Phasing Out Market Mechanisms in the Italian National Health Service

The Italian National Health Service introduced quad-markets, regionalization, and managerialism in the 1990s. Under quasi-markets, large providers have been separated from purchasers and funded by ‘activity’—the quantity, mix, and possibly appropriateness of services provided. Under regionalization, each of Italy's 21 regional governments is able to design its own funding arrangements. The regions have generally been trying to mitigate the effects of quasi-markets and are now increasingly ‘governing’ them. The system is producing some desirable results, including a shift from ordinary to same-day hospitalizations and a reduction in length of stay. Hospital admissions increased initially, but only where the regions encouraged this. Financial effects are more controversial.     

The NHS: Quasi-market, Quasi-hierarchy and Quasi-network?

It has been argued that the British National Health Service (NHS) has moved from a hierarchical and bureaucratic organization to a market and, more recently, towards a network. The authors believe that this view is too simplistic: the three organizational forms have co-existed and continue to do so. It is more accurate to view moves over time as a changing mix between quasi-hierarchies, quasi-markets and quasi-networks.     

Entrepreneurship and Innovation Among GP Fundholders

The introduction of quasi-markets into the public sector suggests that entrepreneurship may have an increasing role to play within the resulting new structures. This article examines the nature of public sector entrepreneurship in the context of the new arrangements for the provision of primary care in the UK. Preliminary evidence points to the existence of different types of entrepreneurship. In particular, there is evidence of entrepreneurship in the form of the reduction in inefficiency, price-quality arbitrage and innovation. There is also evidence to suggest that the GPs who became fundholders early on are rather more entrepreneurial than those who have adopted fundholding at a later stage.     

Negotiating the Network: The Contracting Experiences of Community Mental Health Agencies in New Zealand

Structural options for reforming New Zealand'spublicly funded health services included a hierarchy, a market model, or hybrid arrangements such as quasi-markets and networks. A survey of 28 community mental health agencies, contracting with the four regional health authorities, found that three structures emerged: a quasi-market, a coercive network and a beneficent network. Further reforms to the publicly funded health services created a single purchaser and preferred a network structure. Performance assessment of these reformed health services requires assessment of the whole network and not just individual components. The accounting profession, although closely involved in the public sector reforms, appears to have overlooked this task.     

Leadership style, budgetary participation and managerial behavior

This paper reports the results of a study of the effects of leadership style and budgetary participation on performance and job satisfaction. The first two variables have been given much attention in the organizational behavior and management accounting literatures, respectively, while litte consideration has been given to both jointly. The most important results of the study reveal that the two variables interact in their effects on the criterion variables. Under certain leadership conditions, budgetary participation was found to have strong positive effects on performance and job satisfaction. Under other conditions, the reverse was true. The implications of the results for control system design and personnel management are considered.     

人民币区域化与深港人民币离岸市场合作研究

大力发展人民币离岸市场是培育跨境人民币资产池、加快人民币区域化进程的关键。从目前市场条件来看,深港两地是人民币区域化试验的理想之地。香港有条件成为全能型国际人民币离岸中心;而深圳可以与香港合理分工,错位发展,利用自身优势拓展对外人民币业务,成为有特色的境内人民币离岸清算中心。深港人民币离岸市场合作,有利于开辟人民币跨境流通的新渠道,为培育跨境人民币资产池提供良好的市场环境,从而加快我国金融对外开放步伐,实现人民币区域化、国际化目标。     

粤港澳金融共同市场构建进程中的法律协调机制研究

构建粤港澳金融共同市场是我国深化金融改革的一项重大举措。目前,金融共同市场的构建应主要通过市场自发解决,但市场机制有时会遭遇行政区划、法律制度等方面的障碍,在出现争端时需要适当的法律协调机制来处理。国际上许多区域经济一体化组织都设置了不同特征的法律协调机制,其中又以欧盟、北美自由贸易区的经验最值得借鉴。本文拟从法律的角度分析粤港澳金融共同市场建立和完善法律协调机制的必要性、可行性,并借鉴国际经验提出完善法律协调机制的建议。     

中国—东盟区域货币合作与人民币区域化研究

本文通过对中国-东盟区域货币合作的收益、成本以及在中国-东盟区域货币合作中推进人民币区域化的可行性分析,提出了中国-东盟区域货币合作势在必行的观点,并阐述了在加强中国-东盟区域货币合作中推进人民币区域化的策略。     

全球金融危机下的人民币国际化路径研究

2008年全球金融危机使改革以美元为核心的国际货币体系成为共识,这也为人民币实现区域化、国际化开创了一个历史契机。本文认为,应以人民币债券为突破口,推动香港成为人民币离岸金融中心,推动人民币成为区域储备与投资货币,实现区域化;在此过程中,香港应首先成为人民币国际结算中心,而后建立成清算型的人民币离岸中心,为人民币、港币、澳币事实上的一体化及人民币国际化奠定基础。     

人民币国际化路径的探讨

人民币国际化是指人民币我国以外的国家和地区内被接受,作为贸易结算手段并在一定程度上执行支付手段和价值储藏手段的过程。近十年来,人民币有向世界其他国家和地区流通的趋势,在一些国家和地区已经被广泛接受。人民币国际化在给我国带来收益的同时隐藏着不确定性,可能影响到我国经济的稳定,而如何在资本项目尚未完全放开的前提下推进人民币国际化是一个值得探讨的课题。本文讨论了在资本项目外汇管理维持现状条件下实现人民币国际化的路径,通过对厂商选择结算货币的分析可看出,签订货币互换协议等方式是实现人民币国际化的捷径。     

论中国金融全球化区域化进程中金融监管法律的协调

中国金融业的全球化与区域化进程对中国的金融监管提出了新挑战,作为金融监管的制度基础,金融监管法律制度同样面临如何适应中国金融业全球化与区域化的问题。本文认为全球化区域化进程中中国金融监管法律的制度建设,应以法律协调的方式进行。本文从分析中国金融全球化区域的特征入手,明确了全球化区域化对中国金融监管法律协调的需求,然后在具体分析国际社会金融监管法律协调实践的基础上,提出中国金融全球化区域化进程中金融监管法律协调的目标、原则及其协调方式的选择建议。     

略论人民币周边化、区域化

人民币国际化一般要先经过周边化,再到区域化,最后走向国际化的过程。本文主要讨论了推动人民币周边化、区域化要注意的几个问题,即保持人民币币值稳定、促进贸易发展、推动人民币回流、使用货币互换协议等。最后提出了人民币周边化、区域化所面临的挑战。     

遗产机制、生命周期储蓄和持续性不平等

本文通过一个具有遗产机制的生命周期模型,在个人具有不同年龄结构的经济中,讨论了社会初始财富分配不平等和生命周期储蓄不平等对加总经济的均衡以及均衡状态时社会财富水平、国民产出、个人消费和储蓄、资本和商品进出口的影响。本文还研究了社会收入和财富分配不平等的动态演化过程和均衡时持续性不平等的决定等问题。本文研究表明,在个人关心后代的有限生命周期模型中,如果利率水平不太高,那么社会初始财富分配不平等不影响社会均衡以及均衡时的产出水平和不平等程度,初时财富不平等也会随着代际的延续而趋于消失,历史性的不平等不会永远持续下去;但是,如果利率水平过高,则初始不平等对经济可能具有持续性的影响。     

A fiscal theory of sovereign risk

Under certain monetary-fiscal regimes the risk of default and thus the emergence of sovereign risk premiums are inevitable. This paper argues that in this context even small differences in the specification of monetary policy can have enormous effects on the equilibrium behavior of default rates and risk premiums. Under some monetary policy rules studied, the conditional expectation of default rates and sovereign risk premiums are constant, so movements in these variables always arrive as a surprise. Under other monetary regimes considered, the equilibrium default rate and the sovereign risk premium are serially correlated and therefore forecastable. The paper also studies the consequences of delaying default. It characterizes environments under which procrastinating on default is counterproductive.     

中国的贸易基础支持人民币区域化吗?

贸易发展是一国货币国际化的决定性推动力量。推动人民币在国际贸易,特别是与周边国家一般贸易中的普遍使用,是人民币区域化的突破口和重中之重。在介绍国际贸易媒介货币选择研究成果的基础上,本文结合中国对外贸易的现状,从产品差异程度、对外贸易竞争力、对外贸易区域结构和对外贸易全球份额等方面检验了我国现阶段的贸易基础是否支持人民币区域化这一命题。研究发现,当前推行人民币区域化具有一定的贸易基础,但也存在着一些不利因素,需要统筹规划,合理确定人民币区域化的方向、重点和节奏。     

Uncovered Interest Parity,Forward Guidance and the Exchange Rate

Under uncovered interest parity (UIP), the size of the effect on the real exchange rate of an anticipated change in real interest rate differentials is invariant to the horizon at which the change is expected. Empirical evidence using U.S., euro area and UK data points to a substantial deviation from that invariance prediction: expectations of interest rate differentials in the near (distant) future are shown to have much larger (smaller) effects on the real exchange rate than is implied by UIP. Some possible explanations are discussed.     

中国股市反应偏差的投资者心态模型

在行为金融学理论中,投资者心态模型将投资者的心理偏差当作反应偏差的源泉,但这些投资者心态模型对于发展时间较短、具有区别于成熟市场的独特市场制度和社会环境的中国股票市场而言,存在适用度问题。分析中国股票市场投资者普遍的投机心理等要素,运用改进了的HS模型,根据股票市场的习惯,分别对一个牛市周期和熊市周期进行验证得出,投机心理支配下的机构投资者和个人投资者的相互作用是导致反应偏差的主要原因。     

What can Canada teach us about health care financing?

Canada now spends proportionally more on health care than any other country except the U.S., Sweden and the Netherlands - about 7.2% of its GNP or about $500 per capita. Almost all Canadians (99%) are insured against the cost of all hospital and physician expenses through government health insurance programs administered by the provinces. Hospitals are reimbursed by the government 26 times per year and must work within annual budgets formulated by the Ministry of Health. The fiscal restraints imposed upon hospitals have caused them to look at expansion of shared services, regionalization and a slowed rate of growth. As in the U.S., hospital administrators complain about government regulation on the grounds that individual physicians have a much greater influence over utilization than do hospital administrators. Further hospital cutbacks will have the effect of reducing services and therefore, costs. However, there is concern that these kinds of modifications will result in services among communities which would affect the very principle of universal health insurance for Canadians.     

Asset pricing with heterogeneous preferences,beliefs, and portfolio constraints

Portfolio constraints are widespread and have significant effects on asset prices. This paper studies the effects of constraints in a dynamic economy populated by investors with different risk aversions and beliefs about the rate of economic growth. The paper provides a comparison of various constraints and conditions under which these constraints help match certain empirical facts about asset prices. Under these conditions, borrowing and short-sale constraints decrease stock return volatilities, whereas limited stock market participation constraints amplify them. Moreover, borrowing constraints generate spikes in interest rates and volatilities and have stronger effects on asset prices than short-sale constraints.     

Evolution in the rationales of foresight in Europe

The traditional mechanistic approach to Strategic Thinking influenced the rationales and consequently the early experiences of Technology Forecasting in Europe. On the other hand, the more recent dynamic non-linear approaches to Strategic Thinking and a gradual regionalization of the innovation policy have favoured the replacement of Forecasting with Foresight and, more recently, with Regional Foresight, where the complexity of phenomena is taken into greater account. In fact, during the last few decades, a transition has occurred from a mainly hierarchic capitalism to a flexible one. At micro-economic level, this has caused a gradual transition from hierarchical organisational models with tangible assets to network organisational models, which are knowledge-based and face complex and unsettled scenarios.

This paper tries to demonstrate that the concepts of Forecasting and Foresight cannot be considered outside of this context and of changes that have occurred in Strategic Thinking, where the needs for more global and interdisciplinary views of problems are striving to integrate Strategic management and Entrepreneurship into the new concept of Strategic Entrepreneurship.

In order to demonstrate this evolution in the rationales of foresight and in its applications, this work analyses and compares some among the more significant experiences of transition towards Regional Foresight in Europe.