Less labor, longer lives: time to share

Two driving forces are changing modern life, First, significantly less labor is needed as productivity rises. Second, people are living longer—anticipate an 85-year life expectancy by 2020. We focus on two prominent consequences of these interacting drwers: new modes to allocate wealth need to be devised as those linked to 'the job' prove inadequate; And how we spend our time is changing. We consider time distribution among three forms of work (market, community, home), learning and communication, and play. We conclude that dramatic policy actions are in order to break free of societal reliance upon traditional jobs and to provide the expanding senior population a good quality of life.     

Data collection frequency effect in the National Medical Care Expenditure Survey.

The National Medical Care Expenditure Survey (NMCES) was characterized by a longitudinal survey design, with data collection targeted to five points in time covering the survey year. Field conditions did not allow for all interviews to be conducted over the targeted time periods. A subset of sampled households (holdovers) were not contacted for a particular wave of the survey and data were gathered at the subsequent time period for the two time intervals that were spanned. National estimates for a representative set of health care utilization and expenditure measures were derived from the sample of holdovers and compared with estimates derived from the respondents with five complete waves of data collection. Controlling for relevant predispositional factors in the estimation of health care utilization and expenditure measures, a test for data collection frequency effect is also considered.     

Interdisciplinary policy analysis in economic forecasting

Economic policy formulation suffers from many ills, not the least of which is a basic inadequacy in the methods of long-range economic forecasting. This article discusses the need for a longer time perspective in economic policy and the shortcomings of current methods in regard to philosophical assumptions, theoretical limitations, economic modeling problems, and institutional issues. Interdisciplinary policy modeling is suggested as a partial solution to these shortcomings, and two examples are offered—one in regional policy simulation and other in world food-supply modeling.     

用ISO解决问题——医疗组织选用IS09001:2000作为管理体系

当爱荷华医师诊所(PCI)和美国州医疗服务局(MED)寻找能更好管理组织的方法时,二者都不约而同地选择了IS09001:2000标准,希望它能起到有效组织运作、改进患者服务的作用.     

OPEN MARKET REPURCHASES: THE VALUE FROM BUYING SHARES AT A DISCOUNT

This article shows that share repurchase announcements create value for shareholders when the shares of the industrial firm sell at a discount from the value of the underlying assets, even when shareholders and managers share full information about the firm's prospects and the firm's operating performance is not expected to improve. The value created by capturing the discount on the repurchased shares is a function of only two variables: the percentage discount prior to the announcement and the proportion of shares to be repurchased.
For a sample of 100 companies selling below net asset value, the authors report that the excess stock returns surrounding their announcements of open market repurchases are (significantly) positively associated with the authors' estimates of the value captured from buying shares at a discount. Moreover, the stock market's response to repurchase announcements by companies that are selling at a discount is considerably more positive than to announcements by firms selling at a premium.     

Will the Collapse of the American Dream Lead to a Decline in Ethical Business Behavior

This study compares employee attitudes to their reports of whether they consider their socio-economic status to be higher, the same, or lower than that of their parents. The premise of the research was based on the apparent deterioration of the expectation that each generation will live in greater economic comfort than their parents, referred to as a vital component of the American dream. Where this pattern of socio-economic progress has been interrupted, it may relate to certain attitudes. These attitudes, in turn, are likely to influence behavior. Here the focus is on whether employees' survey responses indicate they are honest, trustworthy, and tolerant. Differences in these characteristics that relate to self-reported socio- economic progress, may serve to explain the occurrence of certain behaviors among people who otherwise seem highly ethical. This information may also help create organizational awareness of the potential for unethical behavior, when employees have been blocked from their own expectations for betterment.