The cost of childhood injury in France

Injuries are a major public health problem worldwide. In the USA, injuries cause 146, 400 deaths annually, with 31 million non-fatal injury visits to emergency departments (EDs). EDs thus represent an important source of injury data. The primary objective of the current study was to describe the epidemiology of injury-related ED visits and assess injury-related utilization of health care resources in an inner-city hospital in Indiana, using data stored in a computerized medical record system. It involved a retrospective review of the records for injury visits to EDs and injury admissions over a 3-year period. The variables extracted and analysed included patients' demographics, external cause of injury, diagnosis, length of stay, ED and hospital charges. A total of 60,470 injury-related ED visits were made, the majority of patients were male (61.6%), uninsured (63.1%), treated in ED and discharged (98.4%). The leading causes of injury were falls (18.8%), motor vehicle crashes (18.4%), assaults (17.6%), being struck (11.2%) and overexertion (10.6). Firearms caused most injury deaths (32.4%; n = 314); motor vehicle crashes were the leading cause of hospitalization (26.6%; n = 642) and also the most expensive to treat as inpatients (mean charge $19,190). The mean charge per patient treated and discharged was $150 compared to $11,116 for patients admitted. These findings demonstrate the value of computerized medical records in capturing and storing E-coded injury data. The system generates data that can be used for epidemiological surveillance and injury prevention at the local level, and for assessment of impact of specific injuries on health care resources.     

The Influence of Regionalization and Cultural Distance on the Direction of Exports

Research has identified two distinct influences on the direction of firm internationalisation, cultural distance, and regionalisation. This paper sets out to test the strength of these influences on the direction of exports in circumstances where they act in different directions. The paper applies a quantitative methodology to a large, purposively compiled data set of Australian export values over the period 1990 to 2004. The Australian context provides an interesting case because its cultural linkages and its geographic connections lie in different directions. It is shown that regionalisation is the dominant influence on the direction of exports in the Australian context.     

Could the Crisis at Northern Rock have been Predicted?: An Evolutionary Approach

Bankers have, from their beginning, made their money by takingrisks and deciding how much risk they dare take, by expandinggradually, testing the water. Within this framework, the firstrisk is of illiquidity, but they must also ensure solvency.The steps taken by Northern Rock in developing their present‘business plan’ are the same as those taken by mostother banks, responding to the same incentives. It is the rapidityof its expansion that resulted in its downfall. The steps thathave been taken also by other banks can be traced back to thebeginning of banking and are predictable. Northern Rock's difficultieswere predictable – and were predicted.     

Competition in the food marketing chain

Competition in the Australian food marketing chain is of continuing concern, but little evidence is available to guide policy debate. In a search for broad guidelines, the theoretical and empirical evidence is reviewed and the recent report of the Joint Select Committee on the Retailing Sector is examined. Then publicly available data on several food groups are used to test for evidence of persistent market power. The purchasing behaviour of the grains and oilseeds processing sector is found to warrant more detailed attention. A possible research agenda and a call for greater attention to data requirements complete the article.     

Helping Professionals in Business Behave Ethically: Why Business Cannot Abdicate Its Responsibility to the Profession

This paper compares the findings of studies of seven groups of professionals in various key segments of the fields of accounting and insurance conducted during 1990 through 1994 in an effort to determine the extent to which they tend to rely on various factors in their business and professional environments for help in behaving ethically in the course of their work. Commonalities among the findings for these rather diverse groups are highlighted and their possible implications for business and the professions are discussed.     

PROFITABILITY OF INCREMENTAL EXPENDITURE ON FIBRE PROMOTION

In this paper the impact of changes in wool promotion expenditure and changes in expenditure on the promotion of competing fibres are examined using an equilibrium displacement model. The emphasis is on examining impacts on producer profits net of promotion expenditure and on benefit-cost ratios measuring changes in producer surplus relative to changes in promotion expenditure. It was found, for example, that incremental expenditure on apparel wool promotion on the domestic market is unprofitable but incremental expenditure on promotion of apparel wool on the export market is generally profitable. Further, it was found that increased promotion of cotton and man-made fibres on the export market, with promotion of apparel wool unchanged, would reduce profits to apparel wool producers. Finally, a case is made for improved data availability in order to allow more comprehensive ex-ante and ex-post evaluations of promotion programs, thereby increasing the intensity of scrutiny of promotion programs to a level more in line with that for investment in rural research and development.     

COMPARATIVE FORECAST ACCURACY IN THE NEW SOUTH WALES PRIME LAMB MARKET

The market for Australian prime lamb is characterised by high production seasonality and a highly competitive retail demand. Because these factors often translate into substantial market variability, regular forecasts of supply and demand are important requirements of lamb market participants. There has been some forecasting activity in the state and national lamb markets but it has been a somewhat controversial activity. This paper assesses the comparative forecast accuracy of a range of methods in the New South Wales lamb market. The results indicate that no single method is clearly superior in all situations and the greatest scope for improving forecast accuracy in the New South Wales lamb market is through the use of combined econometric and naive approaches.     

Global virtual teams: a human resource capital architecture

As organizations continue to globalize their operations, it will become evident that most organizations do not have the resources to ‘fully man’ operations throughout the world. Therefore, management will be examining organizational options that reduce the demand on an already depleted pool of global managers. One of the options being examined by companies is the global virtual team (GVT). These complex teams are being considered as a bridge mechanism to allow multinational organizations to expand rapidly without taxing present global managerial skills. This paper uses a theoretical foundation based upon competency theory as the motivation for the formation of GVTs and to explain how they function. Four critical capitals (i.e. human, social, political and cross-cultural) are deemed to be essential for effectiveness of GVT and are discussed in the paper. In addition, a process for assessing the stock of capital in a GVT team is also developed in the paper.     

Unresolved questions in monetary theory: A critical review

Summary The basic questions of monetary theory remain unanswered. There is little agreement on a definition of money or what assets serve as money, much less on the nature of the private and social costs and benefits of a money economy. Controversy over these questions is reviewed critically. It is concluded that the extensive literature on these matters is not in fact very illuminating. Some new avenues of enquiry are suggested. Generalisation of Clower's exchange matrix suggests that money is only one of a hierarchy of budget restraints, and that money's contribution to efficient price-setting goes beyond its role as numeraire. Finally, questions of control of the money supply are considered.She wishes to thank the participants in the Economic Anthropology Seminar on Means of Payment at University College London for their comments and suggestions, especially Mary Douglas (UCL), Gerald Cohen (UCL), Morris Perlman (LSE) and Charles Goodhart (Bank of England). The comments of Yoram Barzel (University of Washington), Thomas Rymes (Carleton University), and members of the Money Study Group are also gratefully acknowledged. Resposibility for the outcome is entirely the author's.