Before the National Health Service: Financing theVoluntary Hospitals, 1900–1939

This article draws upon extensive data to illustrate changes in the financing of English provincial, Scottish, and London voluntary hospitals. Traditional sources of funds other than investment earnings declined, although `windfalls' and major benefactions remained important. Among new sources, central and local government aid was limited. Workplace collections, contributory schemes, and patient payments secured the hospitals' financial position more firmly than is generally recognized, but they could not resolve longer-term problems. These new sources illustrated the changed character of voluntary hospitals, as their original philanthropic focus upon the sick poor was largely replaced by quasi-insurance arrangements and forms of payment from a wider social clientele.     

Nutrition Transition and Changing Food Preferences in India

We present empirical evidence on how changes in food preferences have contributed to nutrition transition, where the dietary pattern of households shifts away from traditional staples. Using household-level time series cross-section survey data for India, we estimate time varying demand elasticities, revealing evidence of the declining importance of cereals in Indian household diets. The estimates show that Indian demand for cereals has become more income inelastic and price elastic. We also find that cereals are a substitute rather than a complement to animal products in household diets. Since changes in elasticities can only be attributed to variation in utility parameters, this indicates that cereals are losing favour with Indian households. These findings have implications for Indian food policy design and implementation.     

A Cross-Cultural Application of a Theoretical Model of Business Ethics: Bridging the Gap between Theory and Data

Hunt and Vitell's General Theory (1992) is used in a cross-cultural comparison of U.S. and Taiwanese business practitioners. Results indicate that Taiwanese practitioners exhibit lower perceptions of an ethical issue in a scenario based on bribery, as well as milder deontological evaluations and ethical judgments relative to their U.S. counterparts. In addition, Taiwan respondents showed higher likelihood of making the payment. Several of the paths between variables in the theory are confirmed in both U.S. and Taiwan samples, with summary data suggesting the Hunt and Vitell theory performs well in both U.S. and Taiwan. Some unanticipated linkages within the model were uncovered in the samples. Results and implications are discussed.     

Regulations,Institutions, and Commitment: Comparative Studies of Telecommunications

Journal of Regulatory Economics -     

Democratization and Politics in South African Townships

In South Africa, as in many other countries, there appears to have been a demobilization of mass urban movements following the achievement of representative democracy. This apparent demobilization has led to a perception that South Africa's neighbourhood‐based civic organizations are in crisis. This article builds on existing studies by sharpening analysis of the nature of this ‘crisis’. We show that there continue to be high levels of popular engagement with self‐governing civic structures at the local level. The decline in mass direct action in civil society appears to be linked to public confidence in political society, i.e. in the political parties and elected councillors that provide mechanisms for local representation in representative democracy. The crisis facing civic organizations is in large part a crisis of adjustment, as civic activists redefine their roles in the new institutional context and accept that their roles will be more limited than in specific extraordinary periods in the past. What makes this task of redefinition so difficult is that civil and political society cannot be easily separated, but, rather, form a tangled web in the minds of civic activists (and, we suspect, ordinary citizens also). The lesson of this South African case‐study is that changing patterns of popular politics need to be located in a careful analysis of political society as well as civil society, and especially of the real and perceived links between them. En Afrique du Sud, comme dans de nombreux pays, une démobilisation se dessine, semble‐t‐il, dans les mouvements urbains de masse depuis l'accès à une démocratie représentative. Cette sensation laisse à penser que les organisations civiques de quartier sont en crise en Afrique du Sud. S'appuyant sur des études existantes, l'article affine l'analyse de la nature de cette ‘crise’. Il montre qu'il existe toujours des niveaux élevés d'engagement populaire avec, au niveau local, des structures civiques autonomes. Le recul de l'action directe de masse au sein de la société civile semble liéà la confiance générale dans la société politique, c'est‐à‐dire dans les partis et les conseillers élus qui assurent les mécanismes locaux de la représentation démocratique. La crise que connaissent les organisations de citoyens est en grande partie une crise d'ajustement, les activistes devant redéfinir leur rôle dans le nouveau contexte institutionnel et accepter que celui‐ci soit plus limité que durant certaines périodes du passé. Cette opération de redéfinition est particulièrement problématique, car il n'est pas facile de séparer société civile et société politique, celles‐ci étant étroitement m7ecirc;lées dans l'esprit des activistes civiques (et, à notre avis, dans celui des citoyens ordinaires). Cette étude de cas sud‐africaine démontre qu'il faut situer les nouveaux schémas de politique générale par une analyse précise tant de la société politique que de la société civile, notamment en ce qui concerne les liens réels et supposés entre les deux.     

The impact of endowment heterogeneity and origin on contributions in best-shot public good games

Economists and psychologists have long argued the origin of wealth influences individual behavior. In a previous study (Cherry et al., 2005), we found the origin of endowment did not significantly affect behavior in linear public good games with summation contribution technology. In such games, however, both Nash behavior (everybody gives nothing) and social optimal behavior (everybody gives the entire endowment) call for symmetric levels of contributions. Results from this new study indicate that the origin of wealth might matter in more asymmetric situations, such as in a best-shot public good game with heterogeneous groups. Electronic Supplementary Material Supplementary material is available in the online version of this article at . JEL Classification C72, C92, H41     

Developing inter-organizational relationships with online travel agencies (OTAs) and the hotel industry

This research examines the relationship status of leading OTAs with the hotel industry in the Asia Pacific (APAC) region along with future trends in hotel distribution channels. A Delphi study was conducted with senior executives (n = 12) of leading OTAs to explore the inter-organizational relationship development between hotels and OTAs. Our results indicate that building a long-term sustainable relationship with the hotel industry requires OTAs to be innovative and capable of enhancing their value to hotels. Moreover, the future of the hotel distribution landscape in the APAC region is expected to become increasingly complex.     

Calculating Funding Premiums for Universal Life Insurance

Abstract

This paper provides a brief overview of the most commonly used methods for calculating the level gross premium required to achieve a specific funding target under a typical universal life product design. The first method described utilizes summation techniques from numerical analysis to derive a general accumulation formula. Manipulating this formula leads to an expression for the modal gross funding premium. The second method uses a partial Taylor series expansion to derive a variant of the Newton-Raphson iteration formula, which can be shown to provide second-order convergence to the funding premium. Other iteration methods providing first-order convergence are also described. A more detailed discussion of these methods and their applicability can be found in the author’s paper “Calculating Funding Premiums for Universal Life Insurance, with Examples,” scheduled to be published in the 1999–2000 volume of the TSA Reports.