A systematic review of cost-effectiveness modeling of pharmaceutical therapies in neuropathic pain: variation in practice,key challenges,and recommendations for the future

Objectives: Complexities in the neuropathic-pain care pathway make the condition difficult to manage and difficult to capture in cost-effectiveness models. The aim of this study is to understand, through a systematic review of previous cost-effectiveness studies, some of the key strengths and limitations in data and modeling practices in neuropathic pain. Thus, the aim is to guide future research and practice to improve resource allocation decisions and encourage continued investment to find novel and effective treatments for patients with neuropathic pain.

Methods: The search strategy was designed to identify peer-reviewed cost-effectiveness evaluations of non-surgical, pharmaceutical therapies for neuropathic pain published since January 2000, accessing five key databases. All identified publications were reviewed and screened according to pre-defined eligibility criteria. Data extraction was designed to reflect key data challenges and approaches to modeling in neuropathic pain and based on published guidelines.

Results: The search strategy identified 20 cost-effectiveness analyses meeting the inclusion criteria, of which 14 had original model structures. Cost-effectiveness modeling in neuropathic pain is established and increasing across multiple jurisdictions; however, amongst these studies, there is substantial variation in modeling approach, and there are common limitations. Capturing the effect of treatments upon health outcomes, particularly health-related quality-of-life, is challenging, and the health effects of multiple lines of ineffective treatment, common for patients with neuropathic pain, have not been consistently or robustly modeled.

Conclusions: To improve future economic modeling in neuropathic pain, further research is suggested into the effect of multiple lines of treatment and treatment failure upon patient outcomes and subsequent treatment effectiveness; the impact of treatment-emergent adverse events upon patient outcomes; and consistent and appropriate pain measures to inform models. The authors further encourage transparent reporting of inputs used to inform cost-effectiveness models, with robust, comprehensive and clear uncertainty analysis and, where feasible, open-source modeling is encouraged.     

Do Piketty and Saez Misstate Income Inequality? Critiquing the Critiques

A large body of literature points to sharply growing income inequality over the past half century. The Piketty and Saez dataset that measures income distribution provides empirical support for this claim. Our article evaluates three prominent criticisms of this dataset as well as the responses of Piketty and Saez to these criticisms. One key argument against using their dataset is that Piketty and Saez do not control for income shifting by top income earners in response to the Tax Reform Act of 1986 (TRA86) and thus overstate income inequality. In evaluating this criticism we find that a segment of their dataset likely understates income inequality; this is just the opposite of what critics assert. This implies that the Piketty–Saez dataset is a valuable resource for income inequality research and that scholars can use it to build more refined, accurate and insightful measures of income inequality.     

Random coefficients models of arms imports

This paper uses a large panel of data with up to 19 time-series observations for almost 150 countries to estimate models of arms imports. Qualitative evidence suggests a non-linear relationship. As income and military expenditure grow, the propensity to import first rises and then falls as a domestic arms industry develops. We face the difficulty that there is virtually no data on domestic arms procurement or production capability. We respond to this difficulty by adopting a random coefficient approach in order to identify any systematic influences on import propensity, through the impact of military expenditure, size of the armed forces or income on unobserved domestic production capability. While a clear non-linear pattern is apparent in the cross-section relationship, once one allows for parameter heterogeneity such a pattern is not apparent in the time-series.     

The Impact of Ethical Climate on Project Status Misreporting

Without complete and accurate status information, a project manager’s ability to monitor progress, allocate resources effectively, and detect and respond to problems is greatly diminished, and this can lead to impaired project performance. Many different factors can contribute to intentional misreporting of status information by project members to the project manager. In this study, the impact of organizational ethical climate was assessed through the analysis of responses from 228 project members drawn from a variety of ongoing information systems projects. Our results revealed that project members who perceived their organization to be one in which rules are followed strictly tended to misreport less, while those operating in an environment dominated by personal self-interest tended to misreport more. Somewhat surprisingly, the existence of a caring, team-spirited environment did not appear to have an impact on misreporting behaviors. Implications for researchers and project managers are discussed.     

Targeted advertising as a signal

This study presents a signaling model of advertising for horizontally differentiated products. The central ingredients of the model are two important characteristics of advertising—targeting, and noisy information content. The theory yields interesting results about the informational role of targeted advertising, and its consequences. First, targeting can itself serve as a signal on product attributes. Second, the effectiveness of targeting depends not only on firms knowing consumer preferences, but on consumers knowing that firms know this. This creates a distinction between strategies of targeting and personalization. Third, the effectiveness of targeting in equilibrium may (far) exceed the information contained directly in the targeted message. Fourth, information content is not, however, superfluous. Specifically, when ads contain no information, a targeting equilibrium does not exist. Together, these results reveal how advertising conveys information both through the content of the message and the firm’s choice of advertising medium. Furthermore, the model is robust to the various critiques of prior work on ads-as-signals: namely, that ad content is irrelevant, ad exposure is unnecessary, and the choice of ads as signals is inherently arbitrary.

资本市场发展影响货币需求的实证研究

从理论上分析,资本市场发展对货币需求存在正向影响的财富效应和负向影响的替代效应,但对中国的资本市场发展及货币需求数据进行实证分析发现,资本市场发展提高了经济体的货币需求;股票成交金额的变动有助于我们对于狭义货币供应量的预测,不过在统计上无助于我们对于广义货币供应量的预测。考虑到资本市场发展因素,货币政策从紧的力度应该比单纯考虑实体经济货币需求的从紧力度略松。     

Import Demands for Norwegian Farmed Atlantic Salmon and Wild Pacific Salmon in North America,Japan and the EC

Import demands for Atlantic and Pacific salmon are estimated for Japan, the European Community and North America. Cross-price elasticities indicate that wild high-valued Pacific salmon (chinook. coho and sockeye) and farmed Atlantic salmon are substitute goods in the marketplace. This finding implies that movements in the prices of both fanned and wild salmon can be caused by supply or demand changes in the market for either type of salmon. This result in turn has important implications for future markets and prices of fanned and wild salmon in Canada and the United States La demande à l'importation pour le saunion de l'Atlantique et du Pacifique esl eslimée pour le Japon, la CEE et l'Amerique du Nord. Les valeurs d'elaslicité croisée montrenl que le saumon “sauvage” du Pacifique hautement prisé (chinook, coho et sockeve) et le saumon d'elevage de l'Atlantique peuvent se substituer l'un à l'autre sur le manhé. Cette consultation signifie quedes mouvements dans les prix des deux types de saunion peuvent étre causés par des fluctuation de l'offre et de la demande affectant l'un ou l'autre type. Cela comporte d'imponantes répercussions pour I'avenir sur le manhé el sur les prix du saumon tant sauvage que d‘élevage au Canada et aux États-Unis     

Competition and Efficiency after Privatization: The Role of the NAO

One of the arguments for privatization is to promote market competition in order to facilitate efficiency gains. This review of NAO privatization reports shows that the promotion of competition is rarely stated as an objective of a privatization and, where it is, it can lead to difficulties in drawing objective audit conclusions. The work of the regulators is of considerable importance after privatization; and a more recent role for the NAO is that of responsibility for the financial audit and value-for-money studies of these regulators. These NAO studies provide new opportunities to review the effectiveness of the regulators and to promote accountability in competition policy after privatization.