The U.S. health care expenditure: evidence from 2001 to 2009

This study utilizes state-level data from 2001 to 2009 to estimate the impact of the 2007 financial crisis upon health care expenditures. Higher death rates are consistently found to have a positive and statistically significant impact on health expenditures. While mental health and COPD are not generally found to impact expenditures, increases in the percentage of the population diagnosed with cholesterol and obesity tend to increase health expenditures. Increases in health expenditures slowed considerably after the financial crisis. Even though recessions (high unemployment rates) are generally found to have a positive impact on health expenditures, the post-financial crisis time period is estimated to have much lower health expenditures than in other time periods. Our results can be used to give insight into the conditions under which the slower rate of increase in health expenditures can be expected to increase. More research will be needed to be able to more completely explore not only the reasons for these changes in health expenditures but also whether they are likely to continue into the future.     

Statistical study of foreign exchange rates, empirical evidence of a price change scaling law, and intraday analysis

In this paper we present a statistical analysis of four foreign exchange spot rates against the U.S. Dollar with several million intra-day prices over 3 years. The analysis also includes gold prices and samples of daily foreign exchange prices over 15 years. The mean absolute changes of logarithmic prices are found to follow a scaling law against the time interval on which they are measured. This empirical law holds although the distributions of the price changes strongly differ for different interval sizes.Systematic variations of the volatility are found even during business hours by an intra-day analysis of price changes. Seasonal heteroskedasticity is observed with a period of one day as well as one week as the result of an analogous intra-week analysis; taking this into account is necessary for any future study of intra-day price change distributions and their generating process. The same type of analysis is also made for the bid-ask spreads.     

Strategic alliances: a hospitality industry perspective

The article focuses on strategic alliance theory as it applies to the hospitality industry. Citing research as well as real-world examples, the authors integrate a variety of concepts and develop four propositions about the growing use of strategic alliances in the hospitality industry. These propositions include the following: P1: Hospitality alliances will evolve from equity joint ventures to collaborative joint ventures (non-equity) as competitor alliances will emerge. P2: Contractual agreements will evolve from simple franchise and management contracts to more complex resource-sharing, non-equity agreements. P3: Complex resource sharing between allying partners will help incumbent firms build relationships with partner firms that will lead to the development of competitor alliances. P4: Technology will help in the development of competitor alliances, which will also help to increase incumbent firms’ productivity and profitability.     

The Reform of Medical Malpractice Law:

The major stimulus for the extensive, state level, reform of medical malpractice during the past two decades was the widespread belief in a malpractice crisis. The perception of a crisis arose in the 1960s largely because of what was viewed as sudden and dramatic increases in the malpractice liability of physicians. However, historical data demonstrate that the common perception that physician liability increased suddenly and dramatically beginning in the 1960s Is incorrect. Since malpractice reform has been based upon the false premise that the medical malpractice liability system, previously working smoothly, was in disarray, the soundness of much of the malpractice reform which has occurred in the past two decades is questioned.     

Multiple foci of commitment in a professional service firm: balancing complex employment relations

Employees of professional service firms (PSFs) have attachments to multiple groups, which may be either compatible or conflicting: their employer, their clients and their profession. We analyse the antecedents of commitment to these three foci based on a survey of 510 employees in a large PSF in Norway. The main findings are as follows: (1) low quality of internal work relations is negatively associated with employer commitment and draws employees towards external foci of commitment – the clients and the profession; (2) role conflict is associated with stronger commitment to the client organisation and the profession; and (3) autonomy and transferability of skills are associated with stronger commitment to the profession, but does not undermine commitment to the employer. The article contributes to our understanding of the conditions under which employees identify with external groups and when commitment to the employer may be compromised. The findings have implications for how managers can help to increase the commitment of employees involved in complex employment relations.     

Aggregation in macroeconomic models: an empirical input–output approach

The aggregation level of industries in the Danish macroeconomic model ADAM is examined using a new indicator of aggregation bias. The indicator is decomposed into contributions from the original industries, thereby clearly identifying the aggregation problems which caused the six industry groups of the older versions of ADAM to be disaggregated into the current 19 groups. An aggregation key minimizing the new bias indicator is found: from the microlevel of 64 industries, 18 ‘optimal’ industry groups are formed through ‘clustering’; these groups are very similar to the current ADAM groups. Altogether, the conclusions based on the new indicator closely resemble those reached through years of practical experience.     

Saving Rates, Trade, Technology, and Stochastic Dynamics

This paper develops a framework for analyzing the stochastic dynamics of small growing trading economies with CES sector technologies. The open neoclassical two-sector growth model with a diffusion process (uncertainty) for the aggregate saving/investment ratio is demonstrated with sample paths and long-run probability distributions of the overall factor endowment ratio. Stochastic endogenous growth and cycles require a combination of fundamental growth parameter values: saving rates, terms of trade, and sectorial substitution elasticities.     

我们并肩前行

我们是谁？我们是北欧警务及海关事务联络处目前的3名成员：Frc，deZ．Olsen，59岁，来自丹麦警方，已有34年的警务执法经验；JyrkiKaipanen，41岁，拥有19年的芬兰警务执法经验；AIexilndrltWang，33岁，联络处的助于和翻译.     

Spillovers and international competition for investments

Two jurisdictions compete to attract shares of the investment budget of a large multinational enterprise, whose investments confer positive spillovers on national firms. The firm has private information about its efficiency and about spillovers. It is shown that the firm may be harmed by tax competition. Relative to a cooperative tax agreement, tax competition may induce excessive investments in the country where the positive spillover effects are lowest. Also, with sufficiently asymmetric spillovers, investments under competition will be excessively spread out, not properly concentrated to the country where spillovers would be largest.