both, output and output per worker, and a somewhat stronger association with whether Zimbabwe's manufacturing firms export or not.     

The impact of technological opportunity on the dynamics of trade performance

The paper examines statistically whether the degree to which countries are specialised in and/or increasingly move into sectors with above average levels of technological opportunity has any impact on growth in aggregate market shares of exports. A novelty of the paper is that it applies structural decomposition (SD) analysis not only on trade statistics, but also on US patent statistics. Nineteen countries and 17 manufacturing sectors for the period 1965–1988 are considered. A number of variables, in addition to the effects from the SD analysis, are included as explanatory variables. In this context, it is shown that there is a positive relationship between trade performance and the individual country’s ability to move into technological sectors offering above average technological opportunity.     

心理契约破裂、领导信任与员工知识分享——以马基雅维利主义为调节

以社会交换理论为基础,系统性探讨心理契约破裂作用于员工知识分享的内在机理和情境机制。基于219名员工的有效调查问卷数据,结果发现：心理契约破裂对员工知识分享存在显著负向影响;领导信任在心理契约破裂与员工知识分享间发挥完全中介作用,但随着员工马基雅维利主义水平提高,领导信任的中介作用减弱;随着员工马基雅维利主义水平提高,领导信任对员工知识分享的正向影响减弱。     

Can innovation network projects result in efficient performance?

This paper examines the effects that process, structure and governance dimensions of networks have on innovation performance. The main focus of the paper is the multidimensional aspect of innovation networks and how these dimensions affect network performance. Technology management, resource-based, transaction costs and social capital perspectives are applied in the construction of the model variables of each subsystem or dimension analyzed. With results drawn from a sample of 350 project managers identified in the European Union CORDIS database who are actively involved in European innovation networks, we argue that the performance of innovation networks is increased through the suitable design of process, structure and governance subsystems. Empirical findings also show that interactions between these subsystems have a complementary or synergic effect resulting in improved innovation performance.     

The Evaluation of University Departments. A Case Study for Firenze

Over the last two decades, the interest to assess the quality of university teaching and research has considerably grown. This paper presents a study concerning the evaluation of the departments of the University of Firenze using Data Envelopment Analysis. It shows several applications with different variables choices to assess the performance both in teaching and in research activities. The reliability of the preferred specification was verified with a heuristic experiment, using different variables and a different number of variables. Particular attention is given to the problem of data availability and quality (e.g. for research output assessment).