Understanding Firm, Physician and Consumer Choice Behavior in the Pharmaceutical Industry

This paper argues that the pharmaceutical industry represents an exciting opportunity to carry out academic research. The nature of the industry allows researchers to answer new questions, develop new methodologies for answering these questions as well as to apply existing methodology to new data. The paper opens with some industry background, then provides a brief overview of some important research areas and discusses the open questions in each area. Issues of data type and availability are also discussed. This paper is based on a session (with the same title and participants) that was part of the Sixth Invitational Choice Symposium hosted by the University of Colorado and held at Estes Park, Colorado during June 4–8, 2004.     

The Transformation of Comparative Advantage: East Java 1920–1990s

East Java is an important economic region in its own right. Its integration into the world economy began in the mid 19th century with the development of plantation exports. However, between the 1920s and the 1970s East Java suffered a 50-year economic hiatus. This paper argues that the hiatus can be explained by structural rigidity, which affected East Java much more than West Java. It analyses foreign and mterisland trade statistics to chart the decline of the old export base of plantation crops and the slow transition towards a new comparative advantage in manufactures that became manifest in the late 1980s.     

WORD OUTLOOK

As the world economy enters the 1990% a significant reorientation of growth and demand is taking place amongst the major economies. The desynchronuation of the economic cycle, which occurred last year as the US economy slowed down while Europe and Japan continued to advance rapidly, is likely to be taken a stage further. Europe, in particular West Germany, is expected to continue to grow quickly in the run-up to the completion of the single EC market in 1992 and as a result of the opening of eastern Europe. Japan and the Asian NICs, adapting with an unprecedented programmed of industrial re-tooling to their new circumstances, are already set on an accelerated growth path. In contrast, the US appears to be in for a period of sluggish growth, as the Fed attempts to press down on inflation without causing a recession. As a result we expect US output growth of only 2 per cent a year over the next few years compared with a sustainable 3 per cent in Germany and 4 per cent in Japan. Despite these differences in growth, US inflation performance lags behind that in Germany and Japan and, partly because of the sue of existing IPD flows, little progress is like& on reducing current account imbalances.     

Ethics and politics of resource allocation: The role of nursing

The use of ethics in everyday nursing practice will become increasingly important to the individual nurse, and nursing as a profession, as technology has a greater impact on health status and the provision of health care. Resource allocation is only one example of an ethical issue in which nursing must have input. Nursing can expand its contribution to society by ensuring that it plays a major role in shaping public policy and legislation. If nursing is to continue to serve the public, the involvement of nurses within the political process must be accepted as an ethical necessity.Margaret Keatings, RN, MHSc, is the Director, Nursing Practice in the Department of Medicine at Toronto General Hospital. She combines this role with a strong interest in biomedical ethics to serve as co-chair of the hospital's clinical ethics committee. Keatings is also an assistant professor in the University of Toronto Faculty of Nursing. In spring 1988, she participated in an exchange program between Toronto General Hospital and a teaching hospital in Cambridge, England.Diana Dick, RN, BScN, MEd, co-ordinated a national campaign of the Canadian Nurses Association resulting in two significant amendments to the Canada Health Act (1984). As Project Manager with the Registered Nurses' Association of Ontario, she initiated the Association's involvement in the Grange Inquiry. She has taught at Seneca College, practised nursing in special care units, and written and spoken both nationally and internationally on resource allocation. Currently she works in a branch of Ontario's Pay Equity Commission.     

On Modernizing Local Public Finance

Abstract . Urban economists tend to agree that land value taxation is both equitable and efficient. Then why won't American urban areas reform their property taxes into a land value tax? One explanation may be that the climate of opinion is that the taxation of wealth is wrong. This may be another of the legacies of the Great Depression. In the 20 years preceding, levels of property taxation increased very substantially; this was associated with rapid urbanization and big increases in public expenditures. Even with the collapse of property values urban governments extended expenditures and hence taxes on real property—as they did again with inflation in the 1970s. But in the 70s residents were predominantly owner-occupants—a result of counter depression policy. Their hostility to taxing unrealized capital gains is the obstacle advocates of land value taxation have to overcome.     

The role of politics in the migration of Zimbabwean teachers to South Africa

This paper contributes to the debate on the role played by the political crisis in Zimbabwe in causing teacher migration to South Africa in the presence of other social and economic drivers. The paper uses data collected through a questionnaire self-administered by 100 Zimbabwean teachers in South Africa (migrants) and another 100 in Zimbabwe (non-migrants). In-depth interviews with a few migrant teachers were used to supplement these data. Although it was the second most mentioned reason for the teachers' migration to South Africa, the role played by political violence or repression in Zimbabwe in causing this migration should not be downplayed. Most migrant teachers came from Zimbabwean schools affected by political violence to a large extent before or after the 2008 presidential elections, especially rural areas. Teachers that held positions or distributed opposition party regalia were mostly displaced by violence. There is an urgent need for political transformation to more democratic rule in Zimbabwe.