Liquidity of secondary capital markets: Allocative efficiency and the maturity composition of the capital stock

Summary We investigate the function of liquid financial markets for the allocation of productive capital. We consider an economy where agents endogenously choose among capital production technologies with differing gestation periods. Long-gestation capital investments must be rolled-over in secondary capital markets. The use of such investment technologies therefore requires the support of liquid financial markets. We investigate how changes in the liquidity of these markets (i.e., in the costs of transacting) affect (a) the choice of capital production technology, (b) per capita income and the per capita capital stock, (c) the level of financial market activity, (d) the real return on savings and (e) welfare in a steady state equilibrium. Improvements in financial market liquidity raise rates of return on savings, and favor the increased use of long gestation capital investments. However, such improvements may or may not lead to higher levels of real activity or steady state welfare. We describe conditions under which various outcomes occur.We have benefited from the comments of seminar participants at the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System, the Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis, the International Monetary Fund, Berkeley, Boston College, Boston University, Brown, Chicago, Illinois, Miami, UC San Diego, Simon Fraser, University of British Columbia, University of Washington, Yale, the Canadian Macro Study Group Meetings, the Murrary S. Johnson Conference (University of Texas/Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas), and the Far West Rotating Economic Theory Conference. We would also like to thank John Bryant, Andreas Hornstein, Dan Peled, Bill Schworm, Karl Shell, Bart Taub and an anonymous referee for their comments on an earlier draft of the paper.     

Comparison of medical costs and healthcare resource utilization of post-menopausal women with HR+/HER2− metastatic breast cancer receiving everolimus-based therapy or chemotherapy: a retrospective claims database analysis

Objective:

To analyze medical costs and healthcare resource utilization (HRU) associated with everolimus-based therapy or chemotherapy among post-menopausal women with hormone-receptor-positive, human-epidermal-growth-factor-receptor-2-negative (HR+/HER2?) metastatic breast cancer (mBC).

Methods:

Patients with HR+/HER2? mBC who discontinued a non-steroidal aromatase inhibitor and began a new line of treatment with everolimus-based therapy or chemotherapy (index therapy/index date) between July 20, 2012 and April 30, 2014 were identified from two large claims databases. All-cause, BC-related, and adverse event (AE)-related medical costs (in 2014 USD) and all-cause HRU per patient per month (PPPM) were analyzed for both treatment groups across patients’ first four lines of therapies for mBC. Adjusted differences in costs and HRU between the everolimus and chemotherapy treatment group were estimated pooling all lines and using multivariable generalized linear models, accounting for difference in patient characteristics.

Results:

A total of 3298 patients were included: 902 everolimus-treated patients and 2636 chemotherapy-treated patients. Compared to chemotherapy, everolimus was associated with significantly lower all-cause (adjusted mean difference?=?$3455, p?<?0.01) and BC-related ($2510, p?<?0.01) total medical costs, with inpatient ($1344, p?<?0.01) and outpatient costs ($1048, p?<?0.01) as the main drivers for cost differences. Everolimus was also associated with significantly lower AE-related medical costs ($1730, p?<?0.01), as well as significantly lower HRU (emergency room incidence rate ratio [IRR]?=?0.83; inpatient IRR?=?0.74; inpatient days IRR?=?0.65; outpatient IRR?=?0.71; BC-related outpatient IRR?=?0.57; all p?<?0.01).

Conclusions:

This retrospective claims database analysis of commercially-insured patients with HR+/HER2? mBC in the US showed that everolimus was associated with substantial all-cause, BC-related, and AE-related medical cost savings and less utilization of healthcare resources relative to chemotherapy.     

Der Einfluss von Marketing Assets auf den Shareholder Value

Zusammenfassung  Marketer sehen sich zunehmend unter Erfolgs- und Rechtfertigungsdruck. Das Problem dabei: Der Erfolgsbeitrag von Marketing Assets zum Unternehmenswert ist in Forschung und Praxis weitgehend unbekannt. Der folgende Beitrag deckt die Einflüsse von Marketing Assets auf den Shareholder Value umfassend auf. Sie lernen eine Methode kennen, mit der die vielf?ltigen Einflüsse integriert gemessen und überprüft werden k?nnen. Prof. Dr. Mario Rese Lehrstuhl für Betriebswirtschaftslehre, insbesondere Marketing, an der Ruhr-Universit?t Bochum und Mitglied der Faculty der European School of Management and Technology Berlin Dipl.-Kffr. Valerie Herter Wissenschaftliche Mitarbeiterin am gleichnamigen Lehrstuhl     

Explaining activity and exploring experience—findings from a survey of union learning representatives

This article draws on data from one of the largest surveys to date of union learning representatives (ULRs) in order to build a unique picture of ULR experience and activity. It is found that ULRs made a contribution to increased diversity and represented an injection of ‘new blood’ within workplace union structures. Moreover, ULRs with no previous union involvement were just as likely to be active in promoting learning as their more experienced colleagues. At the same time, we found that a significant minority of trained ULRs were not active in union learning. While ULR activity was not confined within traditionally unionised settings, active and effective ULRs were most likely to be found in workplaces with substantive structures and institutions that underpinned union learning and reflected a clear commitment from the employer. ULR activity was more difficult to start and to sustain in workplaces in which this support was absent. The article concludes that in order for ULR activity to permeate such environments, some degree of additional statutory support may be necessary.     

Individual Priming in Virtual Team Decision-Making

Virtual teams have different interactions than face-to-face teams because they rely on information and communication technologies, which can impede or assist certain human cognitive processes. Past research has shown that although virtual teams exchange more information than face-to-face teams, poor decisions often result, because team members do not consider the unique information they receive from others. Drawing from cognitive psychology, our research explored a unique way to improve team decision-making through the use of cognitive priming. We proposed that priming group members to pay attention to others or to engage in counterfactual thinking would improve team members’ cognition and, therefore, team performance. Prior research with individuals and brainstorming teams has shown these forms of priming to improve performance; however, no research has attempted to use priming to improve the outcomes of virtual team decision-making, which requires deeper interaction and cognitive involvement than brainstorming. We performed two lab experiments using primes that have been found to improve the individual decision-making process. We found that priming had some impact, but it did not significantly improve decision quality. Various reasons are discussed to explain why priming techniques may not be as powerful in teams as in individuals, and future research ideas are suggested to build on our initial work on priming in virtual team decision-making.     

Bank/sovereign risk spillovers in the European debt crisis

This paper investigates contagion between bank and sovereign default risk in Europe over the period 2007–2012. We define contagion as excess correlation, i.e. correlation between banks and sovereigns over and above what is explained by common factors, using CDS spreads at the bank and at the sovereign level. Moreover, we investigate the determinants of contagion by analyzing bank-specific as well as country-specific variables and their interaction. Using the EBA’s disclosure of sovereign exposures of banks, we provide empirical evidence that three contagion channels are at work: a guarantee channel, an asset holdings channel and a collateral channel. We find that banks with a weak capital buffer, a weak funding structure and less traditional banking activities are particularly vulnerable to risk spillovers. At the country level, the debt ratio is the most important driver of contagion. Furthermore, the impact of government interventions on contagion depends on the type of intervention, with outright capital injections being the most effective measure in reducing spillover intensity.     

The Quality of Manufactured Products in Britain and Germany

This paper is concerned with the relation between workforce skills and high-quality production. Detailed investigations of specific products sampled from three industries indicate that the average British-made product embodied fewer quality-features than its German-made counterpart, and that Britain produces little of top-quality grades—in contrast to a strong German presence at that end of the market. These findings were based on factory visits and discussions with trade experts in both countries. Two broad aspects of workforce skills which contribute to higher-quality production were identified: (1) the skills relevant at the design-interface between consumer demand and production realities, and (2) the skills relevant to small and medium-sized batch-production of specialised varieties. Existing comparisons based on official statistics of production and prices do not take adequate account of differences in product-quality. Based on a close matching of quality-grades of ten sampled products, proper adjustment for quality differences across countries would substantially increase estimates of the German real productivity advantage in manufacturing (to around 50% over Britain), and raise estimates of real income per head for Germany to some 40% over Britain.     

Surviving organizational disasters

Man-made and natural disasters are becoming increasingly common in today's world. Among other entities, companies should be concerned because these impact organizational survival, disrupting the lives and functioning of employees, suppliers, customers, and organizational infrastructure. If the present trend continues, the Federal Emergency Management Agency is on track to declare 30% more disasters in 2010 than in 2009. Organizational disasters are crises in the extreme. While the crisis management literature provides a useful foundation for planning for internal organizational threats, it does not adequately address larger external threats brought about by disasters. With this gap in mind, we herein present a framework for planning for man-made or natural disasters: continuity of operations planning (COOP). Continuity of operations planning is a tool that aids organizations in staying in business under extreme circumstances. Although continuity of operations planning is not an entirely new practice, many small and medium-sized firms are reluctant to engage in this type of planning. To highlight the value of the process, this article provides examples of organizational disasters, alongside a simplified method for developing an effective continuity of operations plan.     

Consumers' inferences about quality across diverse service providers

When consumers encounter different services as part of the same service experience they may use information about one group of service providers to draw inferences about the quality they expect to receive from another group of service providers. This research identifies the conditions under which information about the quality of one type of service (e.g., a hotel's front desk) influences quality perceptions of another type of service (e.g., a hotel's tour services). Results show that consumers' beliefs about managerial control influence generalizations across service providers. Also, consumers infer managerial control from the spatial proximity between the premises of the service providers. © 2009 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.