An economic analysis of child restraints

Child safety in automobiles became an important safety issue during the 1970s. It was recognized that children needed their own specific restraint systems and that unrestrained children were particularly susceptible to serious injuries, in particular head injury. As a result performance standards for child restraints were issued by the federal government while states passed child restraint use laws. This study examined the cost per life year saved for child restraints which were in use in 1987. These costs are likely to be overestimated since the analysis did not consider the benefits from injury reduction, the quality of the life year saved and the effect of the child's death on remaining family members. The discount rate had a major impact on the cost per life year saved due to the long life expectancy of young children. It was concluded that child restraints were cost effective though problems of misuse and nonuse remained.

---

Zusammenfassung Eine ökonomische Analyse von Kinder-Sicherheitssitzen im Auto. Anfang der 70er Jahre wurde die Sicherheit von Kindern in Automobilen zu einem wichtigen Thema, nachdem beobachtet worden war, da\ ungesicherte Kinder erheblichen Gefahren von Verletzungen ausgesetzt sind, insbesondere von Kopfverletzungen. Die Notwendigkeit spezieller Kindersicherungen wurde deutlich; Sicherheitsstandards für Kindersitze wurden behördlich erlassen und die Benutzung von solchen Sitzen bindend vorgeschrieben.Die vorliegende Untersuchung ermittelte für das Jahr 1987 die Kosten von Kinder-Sicherheitssitzen pro gerettetem Lebensjahr, wobei in der Berechnung sowohl die Zahl der geretteten Leben wie auch die Lebenserwartung eines Kindes im Jahre 1987 berücksichtigt wurden. Die Berechnung erfa\te nicht die positiven Effekte durch Verringerung der Verletzungsgefahr, die Lebensqualität der geretteten Lebensjahre und die negativen Effekte auf die Familie eines getöteten Kindes; insofern dürften die ermittelten Kosten tendenziell überschätzt sein. Hauptergebnis der Analyse ist, da\ Kinder-Sicherheitssitze auch bei rein ökonomischer Betrachtung kosteneffektiv sind, wenn es auch Probleme dadurch gibt, da\ die Sitze gelegentlich fehlerhaft oder überhaupt nicht benutzt werden.

     

An economic analysis of the East Asia crisis

Since the summer of 1997, the East Asian “tiger” nations have suffered an unprecedented bout of weakness, plunging what had been vigorously expanding economies into a deep crisis. A number of domestic economic problems joined forces with turbulence on the foreign exchanges to generate a crisis of confidence on a grand scale. The crisis was triggered off by fundamental imbalances, with a key role being played by the “moral hazard” effect: domestic enterprises had been backed by implicit state guarantees, and it was always assumed that the IMF would assist if necessary. Then a destabilizing wave of speculation ran through the financial markets, pushing even countries with sound economic structures into difficulties. This article highlights the sequence of developments in the East Asian crisis, providing an economic explanation of the phenomenon.     

欧洲经济发展问题浅析

随着欧洲主权债务危机的越演越烈,人们一直在探讨债务危机发生的原因,但很少从深层次的角度分析欧洲经济发生危机最根本的原因。欧洲在过去的几十年里,经济发展一直仅次于美国,但近些年的发展明显滞后于美国,本文从欧洲的经济制度、政策模式、技术创新等方面分析了经济发展缓慢的原因及未来的几年内欧洲面临的挑战。     

Managerial judgment and forecast combination: An experimental study

This paper examines the role of managerial judgment in forming a final forecast, or judging the achievability of a critical level of sales, when multiple forecasts or opinions are available to the decision maker. Several factors that can help improve the quality of human intervention are identified and incorporated in a decision aid. Experimental results show that aided combination can help the decision maker exploit her relevant private information and mitigate the generally observed negative effects of human intervention. Further, the results suggest that emphasizing expected sales, even when the organization is primarily interested in go/no-go decisions, helps improve performance. Several suggestions for future research are presented.

相似文献   

Fast and frugal crisis management: An analysis of rule-based judgment and choice during water contamination events

Drawing on the fast and frugal research programme, this paper describes a retrospective field study of decision making during water contamination events. It characterises three heuristics employed in real-world decision making. The credibility heuristic discriminates between signals from targets and noise from distracters on the basis of the perceived trustworthiness of the message conveyor. With the precedent heuristic, the response to an unfolding event is determined by searching for past analogues (i.e. precedents) and, if found, treating the current event in the same fashion. By contrast, the facts-trump-speculation heuristic discriminates between conflicting explanations or claims according to how they rank on pre-determined hierarchies of evidence (orders of cue validities), neglecting utilities and avoiding the aggregation of competing lines of evidence. Rather than cataloguing the biases that these heuristics lead to, this paper focuses on the structural factors which shape each heuristic's ecological rationality. In doing so, the study develops ideas about how particular infrastructure systems and forms of social organisation structure the validity of cues, the accessibility of information, and the application of particular heuristics. The study also introduces the concept of safeguards to rule-based reasoning, and the idea that heuristics can be used to rationalize decisions, and deployed strategically to persuade other social actors. The over-arching claim is that the fast and frugal programme provides a powerful framework for analysing judgment and choice in organisations, and offers a bridge between psychological and political models of organisational behaviour.     

Teaching basic marketing accountability using spreadsheets: An exploratory perspective

Extant literature suggests that a key problem with marketing is a lack of financial accountability, and a possible way of improving the situation is to use spreadsheets to inculcate marketing accountability among future marketing executives. This study attempts to enhance our understanding of how to impart spreadsheet skills and encourage an accountability mindset among undergraduate marketing students by focusing on a course called Marketing and Money. Assessment data indicate that the course, which captures the spirit of the behavioral model of learning, does in fact enhance students' spreadsheet skills in a consistent manner. In addition, the analysis suggests that in order to increase students' self efficacy, instructors ought to try to make the course perceptually more useful rather than try to reduce its difficulty.     

Corporate accountability in Australia: Managing the information environment for corporate accountability

Accountability is a significant factor in the soundness of the organisational environment in Australia, for both the public and private sectors. The accountability process rests on the quality and accessibility of organisational records, the information environment. While the Australian liberal democratic open society and free market system relies on accountability, paradoxically accountability is constrained by the needs of the open society and the market. Setting appropriate mechanisms for accountability while preserving civil liberty and innovative free markets is a difficult task, and is one that falls to government. Governments have a ubiquitous role in implementing accountability in both the public and the private sectors, and the Australian federal system further complicates governments' difficult role. The 1990s will bring further corporate pathologies, similar to those of the 1980's. However the public and private sectors can reduce the impact of corporate pathologies in the 1990's by learning the lessons of the 1980's, through placing a priority on inculcating ethical and moral behavior, emphasising democratic values, and raising the organisational status of records.Lance McMahon is a lecturer specialising in government in the School of Management and Marketing, Curtin Business School. He has previously worked as a senior policy adviser in the Western Australian State Government.     

我国行政问责制的现状分析与探讨

行政问责制已经开始进入国家的政治体系和社会的关注视野,经过几年的建设和发展,正在逐步走入到常态化、规范化和制度化的发展轨道,但是诸多方面仍然表现为不够成熟的特点,本文拟对我国行政问责制进行较为全面的整体分析、成效分析、缺陷分析和完善分析,并期待着行政问责制取得更加长足的进展,在推动我国政治化进程方面发挥日益重要的作用.     

投资、消费需求与经济增长关系的计量分析

投资、消费、出口是拉动经济增长的"三驾马车",足以说明投资、消费需求在经济增长中的重要地位.本文选用1978年以来山东省经济发展的31年数据,通过不同的计量经济方法,从不同角度揭示了投资需求、消费需求与经济增长的相互影响作用,确认了投资需求与经济增长、消费需求与经济增长之间互为因果的影响关系,为正确处理三者关系提供了数量依据.     

Drug prohibition: A legal and economic analysis

This paper argues the case for the legalization of addictive drugs such as marijuana, cocaine, and heroin. It maintains that there are no market failures which could justify a banning of these substances, and that, as in the earlier historical case of prohibition of alcohol, our present drug policy has increased crime, decreased respect for legitimate law, and created great social upheaval.A member of the faculty of the Economics Department of the College of the Holy Cross, Worcester, MA, Dr. Walter Block is Adjunct Scholar at the Fraser, Cato, and Mises Institutes. His professional affiliations include the American Economic Association, and Western Economic Association, the British Columbia Association of Professional Economists, the Canadian Economic Association, the Canadian Association for Business Economics and the American Law and Economics Association. He has previously taught at Stony Brook (S.U.N.Y.), Baruch (C.U.N.Y.) and Rutgers Universities, and has worked in various research capacities for the National Bureau of Economic Research, the Tax Foundation,The Financial Post, Western Report, andBusiness Week. Dr. Block has published numerous popular and scholarly articles on economics and writes a syndricated column forSterling newspapers. An economic commentator on national television and radio, he lectures widely on public policy issues to university students, service, professional and religious organizations.Nothing in this article should be taken as an indication that the author favours the use of the drugs discussed herein. Actually the very opposite is the case. While he opposes prohibition, he advocates all non-coercive methods — arguments, counselling, advertising, etc. — which lead to decreased or zero usage of these pernicious and immoral materials and substances.     

The South Bank: An economic assessment

As a result of dissatisfaction with existing multilateral institutions, the idea of establishing a developing countries' multilateral banking facility-the South Bank-was launched at the Fifth Summit Conference of the Non-Aligned Movement held in Colombo in 1976. Ever since then, the debate over whether such a facility is really needed and economically feasible has never come to a conclusion. This article reviews the proposed main structure of the South Bank and critically examines its efficacy as a financial intermediary.     

上市公司年报披露及时性:基于自由裁量权视角的分析

及时性是上市公司信息披露的重要质量特征要求.文章以年报披露制度为起点,通过对年报披露时滞形成机理的理论分析,揭示了在时间维度上年报披露自由裁量权产生的内在逻辑和对信息及时性的影响,并对影响年报披露裁量权的因素进行了实证检验.研究结果表明,在研究期间内,上市公司自由裁量年报披露的区间分布为[0,84]天,占年报披露限定期的70%.其中审计意见和盈余消息是影响裁量权大小的重要因素,而董事会内部治理对管理者裁量权的监督作用未得到全面的发挥.因此,为规避年报披露自由裁量的滥用危机,监管部门应进一步加强信息披露制度建设和董事会治理机制的完善,同时呼唤公司管理者的德性崇高,强化信息的及时披露.     

Exporting Christianity: Governance and doctrine in the globalization of US denominations

In this paper we build a model of market competition among religious denominations, using a framework that involves incomplete contracts and the production of club goods. We treat denominations akin to multinational enterprises, which decide which countries to enter based on local market conditions and their own “productivity.” The model guides us in estimating how a denomination's religious doctrine and governance structure affect its ability to attract adherents. Using data on the foreign operations of US Protestant denominations in 2005 from the World Christian Database, we find that (1) denominations with stricter religious doctrine attract more adherents in countries in which the risk of natural disaster or disease outbreak is greater and in which government provision of health services is weaker, and (2) denominations with a decentralized governance structure attract more adherents in countries in which the pastor cost of connecting with congregants is lower. These findings illuminate factors shaping the composition of religion within countries, helping account for the rise of new Protestant groups. They also provide empirical evidence for the recent theoretical developments in organization and trade.     

An assessment of the effectiveness of the monetary dialogue on the ECB’s accountability and transparency: A qualitative approach

The European Central Bank has been seen by some observers as lacking transparency and accountability. The following article examines whether the monetary dialogue between the European Pariliament’s Committee on Economic and Monetary Affairs (ECON) influences the ECB’s behaviour in this regard. This is done by comparing the issues raised by the ECON and its panel of experts and the changes in the ECB’s procedures and arrangements.     

Substantive False Advertising Standards: Discretion and Misinformation by the FTC

This article concerns the FTC's discretionary answering of the three substantive questions which a potentially false and/or deceptive advertisement face. These questions concern: 1) the intelligence level of the consumer, 2) the standard to be used when evaluating the “promises” of the advertisement and 3) the method used to determine the “truth” of the ad's “promises.” After viewing the discretionary nature of the answers to each of the substantive questions in the light of case law and/or FTC decisions, it is concluded that a “marketing oriented” FTC which among other things not only acknowledges but actively solicits grass root “consumer surveys” would better serve the public interest. These surveys would be performed by independent and non-partisan research firms to resolve the substantive questions asked would best serve the true public (consumer) interest.     

An economic analysis of EC guidelines on state aid for the rescue and restructuring of companies in difficulty

The present Community guidelines on state aid for rescuing and restructuring firms in difficulty, a type of aid that is widely regarded as particularly distortive to the single market, will expire on 9 October 2004. The Commission has already identified a number of issues which it regards as problematic. This article draws attention to a number of further issues which also require clarification.