Water and growth in an agricultural economy

We present a model of economic growth of an agricultural household that is faced with an exogenous water availability constraint. We examine the long‐run investment and consumption choices under two scenarios: (i) when the water availability constraint is binding and (ii) when it is not binding. We then compare the two scenarios to derive conditional convergence hypotheses regarding the impact of water availability on long‐run agricultural growth. Panel data from Wyoming are used to test these conditional convergence hypotheses. We find that Wyoming counties exhibit strong conditional convergence in agricultural growth. Our theoretical and empirical results demonstrate that water availability is not a determinant but can be a constraint on long‐run agricultural growth. Higher water use leads to higher growth in agricultural yield per capita but when water rights constrain water use in a county, as we found in southeastern Wyoming, there are significant losses in agricultural growth.     

Agrarian Poverty,Nutrition and Economic Class – A Study of Gujarat,India

This paper analyses poverty and calorific undernourishment in the Indian state of Gujarat, where high and market‐led industrial growth has resulted in rapid economic improvement. The study is carried out through a combination of secondary and survey‐based data. We conclude that the neoliberal agenda of uncontrolled, outward‐looking growth has not resulted in significant reduction of poverty or malnourishment in rural areas. Furthermore, while land ownership is officially used as a proxy for wealth distribution, class position appears a better predictor of poverty status in the rural areas than landownership per se. At the policy level, there is a need to revive the agrarian economy and create new non‐agricultural assets, and the primary focus in the state must shift to the distribution of created assets rather than a single‐minded focus on growth.     

Cost consequence analysis of use of a balloon expandable vascular access system and standard vascular sheath for transcatheter aortic valve implantation

Abstract

Background: Vascular complications are an important complication of transcatheter aortic valve implantation and are associated with increased morbidity and mortality as well as cost. The Solopath device is an expandable vascular access system that has previously been shown to be associated with lower rates of vascular complications. This study sought to evaluate the impact of the use of this system on vascular complications and costs in a decision model analysis.

Methods: A cost-consequence analysis was undertaken utilizing event rate data from the PARTNER trials and a published retrospective analysis of the Solopath device. The decision model estimated costs and benefits in a hypothetical cohort of patients with aortic stenosis undergoing TAVI using either a standard sheath or Solopath. The modeled analysis compared the occurrence of vascular complications and mortality at 30 days and 1 year using TreeAge Pro.

Results: The decision model demonstrated that use of the Solopath sheath resulted in 36 fewer major vascular complications, three fewer deaths at 30 days, and five fewer deaths at 1 year, resulting in a discounted cost savings of $846 CDN. Results were sensitive to decreasing rates of vascular complications with newer generation devices, however maintained modest cost-savings.

Conclusions: Reduction in vascular complications is an important part of improving care for TAVI patients. The Solopath vascular access device offers an alternative to standard sheaths with a potential reduction in complications and cost-savings.     

Valuation and Performance of Reacquisitions Following Equity Carve‐Outs

While existing literature reports a positive market reaction to parent companies conducting carve‐outs, we find that the response to carve‐outs that are ultimately reacquired is negative or insignificant. Reacquired units perform considerably worse than those that are not reacquired. Thus, parents may perceive that the market does not recognize the potential of these poorly performing units, and reacquires them to capitalize on the parents' private information. The reacquisition announcement results in a favorable market reaction for the parents and the units. However, parents experience negative long‐term buy‐and‐hold abnormal returns when they reacquire less than 100% of units' shares.     

Marketing and the law

Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science -     

Randbemerkungen über den Verlauf der Deckungskapitalien; ihre differentialgleichungen und gewisse ihnen angeknüpfte identitäten

Abstract

Es kann in der Lebensversicherung mitunter von Interesse sein eine gewisse Übersicht darüber zu gewinnen wie sich das Deckungskapital irgend eines vorgelegten Versicherungsbestandes (unter bestimmter Voraussetzung der Sterblichkeit und des Zinsfusses) mit den Jahren ändern wird. Es handelt sich dabei oft um die Abschätzung des Zeitspunktes für den Eintritt des Maximums des Deckungskapitals eines solchen Bestandes, und um die Höhe dieses Kapitals zu diesem Zeitpunkte. Solche Fragen entstehen z. B. bei aussterbenden Versicherungseinrichtungen und namentlich bei Übertragungen von ganzen Versicherungsbeständen, wie sie in dieser Zeit so häufig vorkommen. Der Gegenstand bietet kaum Schwierigkeiten, ist vielmehr theoretisch einfach; jedoch aber nicht ohne Interesse, weshalb eine ganz kurze Auseinandersetzung angepasst sein dürfte. Wir werden dann bei derselben Gelegenheit, obwohl es für die so gestellte Aufgabe nicht nötig war, einige allgemeine Differentialgleichungen und Identitäten ableiten, die mit derselben Aufgabe in enger Verbindung stehen.     

Über periodische und angenäherte Beharrungszustände

Man stösst in den verschiedensten Zweigen der angewandten Mathematik — so in der Statistik, in der Versicherungstechnik, in der Physik, u.s.w. — sehr oft auf die Berechnung von Grössen, die als durch einen fortlaufenden Zugang irgend eines erzeugenden Elementes, deren Wirkung auf die zu studierende Grösse auf eine bestimmte Zeitdauer begrentzt ist, aufgebaut angesehen werden können.