Digital transformation in maritime ports: analysis and a game theoretic framework

Digitalization is pushing the maritime industry beyond its traditional limits and provides many new opportunities to enhance the productivity, efficiency, and sustainability of logistics. The concept of smart ports, for instance, aims to adopt modern information technologies to enable a better planning and management within and between ports. Strong facilitators of the digitalization are investments into technology and cooperations for promoting information sharing and a better coordination and collaboration, often regarded as a stumbling block in highly competitive environments. Besides many new opportunities, important economic issues and problems arise. We provide an overview of the development and state-of-the-art of digital transformation in modern seaports in order to identify current potentials and barriers. Focusing on the crucial and challenging aspects of coordination and collaboration, we present a conceptual game theoretic framework that allows benefits and cost allocations considering inter-, intra-, and meta-organizational perspectives. We further demonstrate how this framework can be used to develop tools and methods for supporting strategic decision making for driving the digital transformation in seaports and addressing new economic issues and problems.     

Do Foreign Investors Promote Stock Price Efficiency in Emerging Markets?

This paper examines the role of foreign investors in promoting stock price efficiency in emerging stock markets relying on the fact that stock prices in these markets are influenced by both local and global factors. We employ a data sample of Vietnamese‐listed firms on the Ho Chi Minh City stock exchange over the period from 2006 to 2015. We utilize the panel data estimation analysis. The results show that foreign investors accelerate the incorporation of available information into local stock prices. The finding reinforces the important role of foreign investors in domestic stock markets of emerging economies.     

Joining the European Monetary Union—Comparing First and Second Generation Open Economy Models

We log-linearise the Dellas and Tavlas (DT) model of monetary union and solve it analytically. We find that the intuition of optimal currency area analysis of DT’s second generation open economy model is essentially the same as that of first generation models. Monetary union results in no welfare loss if its member states are symmetric. However, asymmetry causes loss in welfare both due to the failure of the union policy to deal suitably with a country’s asymmetric shocks and due to an active monetary policy by the union in pursuit of its distinct objectives. The asymmetry in DT is largely due to the differing wage rigidities across countries. JEL Classification Numbers: F41, F42, E4     

Liquidity and Return Relationships in an Emerging Market

In this paper, we investigate the relationship between liquidity and stock returns in the Vietnam stock market during the global financial crisis. Vietnam is one of a new group of frontier emerging markets referred to as CIVETS (Colombia, Indonesia, Vietnam, Egypt, Turkey, and South Africa). We use a rich and detailed data set of firm characteristics to identify a positive relationship between liquidity and stock returns. This contradicts the negative correlation typically found in stock returns in developed markets. Our results support the proposition that when a market is not fully integrated with the global economy, a lack of liquidity will be a less important risk factor. Our findings contribute to those studies that highlight the diversification benefits from including frontier markets, which have a lower degree of integration with the global economy, in international portfolios.     

Direct medical costs of complications of diabetes in the United States: estimates for event-year and annual state costs (USD 2012)

Objective:

To estimate the direct medical costs associated with managing complications, hypoglycemia episodes, and infections associated with type 2 diabetes expressed in 2012 United States dollars (USD).

Methods:

Direct data analysis and microcosting were used to estimate the costs for an event leading to either a hospital admission or outpatient care, and the post-acute care associated with managing macrovascular and microvascular complications, hypoglycemia episodes, and infections. Data were obtained from many sources, including inpatient and emergency department databases, national physician and laboratory fee schedules, government reports, and literature. Event-year costs reflect the resource use during an acute care episode (initial management in an inpatient or outpatient setting) and any subsequent care provided in the first year. State costs reflect annual resource use required beyond the first year for the ongoing management of complications and other conditions. Costs were assessed from the perspective of a comprehensive US healthcare payer and expressed in 2012 USD.

Results:

Event-year costs (and state costs) for macrovascular complications were as follows: myocardial infarction $56,445 ($1904); ischemic stroke $42,119 ($15,541); congestive heart failure $23,758 ($1904); ischemic heart disease $21,406 ($1904); and transient ischemic attack $7388 ($179). For two microvascular complications the event-year and state costs were assumed the same: $71,714 for end stage renal disease, and $2862 blindness. The event-year cost was $9041 for lower extremity amputations, and $2147 for diabetic foot ulcers. Costs were also determined for managing hypoglycemic episodes: $176–$16,478 (depending on treatment required), and infections: vulvovaginal candidiasis $111, lower urinary tract infection $105.

Conclusions:

This study, which provides up-to-date cost estimates per patient, found that managing macrovascular and microvascular complications results in substantial costs to the healthcare system. This study facilitates conduct of other research studies such as modeling the management of diabetes and estimating the economic burden associated with complications.     

Two Orthogonal Continents? Testing a Two-country DSGE Model of the US and the EU Using Indirect Inference

We examine a two country model of the EU and the US. Each has a small sector of the labour and product markets in which there is wage/price rigidity, but otherwise enjoys flexible wages and prices with a one quarter information lag. Using a VAR to represent the data, we find the model as a whole is rejected. However it is accepted for real variables, output and the real exchange rate, suggesting mis-specification lies in monetary relationships. The model highlights a lack of spillovers between the US and the EU.