Bürgerversicherung — Die Wirkung von Kopfprämien auf den Arbeitsmarkt

Capitation fees are considered to be an option for a change in funding principles for statutory health care insurance. This paper discusses several models of capitation fees either to be introduced for a part of the population or for all citizens. It analyses the impact of a change in financing health care on the labour market. Therefore microeconomic theory and a QUERU-model is applied. It also considers the issue of presently co-insured dependents.     

A panel data analysis of code-sharing,antitrust immunity,and open skies treaties in international aviation markets

This paper estimates the effects of code-sharing, antitrust immunity, and Open Skies treaties on prices, output, and capacity using an eleven-year panel of U.S.-Europe data. Code-sharing and immunized alliances are found to have significantly lower prices than does traditional interline (multi-carrier) service, but the effects are smaller in magnitude than those found in previous results that rely on cross-sectional data. Statistical tests that prices for immunized alliance service are equal to online (single carrier) service often cannot be rejected, providing additional evidence that immunity grants allow immunized carriers to internalize a double marginalization problem. Estimated output effects, consistent with the price effects, show that alliances are associated with large increases in passenger volumes. Lastly, estimates suggest that capacity expansions associated with “Open Skies” treaties are due entirely to expansion by immunized carriers on routes between their hubs. I would like to thank the editor and an anonymous referee for their helpful comments. The views expressed in this paper do not reflect those of the US Department of Justice. All errors are my own     

Quantity and quality of information and SME financial structure

We test whether the amount and/or quality of financial statement information affects the financial structure of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). Belgian SMEs are used, because there are important differences in disclosure and audit requirements among them. Consistent with the traditional view that asymmetric or incomplete information restricts access to external funds, our results indicate that both the amount and quality of financial statement information are positively related to SME leverage. In addition, we find that leverage is positively related to asset structure, growth (prospects) and median industry leverage, and negatively related to firm age and profitability.     

郭俊的书画

郭俊，中国书画研究会副会长，中国工艺美术家协会会员，北京民族画院理事，重庆市美术家协会渝中区美协副主席。自幼酷爱书画。广求名师，师从四川美术学院杨富明教授，并得到著名画家苏葆桢、黄纯尧、水华、周北溪等先生的指教。作品继承传统，师法自然，风格别具，     

On Conformity Testing and the Use of two Stage Procedures

Conformity testing is a systematic examination of the extent to which an entity conforms to specified requirements. Such testing is performed in industry as well as in regulatory agencies in a variety of fields. In this paper we discuss conformity testing under measurement or sampling uncertainty. Although the situation has many analogies to statistical testing of a hypothesis concerning the unknown value of the measurand there are no generally accepted rules for handling measurement uncertainty when testing for conformity. Usually the objective of a test for conformity is to provide assurance of conformity. We therefore suggest that an appropriate statistical test for conformity should be devised such that there is only a small probability of declaring conformity when in fact the entity does not conform. An operational way of formulating this principle is to require that whenever an entity has been declared to be conforming, it should not be possible to alter that declaration, even if the entity was investigated with better (more precise) measuring instruments, or measurement procedures. Some industries and agencies designate specification limits under consideration of the measurement uncertainty. This practice is not invariant under changes of measurement procedure. We therefore suggest that conformity testing should be based upon a comparison of a confidence interval for the value of the measurand with some limiting values that have been designated without regard to the measurement uncertainty. Such a procedure is in line with the recently established practice of reporting measurement uncertainty as “an interval of values that could reasonably be attributed to the measurand”. The price to be paid for a reliable assurance of conformity is a relatively large risk that the procedure will fail to establish conformity for entities that only marginally conform. We suggest a two‐stage procedure that may improve this situation and provide a better discriminatory ability. In an example we illustrate the determination of the power function of such a two‐stage procedure.