Beyond the Opposition Between Altruism and Self-interest: Reciprocal Giving in Reward-Based Crowdfunding

The present article is a continuation of the debate two sets of authors (Bagus and Howden vs. Barnett and Block) have been engaging in regarding one type of maturity mismatching: borrowing short and lending long (BSLL). All four authors had agreed that this practice can set up the Austrian Business Cycle; the present author denies that BSLL would be a legitimate commercial interaction in the free society; Bagus and Howden continue to maintain that it would be licit. Our main criticism of Bagus and Howden is a reductio ad absurdum: that this opens them up to the charge of embracing the doctrine of market failure; this is something highly problematic for the two of them, since all four contributors to this debate are well-known supporters of laissez faire capitalism.     

Treatment patterns and healthcare resource utilization and costs in heavy menstrual bleeding: a Japanese claims database analysis

Aims: Heavy menstrual bleeding (HMB) is a highly prevalent condition, characterized by excessive menstrual blood loss and cramping, that interferes with activities of daily life. The aim of this study was to investigate treatment patterns in HMB in Japan, and to assess healthcare resource utilization and costs among women newly-diagnosed with the condition.

Materials and methods: This study retrospectively analyzed health insurance data available in the Japan Medical Data Center (JMDC) database on women aged 18–49 years who were newly-diagnosed with primary or secondary HMB. Treatment patterns were analyzed, and healthcare utilization and costs were evaluated and compared to matched controls.

Results: The study included a total of 635 patients, 210 with primary HMB and 425 with secondary HMB. In the primary HMB cohort, 60.0% of patients received one or more pharmacological or surgical treatments, compared with 76.2% in the secondary HMB cohort. The most commonly prescribed medications in all patients were hemostatic agents (28.7%), traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) (12.1%), and low-dose estrogen progestins (LEPs) (10.1%). After adjustment for patient baseline characteristics, healthcare costs were 1.93-times higher in primary HMB cases (p?<?.0001) and 4.44-times higher in secondary HMB cases (p?<?.0001) vs healthy controls. Outpatient care was the main cost driver.

Limitations: The main limitations of this study are related to its retrospective nature, and the fact that only reimbursed medications were captured in the source database.

Conclusions: A substantial proportion of HMB patients did not receive the recommended treatments. Healthcare costs were considerably increased in the presence of an HMB diagnosis.     

On the equilibrium and welfare consequences of getting ahead of the Smiths

This paper provides an analysis of the social consequences of people seeking to get ahead of the Smiths. All individuals attempt to reach a higher rank than the Smiths, including the Smiths themselves. This attitude gives rise to an equilibrium in which all individuals have equal utilities but unequal (gross) incomes. Due to a rat‐race effect, individuals devote too much energy to climbing the social scale. However, laissez‐faire equilibrium is an equal‐utility constrained social optimum. Conversely, a utilitarian social planner would not choose utility equality. Unexpectedly, this social ambition theory fairly well accounts for empirical intermediate wage inequality.     

Decision theory made relevant: Between the software and the shrink

Decision theory offers a formal approach to decision making, which is often viewed and taught as the rational way to approach managerial decisions. Half a century ago it generated high hopes of capturing and perhaps replacing intuition, and providing the “right” answer in practically all managerial situations. Today it seems fair to say that decision theory has not lived up to these expectations. Behavioral science provides ample evidence that managers fail to follow the dicta of decision theory, even when these are explained to them. As a result, executives often find decision theory frustrating and useless and prefer to rely on their intuition. This paper suggests that this extreme conclusion is unwarranted and calls for a re-appraisal of decision theory. We propose that it should not always be regarded as a mathematical tool that produces the answer; rather, it can be viewed as a framework for a dialog between the decision maker and the decision theorist. In one extreme, the decision theorist studies the problem and provides the “correct’’ answer. But in another, the decision theorist only challenges the decision maker's intuition and logic. In between, a whole gamut of possible dialogs exists, in which decision theory doesn't replace intuition, but supports and refines it.     

Economic and non-economic determinants of FDI inflows in Vietnam: a sub-national analysisPost-Communist Economies

This article focuses on identifying the factors that determine FDI inflows at the sub-national level (i.e. provinces/cities) in Vietnam. Based on a longitudinal dataset for the period 2008–2013 of 63 provinces/cities, we examine the impact on FDI of conventional factors (market size, human resources and infrastructures) as well as emerging factors (institutions and policies, domestic and foreign agglomeration) that are suggested by theories in economics and international business. Statistical results show that market size, infrastructure, labour quality, institutions and policies, and agglomeration are major determinants of FDI inflows at the sub-national level in Vietnam. Implications for policy makers and future research are also discussed.     

From data problems to questions about sources: elements towards an institutional analysis of population-level organisational change. The case of British building societies, 1845–1980

Abstract

Institutional analyses of population-level organisational change seem particularly well suited to the task of further incorporating historical concerns into organisational theory, as has been advocated by a growing number of authors, both within business history and management and organisation studies. Such an approach has been applied, in particular, to studies of shifts in organisational forms within the early-twentieth-century US thrift industry. The aim of this article, building on the case study of British building societies during the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, is to uncover both the promises and the limitations of this approach in terms of historical epistemology and methodology, and suggest ways to further consolidate the historical grounding of similar approaches to organisational change. In particular, detailed attention paid to sources and to periodisation may point towards improvements in methodology, both within historical institutionalism and neo-institutionalist history.     

Circulation of autonomous agents in production and service networks

The inherent complexity characterizing production and/or service networks strongly favors decentralized and self-organizing mechanisms to regulate the flows of matter and information in circulation. This basic observation motivates us to study the flow dynamics in queueing networks roamed by autonomous agents which, at a given time and at a given vertex location, select their routing according to (individual) historical data (such as waiting times) collected during their past progression in the network. For several simple network configurations and despite the intrinsically non-Markovian character of the dynamics, we are able to discuss analytically the emerging collective dynamics that such a circulation of autonomous agents generates. Feedback loops in the network topology coupled with the presence of delays in the routing selection mechanisms produce a wealth of dynamical phenomena like self-sustained generically stable oscillations, spatio-temporal patterns, stabilization by noise phenomena and oscillator synchronization that are explicitly discussed in this paper.     

The Nature of Strategic Communication: A Rejoinder to Nothhaft

In this article, we address and challenge Nothhaft’s (2016) recent attempt to revive the field of strategic communication through an application of approaches and principles from the studies of the human mind. Instead of an indiscriminate import of a natural science perspective, we argue that the shortcomings of the field are dealt with more adequately by recognizing and embracing the immense complexity at play in all dimensions of strategic communication. The challenge is to understand the multiple goals and dimensions of the field, to acknowledge the principle of recursivity in all communicative practices, and to approach the individual not as a solitary mind, but a social being whose drives and proclivities are always socially and culturally mediated.     

Van gijn's wetsontwerp tot regeling van de inrichting der staatsbegrooting en staatsrekening

Le budget, monstre énorme, admirable poisson, A qui, de toutes parts, on jette l'hameçon.