The Differential Effects of Noneconomic Damage Cap Levels on Medical Malpractice Insurers

This study examines the effect of tort reform on medical malpractice insurers with an emphasis on the effect of cap levels on noneconomic damages. While previous research finds that caps on noneconomic damages have a beneficial effect on insurer performance, these studies do not evaluate the effects of caps of varying size. Examining insurer data from 1997 to 2007, we test whether cap levels matter. We find that insurer performance generally improves when the cap is set at $250,000, but caps exceeding $250,000 are not associated with improved performance, as they are possibly not binding on award amounts.     

A pernicious panacea—a critical evaluation of business re-engineering

This article investigates the practicalities of implementing business process re-engineering (BPR) through two case studies, DefCo and ServiCo in the public sector. It demonstrates the destructive and insidious nature of BPR, and deconstructs the myth that BPR represents a discontinuity in management thinking.     

The Efficiencies Defense in the 2010 Horizontal Merger Guidelines

We analyze the efficiencies defense that is contained in the 2010 Merger Guidelines, which provides the most current statement of the Agencies?? enforcement philosophy and procedure. Most of our attention centers on efficiencies in production, but we also address merger-specific efficiencies that may lead to improved product quality, enhanced services, or even to the introduction of entirely new products. We begin with the analytically clean case of merger-specific efficiencies that are accompanied by monopoly power. From the perspective of either consumer welfare or social welfare, this presents the welfare analysis that should guide merger policy. We, then, examine the errors that may arise due to the restricted role that efficiencies play in Section 7 enforcement. Finally, we close with some policy recommendations.     

Building a structure to support optimal revenue integrity

Intermountain Healthcare has effectively executed a strategy to improve revenue integrity comprising five parts: Building a multidisciplinary team to support revenue integrity. Developing department-specific charge capture teams. Providing ongoing education and training on best practices for charge capture and coding. Leveraging new technology and business support services. Establishing a proactive approach to managing audits and compliance.     

Relational Investing And Firm Performance

A substantial academic and popular literature argues that the performance of American corporations might improve if American corporations had long‐term outside investors (relational investors) who would hold large stakes, actively monitor management performance, and engage with management in setting corporate policy. Institutional investors can perhaps play this role. We provide the first large‐scale test of the hypothesis that relational investing can affect corporate performance. We consider ownership and performance data for more than 1,500 large U.S. companies over a thirteen‐year period (1983–1995). Our results provide a mixed answer to the question of whether relational investing affects corporate performance. Our data suggest that there was a period in the late 1980s—a period with a uniquely high level of hostile takeover activity—when the presence of a relational investor was associated with higher stock market returns. This cohort of relational investors may have been able to induce corporate restructuring, whose principal effect was to reduce growth rates while improving profitability. But this pattern was not found in the early 1980s or repeated in the early 1990s.     

The influence of organizational culture on the usefulness of budget participation by Singaporean-Chinese managers

This paper uses Hofstede's cultural dimensions (Hofstede G.H , Culture's Consequences International Differences in Work Related Values, (Beverly Hills, CA: Sage 1980)) to examine whether differences in organizational culture between local and foreign manufacturing firms affect the usefulness of budgetary participation in a high power distance nation (Singapore). The results from interview and survey data analysis provide support for the hypothesis that power distance moderates the usefulness of participation in budget setting and performance evaluation at the organizational culture level in terms of decreased role ambiguity and enhanced superior/subordinate relationship.     

Power imbalance and the pattern of exchange in dyadic negotiation

We investigate how a key structural aspect of negotiation—power—combines with aspiration level to affect the interaction pattern of negotiators. Conflicting research findings have revealed that in most cases negotiators with anequal balance of power reach agreements of higher joint gain than negotiators with an unequal power balance, but in some instances the opposite result has been found. We suggest that it is important to consider the interaction between the negotiators to explain these varying findings. We propose that when unequal power negotiators are able to reach agreements of high joint gain it is due to the efforts of the low power party. In addition, we argue that the low power player will be most likely to drive the search for a solution of high joint gain when he or she also has high aspirations. We tested these proposals in a market negotiation with integrative potential. To examine the pattern of negotiation, all offers and counter-offers were written. The results indicated that overall, equal power dyads achieved higher joint outcomes than unequal power dyads. Under unequal power, the hypothesis that higher joint outcomes would be obtained when the low power player had high aspirations received partial support. In addition, support was found for the hypothesis that in unequal power dyads low power players would be responsible for driving solutions of higher joint gain.     

Is Disinflation Good for the Stock Market?

The stock market appreciates by an average of 24 percent in real dollar terms when countries attempt to stabilize annual inflation rates that are greater than 40 percent. In contrast, the average market response is 0 when the pre–stabilization rate of inflation is less than 40 percent. These results suggest that the potential long–run benefits of stabilization may dominate short–run costs at high levels of inflation, but at low to moderate levels of inflation, benefits may be offset by costs in a present value sense. Stock market responses also help predict the change in inflation and output in the year following all 81 stabilization efforts.