The Financial Implications of Using Decision Tree Analysis for Publicly Funded Health Care Screening in Canada

This article demonstrates that decision trees have several applications in screening for incidences of various cancers in the publicly funded health care system of Canada. This article reviews previous research on the design of various types of decision trees to identify the relevant decision-making parameters that should be incorporated into enhanced usage of decision trees. This article proposes a methodology for screening breast and prostate cancers. While an accounting is made for various financial costs and benefits, comments are made on the limitations of the modeling exercise through identification of problems in assigning probabilities, the use of samples in ascertaining population parameters, ethical concerns, and measuring a cost per life year. This article concludes with prospects for future research including private sector versus public sector financing and the incorporation of opportunity costs into the decision-making process.     

澳大利亚水资源分配与管理原则及其对我国的启示

今天世界上许多国家都面临水资源短缺的问题,怎样对现有的水资源进行分配,如何对水资源进行有效的管理显得尤为重要。澳大利亚政府在这方面进行了卓有成效的尝试。基于此,首先介绍了澳大利亚水资源的现状,其次分析了澳大利亚水资源分配和管理的原则,最后阐述了澳大利亚在水资源分配和管理方面对我国的启示。     

Consumer support for environmental policies: An application to purchases of green cars

This paper focuses on how consumer motivation can be tapped in order to encourage the adoption of cleaner technologies. Consumers are heterogeneous — they may be guided by intrinsic motivation or extrinsic motivation. While information provision policies (such as the energy label for cars) may be effective in encouraging certain consumers to adopt green cars, financial incentive schemes (such as subsidies or fines) may be more persuasive for extrinsically-motivated consumers. We develop a dynamic theory of adoption of environmental innovations, in which information-provision policies are followed by financial incentives (first ‘carrot’, then ‘stick’ incentives). Analysis of a survey dataset of Swiss households observes considerable heterogeneity in terms of support of information-provision or financial incentive policies, in line with our conjectures. Our results will be of particular interest to policymakers interested in guiding consumers towards cleaner technologies.     

An economic analysis of the use of student evaluations: implications for universities

In this paper, we develop an analytical model of joint maximizing behavior on the part of students and professors to develop policy rules for universities who use student evaluations as tools for increasing professor effort and, thereby, student knowledge. More precisely, we examine the potential benefits of student evaluations, the consequences of over‐emphasizing them and the optimal level of emphasis that should be placed on them. This exercise allows us to determine conditions under which student evaluations would result in an increase in teaching effort and student knowledge, and environments where it would result in professors manipulating grading schemes to obtain higher student ratings, i.e., grade inflation. Copyright © 2003 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Improving Customer Service In Public Sector Organizations

The purpose of this paper is to formulate a customer orientation framework, which may assist in providing service organizations with strategies for a competitive advantage. The proposed markét-led approach towards excellent service for Shanghai Telecom customers includes upgrading staff awareness of external competition, changing culture, leadership, information channels, and staff training. It involves customers and employees in the design of service strategies. It is suggested that the remuneration should be linked to customer satisfaction. A new marketing division would consider competitive advantage issues. The findings and recommendations on the bridging gaps between customer expectations and the provision of service are of interest in over eighty countries that are currently restructuring their state-owned enterprises.     

Should I stay or should I go? Agency nursing work in the UK

There are competing perspectives as to whether agency represents the desire to be a ‘free agent’ in terms of greater flexibility and control, or whether it represents a reluctant retreat from permanent employment. This paper explores the reasons why nurses in the UK work on an agency basis through surveys of two nursing agencies and asks: to what extent do supply-side preferences contribute to the decision for nurses to work on an agency basis? How does working on an agency basis affect the work-life balance and career aspirations of nurses? Two surveys were conducted; one with a ‘generalist’ nurse agency; and one with a ‘specialized’ agency, in order to examine the impact of rare/specialized skills on pecuniary motives. It is found that while nurses who also have a permanent job are more likely to report pecuniary factors as influencing the decision to work through agencies, nurses who solely work agency are more likely to emphasize work-life balance issues and escaping ‘office politics’ as key factors. Importantly, the findings point to the continued appeal of agency work as a means to exit the nursing workplace, suggesting that government reforms to increase the appeal of nursing as a profession have only partially addressed the concerns of nurses.     

US Immigration Levels,Urban Housing Values,and their Implications for Capital Share

This article applies previously estimated effects of immigration on housing values to urban counties in the United States. Our findings here also help estimate how much of the increase in the net capital share of income since 1970 as observed by Piketty ( 2014 ) is caused by immigration. We find that in most urban counties in the United States, increased levels of immigration have had a modest but non‐negligible effect on the level of real estate prices and, per Rognlie ( 2015 ), likely capital share. These estimates provide hard numbers for the public debate over immigration policy in the United States, with implications elsewhere as well.     

Do temporary agency workers affect workplace performance?

Using nationally representative workplace data we find the use of temporary agency workers (TAW) is positively associated with financial performance in the British private sector and weakly associated with higher sales per employee. However TAW is not associated with value added per employee. Employees in workplaces with TAW receive higher wages than observationally equivalent employees in non-TAW workplaces. But the presence of TAW in the employee’s occupation is associated with lower wages for employees in that occupation. Furthermore, conditioning on wages, the presence of TAW at the workplace is associated with lower job satisfaction and higher job anxiety among employees. These findings are consistent with TAW having an adverse effect on employees’ experiences at work, perhaps due a more labour intensive regime, one which is only partly compensated for with higher wages.     

Optimal auctions and information disclosure

We characterise properties of optimal auctions if the seller may disclose information about the quality of the object for sale. We show that the seller maximizes his expected revenue by revelation of all information to all bidders and implementing a second price auction with appropriate reservation price.     

Confidence intervals for maximal reliability in tau‐equivalent models

Subjective probabilities play an important role in marketing research, for example where individuals rate the likelihood that they will purchase a new developed product. The tau‐equivalent model can describe the joint behaviour of multiple test items measuring the same subjective probability. In this paper we stress the use of confidence intervals to assess reliability, as this allows for a more critical assessment of the items as measurement instruments. To improve the reliability one can use a weighted sum as the outcome of the test rather than an unweighted sum. In principle, the weights may be chosen so as to obtain maximal reliability. We propose two new confidence intervals for the maximal reliability in the tau‐equivalent model and we compare these two new intervals with intervals derived earlier in Yuan and Bentler (Psychometrika, 67 , 2002, 251) and Raykov and Penev (Multivariate Behavioral Research, 41 , 2006, 15). The comparison involves coverage curves, a methodology that is new in the field of reliability. The existing Yuan–Bentler and Raykov–Penev intervals are shown to overestimate the maximal reliability, whereas one of our proposed intervals, the stable interval, performs very well. This stable interval hardly shows any bias, and has a coverage for the true value which is approximately equal to the confidence level.