PATIENT PARTICIPATION IN GENERAL PRACTICE*

Existing mechanisms for the representation of patient interests in the primary care sector of medicine in the U.K. are rudimentary and only partly effective. Elected, practice-based patient committees. which have begun to emerge in recent years, are an attempted solution to problems in this sphere. Drawing on a study of one particular committee of this kind, this paper discusses the representative role of committee members, and analyses the possible functions of patients' committees. Problem areas are identified in relation to medical staff. the future development of such committees is considered, and some suggestions are put forward.     

What Is the Expected Return on a Stock?

We derive a formula for the expected return on a stock in terms of the risk‐neutral variance of the market and the stock's excess risk‐neutral variance relative to that of the average stock. These quantities can be computed from index and stock option prices; the formula has no free parameters. The theory performs well empirically both in and out of sample. Our results suggest that there is considerably more variation in expected returns, over time and across stocks, than has previously been acknowledged.     

国际贸易和自然资源"诅咒":中国的增长威胁到东南亚地区的发展了吗?

随着中国经济的迅猛发展和快速融入全球市场,东南亚资源丰裕国家正在不断丧失其在劳动密集型制造业上的比较优势,同时其资源开发变得更为有利可图。对这些东南亚国家,尤其是一些最为贫穷同时却又正处于减少中央对资源控制管理的分权过程中的国家而言,这一趋势如何影响长期增长和福利?正如“自然资源诅咒”所预言一样,快速的资源采伐和减速的工业发展可能会使这些国家进入慢速经济增长时期。     

Identity Work: Sustaining Transnational Collective Action at General Motors Europe

What are the conditions under which transnational collective action is initiated and sustained? This article presents a case study of General Motors Europe, where labor leaders have mobilized the workforce and bargained with management at the transnational level repeatedly over more than a decade as a response to management whipsawing and threats of plant closures. In contrast to structuralist interest‐based theories of union behavior, we identify a process of “identity work” that was necessary to sustain transnational worker cooperation.     

Institutional Investors and the QE Portfolio Balance Channel

The operation of the portfolio balance channel has been emphasized by monetary policymakers as a key channel through which quantitative easing (QE) policies work. We assess whether the investment behavior of insurance companies and pension funds in the United Kingdom during the global financial crisis was consistent with such an effect by analyzing both sectoral and institution‐level data. Our results suggest QE led to institutional investors shifting their portfolios away from government bonds toward corporate bonds but did not lead to a shift into equities.