Contractual nullification of economically-detrimental state-made laws

An economy may remain robust in the face of efficiency-inhibiting state-made rules if individuals are able to establish effective sources of credibility that do not rely on the state. After explaining how non-state sources of trust and private recourse evolve to enhance credibility, examples of contracting around undesirable rules in United States are discussed. The potential for contractual nullification varies considerably, however, in part because of state action that limits civil-society and/or market activities. In many less robust economies, there are even more significant barriers to building private sources of trust and recourse, undermining the potential for contractual nullification. JEL Code D230, K120, O170     

The Costs of Exhibiting Organizational Citizenship Behavior

Organizational citizenship behavior (OCB) has been associated with positive organizational outcomes and with higher managerial ratings of employee performance. However, concerns have been raised about the possible personal costs of performing such activities. This paper examines the relationship between OCB and emotional exhaustion and work‐family conflict and explores the moderating role of job performance in shaping those relationships. In a time‐lagged field study of customer‐contact center employees the research found that one particular dimension of OCB—conscientiousness—was associated with higher emotional exhaustion and with work‐family conflict. The study also revealed that conscientious employees who performed their in‐role job responsibilities at a high level experienced greater emotional exhaustion and work‐family conflict than conscientious employees who performed their in‐role job responsibilities at a low level. Our findings suggest that organizational pressures to increase the level at which both discretionary and formal role obligations are performed can carry negative consequences for employees. © 2016 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

Relationship of hospital-associated bleeding with length of stay and total hospitalization costs in patients hospitalized for atrial fibrillation

Background:

While literature has focused on the impact of bleeding beginning outside the hospital setting among patients with atrial fibrillation (AF), there is little information regarding bleeding that first occurs within a hospital setting. This study was performed to determine the association between hospital-associated bleeding in patients admitted for AF on outcomes of length of stay (LOS) and total hospitalization cost.

Methods and results:

The Premier research database was queried to identify adult inpatients discharged between 2008–2011 having a primary diagnosis code for AF where a bleeding diagnosis code was not present on admission. Regression was used to adjust for baseline differences in patients to estimate outcomes comparing patients with and without a hospital-associated bleed. There were 143,287 patients that met the study criteria. There were 2991 (2.1%) patients identified with a hospital associated bleed. After adjustment for covariates, the mean estimated LOS was significantly greater in the bleed group, at 6.0 days (95% CI?=?5.8–6.1) vs the no bleed group at 3.3 days (95% CI?=?3.3–3.3) (p?<?0.0001). Similarly, the adjusted mean estimated total hospitalization cost was also significantly greater in the bleed group, $12,069 (95% CI?=?$11,779–$12,366) vs $6561 (95% CI?=?$6538–$6583) in the no bleed group (p?<?0.0001).

Conclusions:

After adjustments for baseline differences the data show that the 2.1% (n?=?2991) of patients with hospital associated bleeding accounted for an estimated additional 8106 hospitalization days and $16.4 million dollars in cost over the study period compared to non-bleeders.     

GDP Estimates: Rationality Tests and Turning Point Performance

The reliability of BEA’s estimates, as measured by the magnitude and pattern of revisions, is highly important to economic policy-making and business decisions. We find evidence that the revisions are partially predicable using contemporaneously available information for the current quarterly estimates of GDP. Information about national income is found to significantly supplement the information found in the final current quarterly estimates of GDP in explaining the revisions to the latest-available estimates of GDP. However, there is little evidence of the predictability of revisions in GDI or national income. Finally, both the advance and final current quarterly estimates are found to do a reliable job of measuring GDP and GDI around cyclical peaks, but a less reliable job around cyclical troughs, the declines preceding the troughs are overstated and the upturns after the troughs are understated. An earlier and somewhat expanded version of this paper, “Revisions, Rationality, and Turning Points in GDP,” was presented at the session “Tracking the Turning Points in the Economy,” AEA meetings January 3–5 2003, Washington DC. It is available in the “working papers” section of BEA’s web site, www.bea.gov     

An empirical investigation of going private decisions of U.S. firms

According to many managers, the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002 caused the costs of being public to increase. Subsequently, following the Act, many firms went private rather than incur the costs. We investigate the differences in the financial characteristics of firms that went private between 1998 and 2003 and a control sample of firms which went public and did not go private Our results indicate that there are differences in the two groups, as well as differences in firms that went private prior to and following Sarbanes-Oxley. Taken together, our results are indicative of going private to avoid the higher costs of being public post Sarbanes-Oxley.     

A labor relations research agenda for health care settings

Inadequate attention has been given to labor-management relations in health care organizations. Bacause of the labor-intensive nature of health care and the great dependence on human resources, health services researchers should place greater emphasis on labor-management issues. This article develops a framework and suggests methodologies for examining labor relations in health care organizations. Specifically, six cirtical issues are suggested for attention by researchers: (1) the quality of the union-management relationship; (2) union organizing drives; (3) collective bargaining and contract negotiations; (4) impasse resolution; (5) contract administration and grievance handling; and (6) labor-management cooperation. These areas of research have been dominated by industrial relations researchers who have focused primarily on the manufacturing sector. Given cost containment and competitive pressures, it is timely to bridge the gap between the health services research community and the accumulating body of knowledge in industrial relations.     

An evolutionary contractarian view of primitive law: The institutions and incentives arising under customary Indian law

This research was supported by the Political Economy Research Center (PERC) in Bozeman, Montana, and this paper draws freely from and extends material reported in Customary Indian Law: Two Case Studies, which was written for PERC's project onProperty Rights, Constitutions, and Indian Economics. I wish to thank Terry Anderson for helpful comments.     

Implications of Web assurance services on e-commerce

The ongoing rapid growth in the popularity of the Internet is having a revolutionary impact on the way companies do business. Doing business online has become a necessity, not an option. However, some consumers are not completely comfortable using the Internet for transacting business because of concerns regarding security of their transactions. For these situations, consumer trust and confidence can be enhanced by a Web assurance service such as AICPA Trust Services. Building on prior studies, the study provides comprehensive information on current reporting requirements, differences among Web assurance services, and results of a recent consumer survey to obtain perceptions of Web assurance services. The theoretical foundation of the current study is based on the Assurance Gaps Model [Burke, K. G., Kovar, S. E., & Prenshaw, P. J. (2004). Unraveling the Expectations Gap: An Assurance Gaps Model and illustrative application. Advances in Accounting Behavioral Research, 7, 169–193]. E-business consumers (users of Web assurance services) can be dichotomized into older consumers and younger consumers, who have different expectations based on information asymmetries. Findings indicate that consumers value Web Assurance services, but younger consumers place greater value on these services than older consumers.     

Clark's Malthus delusion: response to ‘Farming in England 1200–1800’

Clark's claims about the scale of English agricultural output from the 1200s to the 1860s flout historical and geographical reality. His income‐based estimates start with the daily real wages of adult males and assume that days worked per year were constant. Those advanced in British economic growth make no such assumption and instead are built up from the output side. They correlate better with population trends and are consistent with an economy slowly growing and becoming richer. Clark's denial that such growth occurred, his assertion that substantially more land must have been under arable cultivation, his belief that conditions of full employment invariably prevailed in the countryside at harvest time, his concern that the wage bill would have exceeded the value of output in British economic growth, his refusal to consider the possibility that the working year was of variable length, and his assertion that output per acre must have been equalized across arable and pasture are all shown to be figments of his ‘Malthus delusion’.