UK Industrial Policy: Old Tunes on New Instruments?

This paper discusses the current Labour government's industrialpolicy—as most recently reflected in its document on manufacturingstrategy—in the context of industrial policy in the UKover the last 50 years and the form that it has taken elsewherein Europe. It concludes that the thematic priorities for UKindustrial policy in the 1960s—international competitiveness,innovation, competition, and skills—continue to be thekey themes of UK policy today. The paper presents data thatillustrate the gaps that exist in key indicators of performancebetween the UK and its main economic competitors. The differencebetween the 1960s and the 2000s is that there are new instrumentsof policy. Two areas in particular are focused on—competitionpolicy and technology policy—and an attempt is made toassess the likely effectiveness of these new instruments. Thepaper concludes that the international evidence base for thesenew approaches is reasonably robust but that it is still toosoon to tell if they are having the hoped-for impact on theperformance of the UK economy.     

Medical Malpractice Liability and Physician Migration

This paper uses national data on individual physicians and two control groups to provide evidence on the extent to which each of five medical malpractice reforms impacts the decision to move one's medical practice to another state. We find robust evidence that states that have implemented noneconomic damage caps experience less out-migration of physicians than states that do not have these reforms. In addition, we find some evidence that joint and several liability reforms and patient compensation funds also impact the migration decisions of physicians.     

Inductive research in last-mile delivery routing: Introducing the Re-Gifting heuristic

The last-mile problem presents a daunting challenge for many logistics service providers, especially some 7000 small, localized operations for whom the cost of complex software solutions is often prohibitive. As a result, last-mile dispatchers rely on simple heuristics to ensure adequate customer service at an acceptable cost. This research effort extends prior qualitative work by developing and testing a simple vehicle routing heuristic, based on behaviors observed in practice, that prioritizes customer service over cost against other simple vehicle routing heuristics across a variety of environments using simulation. The results support the inclusion of a customer service focus in vehicle routing and the addition of such heuristics to existing algorithm portfolios, specifically in urban areas with well-developed highway systems.     

Voting patterns of big eight representatives in setting accounting and auditing standards

The “Big Eight” accounting firms are alleged to dominate the setting of accounting and auditing standards. This paper identifies the recent criticisms and reviews the standard setting procedures of the APB, FASB, and the ASB. The results of five empirical studies designed to investigate the alleged domination issue are summarized. The conclusion drawn is that there is no empirical evidence to indicate that the Big Eight collectively govern the accounting and auditing standard-setting process.     

The medical expense deduction and income levels: Progressive or regressive?

The medical expense deduction (MED) allows taxpayers to deduct from taxable income a proportion of their out-of-pocket medical insurance and health care expenses. Because the rate of subsidy is equal to the marginal tax rate previous studies have found MED to be a regressive tax mechanism biased toward benefiting higher-income taxpayers. The authors demonstrate, using GINI coefficients, that MED makes the tax structure more progressive than it would otherwise be and increases equality of after-tax incomes.