Emergency department: improving patient satisfaction

A process improvement initiative aimed at decreasing emergency department (ED) length of stay (LOS) and thereby improving patient satisfaction was implemented. Any attempt to improve ED LOS requires intense focus on the goal and involvement of many departments of the hospital. While the LOS targets were not met, decreasing the LOS to the achieved levels resulted in the highest levels of patient satisfaction ever achieved and sustained in the ED.     

Costs of business cycles for unskilled workers

Unskilled workers are subject to a much larger risk of unemployment during recessions than are skilled workers. Moreover, unskilled workers earn less income, which limits their ability to self-insure. We examine how this heterogeneity in unemployment risk and income across different skill groups translates into heterogeneity in the cost of business cycles. We find that the welfare cost of business cycles for unskilled workers is substantially higher than the welfare cost for skilled workers.     

book reviews

THE CHANGING CONTOURS OF BRITISH INDUSTRIAL RELATIONS Nuffield College, Oxford WORK AND PEOPLE: AN ECONOMIC EVALUATION OF JOB ENRICHMENT Lodon School of Economics THE HIDDEN MEANING OF PAY CONFLICT University of Edinburgh COMPETITION AND CONTROL AT WORK Centre for Research in Industrial Democracy and Participation Glasgow University     

A Monte Carlo test of Slutsky symmetry

This paper demonstrates how Barnard's (1963) Monte Carlo test procedure can be applied to Slutsky symmetry in demand systems.     

Wage indexation: A macroeconomic approach

This essay examines the role of wage indexation in dampening macroeconomic fluctuations in a simple neoclassical model modified to incorporate short-term wage rigidities and uncertainty. The analysis departs from most of the previous literature on indexing in its explicit consideration of real disturbances. It is found that while indexing insulates the real sector from the effects of monetary shocks, it may exacerbate the real effects of real shocks. Thus the analysis suggests an optimal degree of partial indexation that depends on the underlying stochastic structure of the economy. Consequently, optimal indexing will not, in general, insulate the real sector from monetary variability.     

Rethinking Bretton Woods

Genuine development is now commonly viewed as a multidimensional, people-centred process wherein decision making is guided by the principles of participation, transparency, accountability and subsidiarity. By these criteria, the Bretton Woods institutions (BWIs), created 50 years ago, are in need of significant reform. Change must encompass the BWIs' own rules and policies as well as their relationships and responsibilities to the broader international community, from the immediate subjects of BWI projects to the United Nations and its specialized agencies. The practical segregation of the BWIs from the UN should be recognized as a hindrance to development, and governments and NGOs should promote their improved coordination.