Consumer involvement in health research: a UK scoping and survey

Consumer involvement or patient and public involvement (PPI) in health research is a UK policy imperative and a prerequisite for many funders. PPI in research is defined as research carried out with or being carried out by the public (or service users), rather than research on patients and public as subjects or participants. Despite the clear policy driver, there is relatively little empirical evidence on the extent, processes and impact of user involvement in research. This paper aims to add to the international evidence base on PPI in research by providing a key overview of current trends and impacts. In order to understand the current extent and variation of PPI in research, a scoping exercise and survey were carried out on selected UK studies. Six research topic areas (cystic fibrosis, diabetes, arthritis, dementia, intellectual and developmental disabilities, and public health) were selected to ensure a range of designs, study populations and histories of PPI in research. A total of 838 studies (non‐commercial studies and not older than 2 years) were contacted. The response rate for the scoping was 38% and the survey 28%. In the scoping, 51% of studies had some evidence of PPI and in the survey 79%. The most common PPI activity was steering committee membership and reviewing patient information leaflets. There appeared to be some blurred roles with patients participating as research subjects as well as carrying out patient involvement roles. A major finding was the limited amount of available information about PPI in publicly accessible research documents. We suggest that the invisibility of this type of involvement and the lack of routinely collected information about PPI results in a lack of shared understanding of what optimal PPI in a study should look like, with important implications for practice. Furthermore, without a framework to review PPI it is difficult to know if different approaches to PPI have a different impact on key outcomes of the research.     

The Economics of Private Business Jet Travel

The use of private air travel for business trips has expanded rapidly over the past few decades. We estimate that the number of U.S. domestic passenger trips per year on business aircraft exceeded 17 million in 2007, or a number equal to about 40 percent of combined domestic first-class, business-class, and full-fare coach airline trips—travel options for which passengers also pay a premium for timeliness, comfort, or privacy. Once a company determines that it can benefit from private business travel, it generally identifies the most cost-effective option, including the operating characteristics of the aircraft and the options for obtaining this service. This paper examines some of the factors that influence decisions on these options, with particular emphasis on the financial and program alternatives that are making it less costly for business travelers to take advantage of private jet travel, thereby expanding its use. Our findings indicate that the customary view of these options is oversimplified and ignores the new ownership (or non-ownership) models for obtaining use of a business aircraft.     

Certification of Origin as a Non-Tariff Barrier

This paper puts forward the opinion that the certification of origin constitutes another type of non‐tariff barrier. Indeed, certification of origin often combines both a quantity restriction and a sort of quality cost subsidy. We consider the canonical model of strategic trade policy, whereby two firms located respectively in the home country and in a foreign country are competing on the domestic market. In this framework, we show how certification can allow the domestic firm to position itself as a high quality producer. If, however, the certified firm offers the low quality good, then consumers’ surplus may be improved.     

Who is she and who are we? A reflexive journey in research into the rarity of women in the highest ranks of accountancy

This paper proposes a reflexive examination of research into the rarity of women at the highest hierarchical levels of accountancy, with the aim of contributing to the transformation of gendered structures of domination.We practice reflexivity in two ways. First, we provide an analysis of the relationships between research objects, research design, and the implications of research findings, based on a sample of papers dealing with the rarity of women at the highest levels of accountancy. We show that self-proclaimed “neutral” research that rejects any form of prediction is adopting an illusory position which is detrimental to the situation of women. We also point out the risks associated with taking a subjective stance, which can be involuntarily detrimental to the cause it intends to serve.Second, we draw on our various experiences at conferences. We show that our intention to transform the structures of domination has led us to adapt our own discourses, seeking to convince reluctant audiences by adopting a pragmatic style. We also discuss how conferences have shaped our research choices and interests, while making us aware of our own potential tendency towards universalism and a biased standpoint as Western scholars.     

SECURITIZATION: A FINANCING STRATEGY FOR EMERGING MARKETS FIRMS

With emerging markets now in crisis, companies in developing countries are finding it difficult to obtain financing. Securitization, a transaction structure in which the securities sold to investors are backed by a company's receivables, is one of the few vehicles with at least the potential to provide financing at economic rates in the current environment of uncertainty.
Unlike U.S. securitization issues, emerging markets transactions often use a structure known as future flows securitization, in which the securities are backed by receivables that are not expected to be generated until after issuance. This article begins by describing how the process of future flows securitization carves out securities with levels of political risk acceptable to foreign capital market investors. Then it traces the history of emerging markets securitization from its origins in Latin America to its more recent uses during the Asian crisis. Securitization helped bring foreign investors back to Latin America after its debt crisis of the early 1980s. And while the Asian crisis has sharply reduced new issuance for all kinds of emerging market financings, the volume of securitization issues appears to have declined less precipitously than other types of transactions geared to foreign investors. Moreover, investment bankers are now hard at work planning new securitization issues for companies in both Latin America and Asia.
In exploring the longer-term effects of securitization on both domestic issuers and their economies, the author suggests that securitization could play a pivotal role in restoring emerging markets companies' access to global financial markets. Indeed, with a few exceptions such as Malaysia, most emerging markets are now responding to the crisis by taking measures to protect investors, such as requiring greater financial transparency and dispelling legal uncertainties that have discouraged securitization in particular and overseas investment more generally.     

SECURITIZATION: A LOW-COST SWEETENER FOR LEMONS

Since the launching of the mortgage backed market in the early 1970s, securitization has experienced extraordinary growth and spread to a remarkable variety of receivables. But financial economists in the tradition of Miller and Modigliani have been hard pressed to explain such growth. When viewed within the context of an M & M world of “perfect markets,” securitization appears to be simply another way—and a highly complex and costly one, at that—for a company to carve up its operating cash flows and repackage them for investors. This article seeks to explain the growth of securitization by identifying reductions in costs that M & M assume out of existence. For some types of companies, the largest sources of the cost savings are fairly obvious. Most mortgage securitizations are effectively subsidized by the U.S. government, which contributed greatly to the launching of the securitization movement. And commercial banks forced to meet regulatory capital requirements have found securitization of loans to be a low-cost compliance strategy. But securitization appears to offer more than regulatory benefits. For example, higher rated companies with a variety of financing options appear to use securitization to diversify their funding sources and arbitrage small price differences in financial markets. But if such arbitrage profits can be significant, the non-regulatory benefits appear to be largest for companies with few financing alternatives—those firms that face what economists refer to as a “lemons problem.” Available information about such companies is often limited (as in the case of smaller companies), unfavorable (companies in financial distress), or particularly difficult to appraise (companies in volatile industries, or facing unstable political environments or potentially large liabilities). Especially in the case of such “lemons” companies, securitization may reduce overall financing costs by carving up the evaluation of a company's securities into tasks amenable to greater specialization. In so doing, it may reduce aggregate information costs for all its securities and thus increase total value.     

Participatory budgeting,community engagement and impact on public services in Scotland

ABSTRACT

The institutional engagement and analysis needed to effectively integrate the requirements of equality legislation into participatory budgeting (PB) processes requires a transformational approach. Equality processes appear to exist in parallel with PB activity, rather than being operationalized as integral to the objectives and character of PB activity at local level. This paper proposes that PB and the Public Sector Equality Duty (PSED) in the Equality Act 2010 share a transformative intent and potential, but that this is undermined by siloed thinking on equalities and enduring discriminatory behaviour and practices. The paper concludes with propositions for aligning the conceptual links between equality and community empowerment and, thereby, participation in local financial decision-making in practice.     

Employee leasing. The antebellum 1800s and the twenty-first century: A historical perspective of the contingent labour force

Management strategies have evolved over the centuries in response to economic and social needs of individuals and organizations. The maintenance of a flexible labour force was a management practice employed by industrialists more than a century ago. The use of employee leasing in the United States dates back to the industrial revolution that occurred during the nineteenth century. Industrialists leased bondsmen to supplement their labour force. This practice, known as 'hiring-out', permitted employers to obtain labour without making heavy investments in human resources. The motivations for maintaining a contingent labour force today are essentially unchanged from a century ago. This paper addresses the nineteenth-century use of a contingent labour force by the large Southern firm of Andrew Brown and Company in the period prior to the US Civil War.     

The measurement and recognition of intangible assets: then and now

“In the Fortune 500 there are thousands upon thousands of statistics that reveal very little that’s meaningful about the corporations they purportedly describe. At least that’s the verdict of a growing number of forward-thinking market watchdogs, academics, accountants, and others.”(Fortune, April 2001). In today’s economy value is often created by intangible (intellectual) capital. The accounting profession has not met the challenge of measuring and reporting the results of knowledge-based entities. The Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia estimates that in the year 2000 more than US$ 1 trillion was invested in Intangibles. The problems relating to the measurement and recognition of intangibles are international in scope.This paper reviews existing and recently promulgated US, UK, and IASC accounting standards relating to Intangibles. Inconsistencies in the measurement and reporting of Intangibles under US Generally Accepted Accounting Principles (GAAP) are highlighted, and evidence is provided that suggests that recognition of Intangible (Intellectual) Capital is in accordance with existing accounting principles In particular, the newly promulgated Financial Accounting Standards Statements on Business Combinations, Goodwill, and other Intangibles is reviewed. The objective of the comparisons to UK and IASC standards and the review is to provide evidence that will improve the measurement and reporting of intangible (intellectual) capital and facilitate harmonization. Improving the global financial reporting infrastructure will ultimately lead to the reporting of relevant and reliable quality earnings.