Impact of behavioral health problems on access to care and health services utilization

Access to specialists for treatment of behavioral health problems has become restricted in this era of capped budgets and reductions in Medicare and Medicaid reimbursement. Patients with multiple mental health problems may face additional barriers to obtaining needed health care services. The study's aim was to measure the impact of behavioral health problems on access to care and health services utilization for veterans and non-veterans and to determine the contribution of health system characteristics in the prediction of self-reported health services utilization. The study sample consisted of Vietnam veterans who participated in both the Vietnam Drug User Study (September 1971 Army discharges) and the Vietnam Era Study (25-year follow-up) (N=642), as well as a non-veteran cohort (N=197).     

Institutional framing and perceptions of fairness

This paper's goal is to construct a positive theory of economic fairness. Using the theoretical schema developed by Hurwicz and others, the paper makes precise the notions of an “institution,” “fairness fraiming,” and “institutional framing.” Four fairness propositions yield an important corollary: the economic environment, the operative institution and history give meaning to the often used FORMAL PRINCIPLE OF DISTRIBUTIVE JUSTICE (“equals should be treated equally, and unequals unequellay, in proportion to relevant similarities and differences”). We support these four propositions and corollary by an analysis of laboratory, survey, and anecdotal evidence. Finally we describe a number of areas for future research. The authors would like to thank Allen Buchanan, James Buchanan, Joel Feinberg, Elizabeth Hoffman, David Schmitz, Linda Schnabel Stizer, Vernon Smith, Richard Wagner, the participants in the Aspen Institute's Conference on “Local Justice and Fair Allocation”, the members of the Industrial Organization Workshop of the Department of Economics at the University of Arizona, and panel participants at the Public Choice Society Meeting for their help and comments at various stages of this paper's preparation. Responsibility for errors is the authors' alone.     

Using 'hard' and 'soft' technologies for global new product development

This paper reports on a study of the use of 'hard' and 'soft' technologies as tools for managing global new product teams. 'Hard' technologies consist of electronic mail, teleconferencing, fax, video conferencing, and other electronic means of facilitating communication. 'Soft' technologies, on the other hand, reflect managerial behaviors that are necessary to deal with the social and behavioral aspects of global new product development. Our study suggests that:
The frequency of use of hard technologies is greater for higher versus lower performing global teams.
The set of hard technologies perceived to be important is different for higher versus lower performing global teams.
How well soft technologies are used is greater for higher performing global teams.
Soft technologies are seen as more important than hard technologies.
Implications of these findings for managers and future research are discussed.     

Rethinking Rouse and Daellenbach's rethinking: isolating vs. testing for sources of sustainable competitive advantage

In a recent paper, Rouse and Daellenbach (1999) provide a five‐step methodological approach which they feel will cure alleged inadequacies in empirical resource‐based research. We suggest, however, that their methodology can provide only a useful aid for expanding our understanding of potential sustainable competitive advantages but will not allow researchers to effectively verify those hypothesized advantages. Specifically, we argue that Rouse and Daellenbach's methodology is plagued by three major shortcomings: (1) it confuses the important distinction between knowing‐how and knowing‐what; (2) it fails to recognize the importance of observable variables in verifying the sources of sustainable competitive advantage; and (3) it calls for sampling on the dependent variable. Copyright © 2002 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

THe dynamics of agricultural contribution to economic growth

More than twenty-five years ago, Simon Kuznets formulated some procedures to measure the contribution of the agricultural sector to economic growth and development. This article provides a view of the experience of various countries at different stages of economic development to examine how they fare individually in terms of Kuznets’s suggestions. A major objective is the exploration of relationships between the levels of income and agricultural product and labor contribution to economic growth. It was found, as Kuznets perceived, that the contribution declines as the level of income rises.     

A Likelihood Ratio Test of Price Volatilities: Comparing Stock Index Spot and Futures

This paper uses three methods to estimate the price volatility of two stock market indexes and their corresponding futures contracts. The classic variance measure of volatility is supplemented with two newer measures, derived from the Garman-Klass and Ball-Torous estimators. A likelihood ratio test is used to compare the classic variance measure of price volatilities of two stock market indexes and their corresponding futures contracts during the bull market of the 1980s. The stock market volatilities of the Standard & Poor's 500 (S&P 500) and New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) indexes were found to be significantly lower than their respective futures price volatilities. Since information may flow faster in the futures markets than in the corresponding stock market, our results support Ross's information-volatility hypothesis. It was also noted that the NYSE spot volatility was lower than the S&P 500 spot volatility. If the rate of information flow and firm size are positively related, then the lower NYSE spot volatility is explained by the size effect. The futures price volatilities for the two indexes were insignificantly different from each other. With stock index spot-futures price correlations approaching unity, one implication of our results for index futures activity is that smaller positions in futures contracts may suffice to achieve hedging or arbitrage goals.     

Affirmative action: Federal support,supreme court decisions,and human resource management

This article explores the historical background of affirmative action in the United States, and reviews haw federal support for it has changed since the Civil War. Several recent US Supreme Court cases deciding affirmative action issues are discussed, with speculation about the future of affirmative action in light of these decisions. The article also discusses the implications of these rulings for human resource practitioners.     

Oil characteristics and the U. S. demand for foreign crude by region of origin

An earlier version of this paper was presented at the Canadian Economics Association Meetings in Winnipeg, Manitoba, May 1986. We are grateful to Paul Bradley, Ragaei El Mallakh, Phil Graves, and John Livernois for their comments, and to Pierre Allan and Edward Azar for helpful suggestions.     

Modeling technical progress and total factor productivity: A plant level example

Shifts in the production frontier occur because of changes in technology. A model of how a firm learns to use the new technology, or how it adapts from the first production frontier to the second, is suggested. Two different adaptation paths are embodied in a translog cost function and its attendant cost share equations. The paths are the traditional linear time trend and a learning curve. The model is estimated using establishment level data from a non-regulated industry that underwent a technological shift in the time period covered by the data. The learning curve resulted in more plausible estimates of technical progress and total factor productivity growth patterns. A significant finding is that, at the establishment level, all inputs appear to be substitutes.This paper was processed by N.R. Adam.