Attracting investors for public health programmes with Social Impact Bonds

ABSTRACT

Social impact bonds (SIBs) have emerged as an innovative financing mechanism. This paper explores how health SIBs align with investors’ expectations and the conditions required to attract investors. At present, health SIBs are unlikely to provide sufficient financial returns given their financial risk to attract mainstream investors, so may be better suited to investors who are prepared to accept lower financial returns blended with particular health impact returns.     

British trade unions in Ireland

This article examines various influences on the organisation of British trade unions in Ireland. The constitution of the ICTU is considered in the context of the drive towards an Irish-based and controlled trade union movement. The organisational response of British-based unions to these nationalist pressures is assessed using union rule books and interviews with trade union officials.     

Systematic Price Differences Between Successive Auctionsare no Anomaly

Identical cases of wine are often auctioned one immediately after another. Ashenfelter (1989) reports that on average, the later lots fetch less. Such a systematic price difference seems anomalous, the more so because it is shown here that rational expectations imply not equal, but rising, prices. Risk aversion is an obvious way of reconciling the evidence with rational behavior. There is an alternative explanation. The auctions observed by Ashenfelter involved a buyer's option, whereby the first-round winner could purchase further cases at the same price. It is shown that this feature may both account for the observed price trajectory and raise seller revenue.     

Controlling acid deposition: A general equilibrium assessment

In this paper, we evaluate the impact of the SO₂ provisions in the 1990 Clean Air Act. A computable general equilibrium (CGE) model of the United States is used to evaluate the implications of this law for a number of economic sectors. We find that the largest negative impact falls on the coal industry. Output in the refining sector also decreases, but agricultural production increases as consumers shift spending into food and wood based products.     

Perspectives on the implementation of employee rights programs

In the past decade, employee rights have been an increasingly important and complex issue. This paper examines the benefits of successfully implementing employee rights programs and outlines factors that influence effective implementation. This includes a discussion of three general organizational approaches to employee rights issues and contextual factors that influence successful implementation of employee rights programs.Never in American history has there been so much confusion over the prerogatives of managers to manage and the rights of their subordinates to be managed within limits. On this point, if nothing else, there is complete agreement... (Ewing, 1983, p. 1)     

Concentration and non-price competition in the recording industry

This paper examines the effect of varying levels of concentration on a certain type of non-price competition in the recording industry. That dimension of rivalry is the quantity of new recordings released which, as our analysis shows, is likely to be directly related to the degree of musical innovation and diversity offered by the industry. Two theoretical models of the effects of concentration on recording firm behavior are developed and empirical tests are derived to determine if either model correctly predicts industry behavior. Examination of two sets of data suggests that increases in concentration may have led to fewer releases of new recordings, possibly as a result of collusive conduct.     

Consequences of measurement problems in strategic management research: the case of Amihud and Lev

Strategic management research has been characterized as placing less emphasis on construct measurement than other management subfields. To illustrate the consequences of measurement error, we revisit the debate on the causes of diversification. Our research suggests that the divergent findings between studies on this topic are largely the result of measurement error, and that prior work has underestimated the true effect of size in the relationships between variables. Copyright © 2004 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.