Digital identity: How users value the attributes of online identifiers

This paper examines online identifiers from an economic perspective. It uses conjoint analysis survey techniques to develop empirical data on how users value the attributes of online identifiers. It is concerned in particular with three issues: (1) the degree to which identified subjects value increasing the scope of an identifier, i.e., the ability to use a single identifier to access services offered by several organizations; (2) the degree to which users’ choice may be constrained by switching costs; and (3) the value individuals place on privacy and data security relative to other attributes such as cost or scope. The survey population was located in South Korea. The results indicate that e-mail addresses dominate the world of online identifiers for ordinary consumers; that consumers highly value increased scope (e.g., single sign-on capabilities) and the security of their private data; and that switching costs are high.     

Linkage Formation by Small Firms: The Case of A Rural Cluster in Indonesia

This paper analyses forward linkages formed by small firms in Ceper, a rural metal-casting cluster in Central Java, and examines the effects of these linkages in promoting the firms' development. Firms in the cluster have developed subcontracting linkages with assemblers in the urban modern sector, and putting-out linkages with wholesalers located in the cities. The linkages provide benefits beyond product sales: some firms are stimulated to improve technological capabilities through subcontracting linkages with assemblers; others are supported by trade credits embedded in linkages with wholesalers. In comparing these effects with external assistance, the firms rate technological help from private institutions with a business orientation more highly than that from assemblers, and support from wholesalers more highly than any other source of financial assistance. Government assistance receives a relatively low rating. There is little evidence of effects of clustering, partly because firms consider linkages with the outer economy more strategic.     

The HM ‘Treasure's Island’: The Application of Accruals-based Accounting Standards in the UK Government

Since the 1990s, UK has been progressively adopting a governmental accounting reform purporting to interpret and mimic accounting standards and practices from the private sector. Since 2009, the UK set of accounting standards applicable to the whole of governmental entities is based upon the HM Treasury's official interpretation of the international accounting standards initially designed for commercial enterprises, the latter standards having extensively inspired the International Public Sector Accounting Standards. This article analyses some representational concerns raised by its application of a balance sheet accounting approach to the public administration, pointing to consolidation perimeter, current value measurement of assets and liabilities and the case of public–private partnerships. This theoretical analysis develops relevant implications for representation and control of public spending and borrowing in UK and in general.     

Consumption-investment problem with transaction costs for Lévy-driven price processes

We consider an optimal control problem for a linear stochastic integro-differential equation with conic constraints on the phase variable and with the control of singular–regular type. Our setting includes consumption-investment problems for models of financial markets in the presence of proportional transaction costs, where the prices of the assets are given by a geometric Lévy process, and the investor is allowed to take short positions. We prove that the Bellman function of the problem is a viscosity solution of an HJB equation. A uniqueness theorem for the solution of the latter is established. Special attention is paid to the dynamic programming principle.     

The correlation of spouses' permanent and transitory earnings and family earnings inequality in Canada

I develop a very flexible error-component model of family earnings dynamics to examine recent Canadian trends in the variance of family earnings and its components using the ‘permanent-transitory’ analytical framework. In contrast to most studies of family earnings inequality, the main focus of this paper is on the trends in the correlation between spouses' permanent and transitory earnings. I find strong evidence of an increase in the correlation of spouses' permanent earnings before 1993 and no evidence of such an increase after 1993. However, the correlation of spouses' transitory earnings steadily increased throughout the 1990s and well into the 2000s.     

A case-control comparison of direct healthcare-provider medical costs of chronic idiopathic constipation and irritable bowel syndrome with constipation in a community-based cohort

Objective: Patients with constipation account for 3.1 million US physician visits a year, but care costs for patients with irritable bowel syndrome with constipation (IBS-C) or chronic idiopathic constipation (CIC) compared to the general public have received little study. The study aim was to describe healthcare utilization and compare medical costs for patients with IBS-C or CIC vs matched controls from a community-based sample.

Methods: A nested case-control sample (IBS-C and CIC cases) and matched controls (1:2) for each case group were selected from Olmsted County, MN, individuals responding to a community-based survey of gastrointestinal symptoms (2008) who received healthcare from a participating Rochester Epidemiology Project (REP) provider. Using REP healthcare utilization data, unadjusted and adjusted standardized costs were compared for the 2- and 10-year periods prior to the survey for 115 IBS-C patients and 230 controls and 365 CIC patients and 730 controls. Two time periods were chosen as these conditions are episodic, but long-term.

Results: Outpatient costs for IBS-C ($6,800) and CIC ($6,284) patients over a 2-year period prior to the survey were significantly higher than controls ($4,242 and $5,254, respectively) after adjusting for co-morbidities, age, and sex. IBS-C outpatient costs ($25,448) and emergency room costs ($6,892) were significantly higher than controls ($21,024 and $3,962, respectively) for the 10-year period prior. Unadjusted data analyses of cases compared to controls demonstrated significantly higher imaging costs for IBS-C cases and procedure costs for CIC cases over the 10-year period.

Limitations: Data were collected from a random community sample primarily receiving care from a limited number of providers in that area.

Conclusions: Patients with IBS-C and CIC had significantly higher outpatient costs for the 2-year period compared with controls. IBS-C patients also had higher ER costs than the general population.