合作社内部“影响成本”决定因素的实证分析——基于山东省苹果专业合作社的调查数据

鉴于合作社集体产权安排和成员股权无法转让等原因,当存在影响社员利益分享或成本分担的组织决策且上下级信息沟通渠道顺畅时,利益相关者就会试图扭曲组织决策以获取潜在收益,进而产生降低决策效率的影响成本。本文利用山东省苹果专业合作社的调研数据,首先测度合作社内部影响成本规模,然后采用有序Probit模型对合作社内部影响成本的决定因素进行实证分析。研究表明:社员异质性是导致合作社内部影响成本增加的关键性因素;管理者存在外部选择诱惑、采用一人一票制表决方式和合作社扩张社员规模等对合作社内部影响成本也具有正向显著影响。基于此,协调异质性社员的利益诉求、选择合适的组织决策模式和设计合理的管理者激励制度对于转型经济时期农民专业合作社的健康发展至关重要。     

中小企业联保贷款的信誉博弈分析

本文在考察中小企业的违约信用成本、群体特点、经营环境的基础上,构建了一个中小企业联保贷款的信誉博弈分析框架,讨论了银行如何通过设置信誉成本将银行与企业之间的贷款—还款博弈转化为联保贷款成员企业之间的信誉博弈来降低信用风险的机制。研究结果表明:有效的信誉成本是开展中小企业联保贷款的制度基础;信誉成本主要体现为企业违约后丧失联保企业集团内部交易资格所引致的机会成本;银行的激励条件内生地决定了联保贷款的市场风险边界;银行在开展多元联保贷款时需要在拓展市场风险阈值和潜在信用风险之间进行权衡,以确定最佳的联保贷款成员规模。     

信用卡转换成本研究综述

早在上世纪80年代,经济学家开始研究存在转换成本的市场竞争问题.目前,有关转换成本的研究主要集中在电信、银行存款及信用卡等市场领域.研究信用卡转换成本对银行业发展、信用卡产业的发展等具有重要现实意义.本文基于转换成本一般研究基础之上,从转换成本的内涵与类型、对消费者的影响及研究方法等方面对学术界有关信用卡转换成本的研究进行了梳理和概括,以期为今后的信用卡转换成本的深入研究提供参考.     

ESTIMATION OF GLOBAL LOGISTICS EXPENDITURES USING NEURAL NETWORKS

Measuring the size of global logistics expenditure is a difficult task. What is an estimate of logistics expenditures for the global economy? The objective of this research is to answer this question. Using neural networks, an artificial intelligence methodology, logistics expenditures have been estimated at the country level. There are two main contributions from this research. The first is an update of previous estimates of global logistics expenditures. The second is continuous improvement of the estimation method, including information quality and availability as well as mathematical model refinement.     

Laffont and Tirole's Competition in Telecommunications : A View From the US

This article briefly reviews Competition in Telecommunications by Laffont andTirole (2000); it presents the major conclusions of the book and corrects certain errors. In addition, this article treats related topics, some specific to the US telecommunications industry. In US telecommunications access to incumbents facilities are priced based on cost model estimates. Several of the important sources of misunderstandings of telecommunications costs and cost estimates are described including: multiple meanings of 'access,'meanings of cross-subsidy; nature of loop costs; the many dimensions of marginal costs in telecommunications, misuses of long-run cost concepts; and misuses of 'most efficient' provider assumptions. The methods of cost calculations and legal and regulatory requirements in the US are described, as are the implications for incentive regulation, changing technology, efficient pricing, and measures of efficient competitive entry.     

Incorporating user costs in preference models for service alternatives

Services are often distinguished from goods by the involvement of the consumer in the production and delivery process. Since the net benefits derived by consumers depend upon their effectiveness and efficiency in fulfilling their required roles, preferences for and choice of alternative services should reflect their effort. We propose a model of preference which incorporatesuser costs, which reflect consumers' efforts, or a corresponding universal set ofuser service dimensions, which reflect attributes of the service that impinge on these user costs. We apply this model to a small-scale study of services for the transfer of written material. The findings demonstrate the ability to treat rigorously essential aspects of services, with implications for the management of services, and for further research.The authors acknowledge the considerable efforts of Rosemary Lyster, MBA student at New York University, and Lorraine Scudieri, Manager of Business Research at Bell Atlantic, in planning and executing a complex survey which provided the data used in this analysis. The authors were stimulated by discussions with Roger Betancourt, who deserves much of the credit and none of the blame for what follows. The authors are also grateful to Avijit Ghosh, Robert Shoemaker, and John Czepiel for their comments on an early version of this paper. Our application was motivated by a research project with Institut National des Telecommunications (France Telecom University) and, in particular with Pierre Vialle.     

ESTIMATION OF GLOBAL AND NATIONAL LOGISTICS EXPENDITURES: 2002 DATA UPDATE

The objective of this research was to estimate logistic expenditure for the global economy. An Artificial Neural Network was used to generate national estimates. The estimation set constitutes 24 countries representing approximately 75% of the global Gross Domestic Product. The model utilizes variables that capture economic activity, transportation activity, income level, country size, and geographic location. This research updates previous estimates and represents continuous improvement of the estimation method, including new input variables, better information quality, mathematical model refinement, and methods of model validation.     

The self-organisation of strategic alliances

This paper is based upon an analysis of various experiences of electronic commerce. It analyzes the role of private institutions in the organization of systems of transactions. Private institutions take place between public institutions (that are insufficiently specialized) and inter-individual governance structures (that do not benefit from scale and cognitive economies). These private institutions are very diverse and the paper points out the various types of services provided by diverse institutions depending on their constitutional mode.

While various possible institutional frameworks have very different features in terms of coordination, there is no most efficient institutional environment. Moreover, the emergence process of these institutional framework strongly influences their ability to survive. Very different institutional frameworks can therefore organize electronic trade quite differently in the various industries     

Evaluation of the cost-utility of insulin degludec vs insulin glargine in Sweden

Abstract

Objective:

To evaluate the annual cost-utility of insulin degludec compared with glargine in patients with: type 1 diabetes (T1D), type 2 diabetes receiving basal-only therapy (T2D-BOT), and type 2 diabetes receiving basal-bolus therapy (T2B-BB) in Sweden.

Methods:

A cost-utility model was programmed in Microsoft Excel to evaluate clinical and economic outcomes. The clinical trials were designed as treat-to-target, with insulin doses adjusted in order to achieve similar glycemic control between treatments, thus long-term modeling is not meaningful. Basal and bolus insulin doses, incidence of hypoglycemic events, frequency of self-monitoring of blood glucose, and possibility for flexibility in timing of dose administration were specified for each insulin in three diabetes populations, based on data collected in Swedish patients with diabetes and a meta-analysis of clinical trials with degludec. Using these characteristics, the model estimated costs from a societal perspective and quality-adjusted life years (QALYs) in the two scenarios.

Results:

Use of degludec was associated with a QALY gain compared with glargine in T1D (0.31 vs 0.26?QALYs), T2D-BOT (0.76 vs 0.69?QALYs), and T2D-BB (0.56 vs 0.47?QALYs), driven by reduced incidence of hypoglycemia and possibility for flexibility around timing of dose administration. Therapy regimens containing degludec were associated with increased costs compared to glargine-based regimens, driven by the increased pharmacy cost of basal insulin, but partially offset by other cost savings. Based on estimates of cost and clinical outcomes, degludec was associated with incremental cost-effectiveness ratios of SEK 19,766 per QALY gained, SEK 10,082 per QALY gained, and SEK 36,074 per QALY gained in T1D, T2-BOT, and T2-BB, respectively.

Limitations:

The hypoglycemic event rates in the base case analysis were derived from a questionnaire-based study that relied on patient interpretation and recall of hypoglycemic symptoms. The relative rates of hypoglycemia with degludec compared to glargine were derived from a meta-analysis of phase III trials, which may not reflect the relative rates observed in real-world clinical practice. Both of these key limitations were explored in one-way sensitivity analyses.

Conclusions:

Based on reduced incidence of hypoglycemia and possibility for flexibility around timing of dose administration, use of degludec is likely to be cost-effective compared to glargine from a societal perspective in T1D, T2-BOT, and T2-BB in Sweden over a 1-year time horizon.     

The effect of age and sex on cost of inpatient facility encounters among patients with multiple sclerosis

Abstract

Objective:

To explore the effect of age and sex on cost of all-cause and multiple sclerosis (MS)-related inpatient facility encounters.