Perception of medical practitioners on the importance of medical tourism services

This study (a) investigates the perception of medical practitioners regarding medical tourism, and (b) examines the differences in the perception of medical practitioners regarding the importance of the services involved. The hypotheses are focused on a series of comparisons of medical institutions that “are or are not involved in medical tourism.” The results showed that (i) professionalism of treatment is recognized as the most important factor regardless of the nature and value of the medical treatment provided while a patient travels; and that (ii) there are no significant differences in surgery, treatment, examination, in-hospital and patient room costs.     

Privatized espionage: NSO Group Technologies and its Pegasus spyware

Advanced cyber technology like NSO Group Technologies' (NSO) controversial Pegasus spyware blurs distinctions between “good” and “bad.” This case follows the Israeli-based international leader in cyber espionage and developer NSO and one of its co-founders, Shalev Hulio from its creation in 2010 to the present. It includes NSO's acquisition by US-based private equity fund Francisco Partners in 2014. NSO's re-acquisition in 2019 by co-founders Hulio and Omri Lavie with funding support from London-based private equity fund Novalpina Capital. During this time, Pegasus had helped capture Mexican drug baron El Chapo, prevented terrorist attacks and broken up pedophilia, sex, and drug-trafficking rings. But Pegasus also contributed to the murder of Washington Post reporter Jamal Khashoggi as well as other illegal incidents against dissidents, journalist, and governments. As the case suggests, controlling access to such powerful technology that involves accountability, responsibility, and enforceability within a firm and within nations appears illusive.     

Market integration of domestic and imported seafood: Insights from the Sydney Fish Market*

Australia has experienced a significant increase in seafood imports over the past two decades. Concurrently, Australian seafood producers have raised concerns that the low market prices of imported fish may negatively affect the prices of domestically produced seafood and, subsequently, the profitability of the Australian fishing industries. To validate this concern, this study examines the relationship between prices of domestically produced seafood and imported fish. Price data from the Sydney Fish Market (SFM), Australia’s largest auction wholesale fish market and fish import data are used for a cointegration analysis which is conducted using the bivariate Johansen test. Results indicate that prices of most domestic species traded within the SFM are not cointegrated, implying that they largely develop independently of each other. However, imported fish, particularly fresh imports, were found to be cointegrated with Australian produced fresh fish supplies traded on the SFM. Although the law of one price (LOP) was only confirmed to hold for some price pairs, the results suggest a partial substitution relationship between imports and domestically caught fish. This implies that prices of domestically produced fish within the Australian market are likely impacted by price dynamics within the international seafood market.