Europe's Growth Crisis: When and How Will It End?

This paper analyses Europe's growth problem. Recovery from the recent global financial crisis and ‘great recession’ has been slower than after previous recessions in most advanced countries and areas, especially Europe. But the European growth problem is structural in character and it started much earlier. This paper analyses the structural causes of the European growth problem, evaluates the policies that Europe adopted to overcome it, and concludes that even with the appropriate policies, the prospects for accelerating growth in Europe will be difficult, especially in the context of Brexit and the slowdown of world growth in general.     

The Present International Monetary System: Problems,Complications, and Reforms

In the last decade serious crises have affected financial markets. Some proposals to avoid international financial crises have been made, but more useful could be measures to strengthen the functioning of the present international monetary system. Another way could be a much greater involvement of the private sector. The misalignment among leading currencies of the world can be a source of crisis difficult to solve. The creation of the European Central Bank (ECB) and of the euro leaves unresolved the serious problem of how a European Monetary Union member will respond to an asymmetric shock.     

Distribution and drivers of costs in type 2 diabetes mellitus treated with oral hypoglycemic agents: a retrospective claims data analysis

Objective:

To describe the distribution of costs and to identify the drivers of high costs among adult patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) receiving oral hypoglycemic agents.

Methods:

T2DM patients using oral hypoglycemic agents and having HbA1c test data were identified from the Truven MarketScan databases of Commercial and Medicare Supplemental insurance claims (2004–2010). All-cause and diabetes-related annual direct healthcare costs were measured and reported by cost components. The 25% most costly patients in the study sample were defined as high-cost patients. Drivers of high costs were identified in multivariate logistic regressions.

Results:

Total 1-year all-cause costs for the 4104 study patients were $55,599,311 (mean cost per patient?=?$13,548). Diabetes-related costs accounted for 33.8% of all-cause costs (mean cost per patient?=?$4583). Medical service costs accounted for the majority of all-cause and diabetes-related total costs (63.7% and 59.5%, respectively), with a minority of patients incurring >80% of these costs (23.5% and 14.7%, respectively). Within the medical claims, inpatient admission for diabetes-complications was the strongest cost driver for both all-cause (OR?=?13.5, 95% CI?=?8.1–23.6) and diabetes-related costs (OR?=?9.7, 95% CI?=?6.3–15.1), with macrovascular complications accounting for most inpatient admissions. Other cost drivers included heavier hypoglycemic agent use, diabetes complications, and chronic diseases.

Limitations:

The study reports a conservative estimate for the relative share of diabetes-related costs relative to total cost. The findings of this study apply mainly to T2DM patients under 65 years of age.

Conclusions:

Among the T2DM patients receiving oral hypoglycemic agents, 23.5% of patients incurred 80% of the all-cause healthcare costs, with these costs being driven by inpatient admissions, complications of diabetes, and chronic diseases. Interventions targeting inpatient admissions and/or complications of diabetes may contribute to the decrease of the diabetes economic burden.     

Petroleum prices,exchange rates,and domestic inflation in developing nations

Zusammenfassung ?lpreise, Wechselkurse und die Inflation in Entwicklungsl?ndern. — In diesem Aufsatz wird das monet?re Modell einer geschlossenen Volkswirtschaft erweitert, um zu untersuchen, auf welchem Wege und in welchem AusmaΒ der Anstieg des Preises und der gesamten Kosten für importiertes Erd?l die Inflation in den ?limportierenden Entwicklungsl?ndern seit Herbst 1973 beeinfluΒt hat. Der empirische Befund l?Βt erkennen, daΒ die h?heren ?lpreise zwar zur Inflation in diesen Entwicklungsl?ndern beigetragen haben (besonders in den groΒen L?ndern und in denen mit bereits hoher Inflation), daΒ die Inflation in diesen L?ndern aber haupts?chlich von der übergroΒen Expansion der heimischen Geldmenge herrührt.

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Résumé Prix pétroliers, taux de change et inflation local dans les nations développantes. — Dans cet article l’auteur étend le modéle monétaire d’une économie fermée pour examiner les canaux et l’importance relative de l’augmentation du prix et des frais totaux du pétrole importé sur l’inflation locale dans les pays développants depuis l’automne 1973. Les résultats empiriques semblent indiquer que les prix pétroliers plus hauts contribuaient à l’inflation locale dans les nations développantes qui importent du pétrole (particuliérement dans les grandes nations et dans celles d’une inflation déjà haute), mais que l’inflation dans ces nations était largement le résultat d’une excessive expansion monétaire locale.

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Resumen Precios del petróleo, tasas de cambio e inflaci?n domèstica en pafses en desarrollo. — En este articulo se ha extendido el modelo monetario de economfa cerrada para examinar los canales y la importancia relativa del aumento en el precio y en el costo total del petr?leo importado sobre la inflaci?n domèstica en paises en desarrollo importadores de petr?leo desde otono de 1973. Los resultados empiricos parecen indicar, que mientras los mayores precios del petr?leo contribuyeron a la inflaci?n domèstica en los pafises en desarrollo importadores de petr?leo (especialmente en paises grandes y de altra inflaci?n), la inflaci?n en estos pafses fuè el resultado primariamente de la excesiva expansion monetaria domèstica.

     

Antitrust reform: Predatory practices and the competitive process

Conclusion This article has suggested that the general theory of predatory practices is seriously flawed. Predatory behavior cannot be logically distinguished from benign competitive behavior either by intent or by any price-cost rules. Price reductions, selective or otherwise, and various nonprice rivalrous strategies (such as advertising and innovation) are all part and parcel of a competitive market process. This process serves an important social purpose: it serves to discover the products and services that consumers prefer, and the business organizations that can provide those products and services. Antitrust regulation of this process is based on inappropriate equilibrium theorizing, and it serves only to inhibit the discovery of consumer preferences and the flow of resources from less efficient suppliers to more efficient suppliers. Thus, the legal restriction or prohibition of any competitive practice is inappropriate and appears contrary to the newer antitrust reform attitudes.     

The Problems of Transition, EU Enlargement, and Globalization

This paper examines how far the restructuring process toward a market system has proceeded in Transition Economies since the collapse of Communist regimes more than a decade ago, how ready these economies are for admission into the European Union, and how the globalization of the world economy is affecting them. The paper also presents a model of the restructuring process and of international trade during the restructuring process.