Efficiency and quality in health services: a crucial link

The relationship between quality and efficiency in the health sector is influenced by various conditions. The objective of this paper is to analyse the evolution of efficiency and quality in the Andalusian Hospitals during the years 1997–2004 and to study the association between efficiency and quality indicators. Hospital performance is analysed using data envelopment analysis and the Malmquist productivity index. Technical efficiency as well as healthcare quality increased during the analysed period. A weak association between efficiency and quality indicators exists. The results obtained rule out the existence of an efficiency–quality trade-off.     

The role of perceived value in vertical brand extensions of luxury and premium brands

Abstract

This study examines the role of perceived value in the relationship between brand attitude, perceived fit, extension attitude and consumers’ purchase intention of downscale vertical extensions of luxury and premium brands in two product categories: cars and shoes. Results from 236 individuals with different income levels show that extension attitude is positively related to purchase intention both directly and indirectly, via the perceived value of the extension; the latter is more strongly correlated than extension attitude to consumers’ purchase intention. Brand attitude is also positively associated with perceived value. Overall, perceived value partially mediates the relationships of brand attitude and of extension attitude with purchase intention. The product category affects the strength of some of the relationships in the model, including the role of fit.     

Real Exchange Rate Volatility on the Short- and Long-Run Trade Dynamics in Colombia

The short- and long-run implications of real exchange rate volatility on Colombian bilateral trade commodities and non-commodities with its major trade partners are analyzed from the perspectives of the Marshall-Lerner condition, a cointegration relation with other aggregate variables, and the J-curve hypothesis. Long-run equilibrium on the Colombian bilateral balance of trade with a country is more common when the trade volume is denominated in terms of one of the world's main currencies—as is the case of commodity trade and trade with a country whose national currency is one of these currencies. No evidence of the J-curve was found in any of the analyzed Colombian bilateral balances of trade. Opposite to the predictions of the J-curve hypothesis, more common are the scenarios of short-run improvements in the bilateral trade balances following a devaluation than are those with instantaneous declines. Improvements in the terms of trade are found to have a long-run deteriorating impact on the Colombian balance of trade, especially in the case of non-commodity trade. Policy makers should consider that continuous improvements in the Colombian terms of trade, as the ones recently observed, will ultimately be a detriment to the country's current balance of trade surplus.     

Conservation agriculture practices adopted in southern Brazil

The adoption of conservation agriculture (CA) practices are essential for soil and water conservation. In CA, farmers must adopt no-tillage (NT) with crop rotation to maintain a permanent soil cover. In Brazil, mainly in the South region, for CA to be more efficient, practices such as contour farming and agricultural terraces should also be adopted. Thus, the objective of this study is to determine the extent to which NT has been adopted with crop rotation and others soil and water conservation practices. Data from the Agricultural Census in Paraná State, southern Brazil, were used. For the data analysis, the relationship between the level of adoption of NT and the use of crop rotation, contour farming and agricultural terraces was analyzed. A factor and cluster analysis were performed to distinguish regions in terms of soil and water conservation practices. The results show good overall soil and water conservation practices, although heterogeneity has been observed in the adoption practices between regions. Adoption of NT is high in almost all the studied regions. The conservation practice most widely used with NT is contour farming, whereas the least used is agricultural terraces. Conservation practices for runoff control are being neglected by farmers.     

Sustainability dimensions related to agricultural-based development: the experience of 50 years of intensive farming in Almería (Spain)

In the context of the current agri-food market, several factors have made it increasingly difficult to balance the components of sustainability in agricultural-based development. These factors include increasing internationalization, tighter control of distribution and frequent changes in agricultural policies. Indeed, in the framework of European rural policy there has been considerable debate in recent years concerning the role of the agricultural sector and how it should face the following challenges: productivity-competitiveness, environmental protection and socio-economic development. There is, therefore, a growing need for practical analyses that adopt a holistic approach. This paper analyses how this sector in the province of Almería (Spain), based on horticultural family farms, has risen to the above issues over recent decades. This case study provides some insights into the different trade-offs and synergies between sustainability dimensions. In particular, the integration of ecological, social and economic components may prove useful in helping other regions to adapt their agricultural systems, especially where these are characterized by small-scale farming.     

Citizens’ adaptive or avoiding behavioral response to an emergency message on their mobile phone

Abstract

Since November 2012, Dutch civil defense organizations employ NL-Alert, a cellular broadcast-based warning system to inform the public. Individuals receive a message on their mobile phone about the actual threat, as well as some advice how to deal with the situation at hand. This study reports on the behavioral effects of NL-Alert (n = 643). The current risk communication literature suggested underlying mechanisms as perceived threat, efficacy beliefs, social norms, information sufficiency, and perceived message quality. Results indicate that adaptive behavior and behavioral avoidance can be predicted by subsets of these determinants. Affective and social predictors appear to be more important in this context that socio-cognitive predictors. Implications for the use of cellular broadcast systems like NL-Alert as a warning tool in emergency situations are discussed.     

Skewness premium with Lévy processes

We study the skewness premium (SK) introduced by Bates [J. Finance, 1991, 46(3), 1009–1044] in a general context using Lévy processes. Under a symmetry condition, Fajardo and Mordecki [Quant. Finance, 2006, 6(3), 219–227] obtained that SK is given by Bates' x% rule. In this paper, we study SK in the absence of that symmetry condition. More exactly, we derive sufficient conditions for the excess of SK to be positive or negative, in terms of the characteristic triplet of the Lévy process under a risk-neutral measure.     

Self-fulfilling crises with default and devaluation

We characterize optimal debt policy in a dynamic stochastic general equilibrium model of defaults and devaluations in which self-fulfilling crises can arise. When the government cannot commit to repay its debt and cannot commit to maintain the exchange rate, consumers’ expectations of devaluation make the safe level of government debt very low. We show that, when the debt is in the crises zone—where self-fulfilling crisis can occur—the government finds it optimal to reduce the debt to exit the zone. The lower the probability that consumers assign to devaluation, however, the greater is the number of periods that the government will choose to take to exit the crisis zone. We argue that our model can help understand events in Argentina in 2001–2002 and throw light on some aspects of the current EMU sovereign debt crisis.     

Doubts and equilibria

In real life strategic interactions decision-makers are likely to entertain doubts about the degree of optimality of their play. To capture this feature of real choice-making, we present a model based on the doubts felt by an agent about how well is playing a game. The doubts are coupled with (and mutually reinforced by) imperfect discrimination capacity, which we model by means of similarity relations. These cognitive features, together with an adaptive learning process guiding agents’ choice behavior leads to doubt-based selection dynamic systems. We introduce the concept of Mixed Strategy Doubt Equilibrium and study its relationship with the Nash equilibrium concept.     

Rates of return to public and private capital: new estimates using nonlinear Euler equations

Results obtained by Otto and Voss show that public investment undertaken in Australia over recent decades satisfies conditions for intertemporal efficiency. This paper confirms this result, although lower output elasticities and rates of return to private and public capital are obtained. The reason for these results is that the earlier work is extended by estimating the parameter related to the elasticity of intertemporal substitution that was earlier restricted to a specific value. In fact, it is shown here that it is possible to obtain an economically reasonable (and statistically significant) estimate of this parameter by assuming that the stochastic discount factor for the representative firm is the same as for the representative consumer and equal to a gross real interest rate.