Foreign aid as a promotional strategy

Developed countries are motivated by several forces when allocating aid to developing countries. The forces could be humanitarian in one country, and commercial self-interests in another. The principal objective of this study was to determine the effectiveness of aid as a promotional strategy for trade, and to investigate whether major donor countries are optimally allocating their aid resources to increase their export and total trade. Models were developed to explore the effectiveness of aid as a promotional instrument for exports and total trade. Donor exports and total trade were expressed as functions of aid, per capita GNP of the recipient country, and aid from competing donors. The study showed that exports and total trade responded to total expected aid contributions and per capita GNP of the recipient countries. Also, all donors, but one, were maximizing the returns to aid, given the level of trade with recipient countries and will be reluctant to increase aid flows, given the current trade level.     

The academic effectiveness of a bridging year for commerce undergraduates

Human resources development in South Africa is constrained by the underpreparedness of many students for university. The problem is particularly acute among school leavers for whom English is not their first language and who are thereby at a disadvantage in an English language university. In order to address the problem, which goes beyond language, bridging curricula have been devised. This research analyses how effective one such intervention is, in terms of an academic achievement outcome.

Decisions to allocate resources to bridging intervention need the assurance that the resources are used effectively. An ex post facto experimental research design ts used in this study to test the learning outcome of the PBS bridging intervention. The analysis assesses whether the PBS programme increases the academic achievement of students at first‐year level.

The examination results achieved by an experimental group of PBS students who matriculated from DET schools are compared with the results of a control group of DET matriculants. The research shows that the academic achievements of the PBS group during the bridging year were superior to those of the control group. Furthermore, superior performance was sustained by the PBS students after they Joined the mainstream BCom curriculum. After the bridging intervention, the PBS students achieved 7.7 percentage points better in Business Economics I examinations than the control group. The research design controls for demonstrated academic ability at school At a 0.01 level of statistical significance, the results of the analysis indicate that the PBS intervention has contributed positively to the students’ academic achievement.     

Evaluation of a patient self-directed mealtime insulin titration algorithm: a US payer perspective

Objective To model the potential economic impact of implementing the AUTONOMY once daily (Q1D) patient self-titration mealtime insulin dosing algorithm vs standard of care (SOC) among a population of patients with Type 2 diabetes living in the US.

Methods Three validated models were used in this analysis: The Treatment Transitions Model (TTM) was used to generate the primary results, while both the Archimedes (AM) and IMS Core Diabetes Models (IMS) were used to test the veracity of the primary results produced by TTM. Models used data from a ‘real world’ representative sample of patients (2012 US National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey) that matched the characteristics of US patients enrolled in the randomized controlled trial ‘AUTONOMY’ cohort. The base-case time horizon was 10 years.

Results The modeling results from TTM demonstrated that total costs in the base-case were reduced by $1732, with savings predicted to occur as early as year 1. Results from the three models were consistent, showing a reduction in total costs for all sensitivity analyses.

Limitations Data from short-term clinical trials were used to develop long-term projections. The nature of such extrapolation leads to increased uncertainty.

Conclusion The results from all three models indicate that the AUTONOMY Q1D algorithm has the potential to abate total costs as early as the first year.     

Do the Right Thing: The Imprinting of Deonance at the Upper Echelons

This study expands the application of deonance theory into organizations’ upper echelons by examining how CEOs imprinted with a sense of duty can influence managerial decision-making. We hypothesize an imprint of bounded autonomy, an ought-force that constrains their decision-making and understanding of behavioral freedom, influences duty-bound CEOs to self-report errors in past financial reporting. We test deonance theory propositions of instrumentality for behavioral expansion, namely loss avoidance and gain attainment, related to institutional ownership concentration and CEO equity ownership. We use CEOs that are graduates of U.S. service academies as a proxy for duty-bound executives and find firms they lead are more likely to issue a financial restatement to correct a previous reporting error. This finding is robust to alternate explanations such as being error-prone, earnings management, auditor oversight, and risk behaviors. We also find evidence that deonance may be subject to behavioral expansion. The likelihood of issuing a restatement decreases as institutional ownership concentration and CEO equity ownership increases. This study shows imprinted deonance within the C-suite influences important organizational outcomes.

     

The Old-Boy Network and the Young-Gun Effect

A model of an exclusive group or class whose membership is governed by personal contact and interaction is studied. Members of this old-boy network attempt to shield themselves from transacting with opportunistic or incompetent individuals by dealing only infrequently with unproven nonmembers. This injures the unproven but qualified agents not in the network. Moreover, because recruitment of a new member creates a public good for network members, too little recruiting is performed in equilibrium.