In the area of financial services, lawmakers and regulators increasingly promote the use of plain language in business-to-consumer contracts. Although such efforts are undoubtedly welcomed by consumers, as they promote better comprehension, not much is known about the actual effects of improved readability on consumer attitudes and cognitive processes. Does improved readability in general contract terms have an impact on the consumer’s perception of their contractual position? Do contracts that are easier to read influence the steps or actions taken by consumers in the wake of conflict? In response to these questions, we present data from an experiment that investigates the relationship between the reading ease of general contract terms on the one hand and consumer expectations and willingness to engage in conflict on the other. Our findings suggest that readability increases the trust and confidence of the consumer in the sense that it increases their expectations of the claim. Moreover, we have found partial evidence to suggest that reading ease also increases the consumer’s willingness to engage in legal action in the case of subsequent claim denial. 相似文献
Health Technology Assessment (HTA) agencies often undertake a review of economic evaluations of an intervention during an appraisal in order to identify published estimates of cost-effectiveness, to elicit comparisons with the results of their own model, and to support local reimbursement decision-making. The aim of this research is to determine whether Transcatheter Aortic Valve Implantation (TAVI) compared to medical management (MM) is cost-effective in patients ineligible for surgical aortic valve replacement (SAVR), across different jurisdictions and country-specific evaluations.
Methods:
A systematic review of the literature from 2007–2012 was performed in the MEDLINE, MEDLINE in-process, EMBASE, and UK NHS EED databases according to standard methods, supplemented by a search of published HTA models. All identified publications were reviewed independently by two health economists. The British Medical Journal (BMJ) 35-point checklist for economic evaluations was used to assess study reporting. To compare results, incremental cost effectiveness ratios (ICERs) were converted to 2012 dollars using purchasing power parity (PPP) techniques.
Results:
Six studies were identified representing five reimbursement jurisdictions (England/Wales, Scotland, the US, Canada, and Belgium) and different modeling techniques. The identified economic evaluations represent different willingness-to-pay thresholds, discount rates, medical costs, and healthcare systems. In addition, the model structures, time horizons, and cycle lengths varied. When adjusting for differences in currencies, the ICERs ranged from $27K–$65K per QALY gained.
Conclusions:
Despite notable differences in modeling approach, under the thresholds defined by using either the local threshold value or that recommended by the World Health Organization (WHO) threshold value, each study showed that TAVI was likely to be a cost-effective intervention for patients ineligible for SAVR. 相似文献
This study examines the relative and complementary performance of alternative earnings forecast adjustments using a common set of consensus analysts’ earnings forecasts. We document that a simple adjustment to analysts’ earnings forecasts, based solely on cross-sectional relationships between actual and forecasted earnings in the prior year, performs as well as more complicated adjustment methods, i.e., composite forecasts and persistence adjusted forecasts. A forecast adjustment that is based on prior year earnings and returns, however, provides significant incremental reductions in forecast error and dominates all of the other adjustment methods. 相似文献
This study analysed the platform economy in terms of time, geography and type of platform, with a view to present estimations on its size in terms of revenues and the number of active workers. 相似文献
In its landmark ruling in Illinois Brick Co. v. Illinois in 1977, the U.S. Supreme Court restricted standing to sue for recovery of antitrust damages to direct purchasers. However, antitrust damages are typically (in part) passed on to intermediaries lower in the chain of production and ultimately to consumers. We show that the Illinois Brick rule facilitates collusion. It allows an upstream cartel to shield itself from private damage claims by forwarding a share of cartel profits to its direct purchasers. These benefits dissuade the direct purchasers from exercising their exclusive right to sue for private damages. The cartel can achieve this by rationing inputs at low prices. Several U.S. antitrust cases show symptoms of “Illinois Walls.” 相似文献
Summary The article has been divided into two main parts. The first consists of a review and an evaluation of Lenderink and Siebrand's
analytical and empirical approaches to the short-run phenomena on the Dutch labour market during the period 1952–1970. The
main implications are explicitly stated and show how the authors have integrated the relevant results of equilibrium and disequilibrium
analysis. It appears that the general analytical approach of Lenderink and Siebrand certainly is very promising. From the
comments in the second part it becomes clear that the authors' main empirical results should be rejected. Some new data are
produced to be compared with the originally presented data. They provide the basis for emphasizing that the original analysis
does not satisfy some theoretical and empirical consistency conditions. Therefore, suggestions for revision of some aspects
of Lenderink and Siebrand's study are recommended.
This paper consists of a review of and comments uponA Disequilibrium Analysis of the Labour Market (Lenderink and Siebrand, 1976). 相似文献
In trying to understand the contemporary work-leisure paradoxes, we go in search for today’s harried leisure class and its
equanimous counterpart. We apply the relative new method of optimal matching on the continuous time-use data of the pooled
Flemish time-use survey of 1999 and 2004, in order to identify different time-use patterns based on one’s leisure time consumption.
We then analyse these time-use patterns by combining a multiple classification analysis with socio-demographic measures and
(leisure) time-use characteristics, which allows us to identify today’s harried leisure class on the one hand the opposite
“equanimous leisure class” on the other hand. It turns out that the members of today’s harried leisure class combine a great
amount of cultural and material resources with the experience of time pressure and voracious and volatile leisure time consumption,
whereas the members of the equanimous leisure class mainly consume their leisure time in front of the TV. Typifying these
groups based on their consumption characteristics provides useful evidence for the integration of time use in the research
field of consumer policy. 相似文献