Internal Markets,Management by Targets,and Quasi‐Markets: An Analysis of Health Care Reforms in the English NHS

There have been two major attempts to introduce market mechanisms into England's National Health Service: the ‘internal market’ reform project of the 1990s, and the ‘quasi‐market’ of the 2000s. Despite their similarities, the former attempt was on balance unsuccessful while the latter succeeded. This article examines and compares the outcomes of the two periods, analysing the reasons for their relative successes and failures. It goes on to highlight options for future reforms that would build on those achievements.     

Measurement of Quality of Life and Well‐Being in France: The Drivers of Subjective Well‐Being

Ever since the publication of the Stiglitz Report, France has been heavily involved in the measurement of well‐being. The French Statistical Institute (INSEE) has expanded the scope of its existing surveys. It has also launched an innovative experimental survey which, drawing upon a single statistical source, aims for the first time to explore the different dimensions of both objective and subjective quality of life, as highlighted in the Stiglitz Report. It allows us to study, at the individual level, correlations between these dimensions and the accumulation of deprivations. It has enabled us to better understand the links between determinants generally referred to as objective dimensions of quality of life (such as health or education) and subjective well‐being. This information is of paramount importance for policy makers who cannot act directly on the level of people's satisfaction but can only act upon the levers of objective dimensions. This paper presents the main findings of the experimental survey.     

10kV开关设备检修要点分析及应用

在配电系统中,开关设备是非常关键的部分。它若出现故障,可能引发大面积停电事故,会增加运行成本,降低设备的使用功能,而且有损电力公司的社会形象。本文基于现代电力系统运行要求,重点分析了10kV开关设备检修要点,旨在积累更多运行维护的技术经验,在保证设备功能的前提下,降低运行成本,提高电力系统运行的安全性和可靠性。     

Value and capacity of tax shields: An analysis of the slicing approach

Correctly valuing tax shields has been a challenge in corporate valuation. A recent study by Liu (2009) introduces the slicing approach to separating the tax shield into the earned and unearned parts. Liu also shows that the MM results are wrong, and claims that the slicing approach has finally resolved the issue of pricing tax shields, thereby bringing closure to the topic. However, through careful analysis, we refute Liu’s main claims and restore the MM results. There are still open questions and the topic is not completely resolved as claimed in Liu (2009).     

Heuristic learning and the discovery of specialization and exchange

I develop and calibrate an agent-based model of boundedly rational, adaptive agents in a two-good production and exchange economy to replicate human-subject outcomes in the same eight-person experimental economy. To test agents’ ability to capture human behavior, I extend the model and use its output to make predictions about a second experimental environment in which the group of eight agents is slowly constructed by merging smaller groups. This environment improves human-subject performance in the specialization and exchange task, and commensurate improvement emerges for some parameterizations of the agent-based model. This iterative process yields incremental improvement of decision-level theories about economic discovery.     

县域经济增长中结构红利的测度及决定 ——基于中国1 820个县面板数据的实证分析

产业结构升级是经济增长的源泉之一。本文基于中国1 820个县的面板数据，采用Translog生产函数估计要素弹性，进而测度县域经济增长中的结构红利，同时构建空间误差计量模型对结构红利的影响因素进行检验。研究结果表明2002-2010年间，结构红利占县域GDP总值的444%，对县域GDP增长的贡献达到了2435%。劳均资本、劳均土地等变量对结构红利有显著影响，本文还发现，在东部、中部、西部三个地区，财政支出占GDP的比重对结构红利都有显著的负向影响。     

Female participation in African labor markets: The role of information and communication technologies

This article investigates the effects of information and communication technologies (ICT) on female labor force participation in a sample of 48 African countries. We specify and estimate linear regression and dynamic panel data models with fixed effects (FE) and system-generalized method of moments (SYS-GMM) estimation over the period 2001–2017. The three main results are that ICT use (mobile phone and internet) significantly stimulates female labor force participation in Africa; this effect is enhanced by financial development and female education; the effect of ICT on female employment in Africa is strongest in the industrial sector. These results remain robust to the provision of social, cultural, and institutional variables.     

Childhood preventive care,adult healthcare and economic growth: The role of healthcare financing

We analyze the impact of healthcare financing on economic growth, focusing on the issue of the joint public–private financing of healthcare (co-payment). We use an overlapping-generations model with endogenous growth based on health human capital accumulation, where families pay for childhood preventive care and the government can either fully finance or co-finance adulthood curative care. From a growth maximizing perspective, distortionary taxes give an advantage to co-financing. Nevertheless, we prove that, if agents are assumed to be heterogeneous in preferences, full financing can become the best option.     

Are school counselors an effective education input?

We exploit within-school variation in counselors and find that one additional counselor reduces student misbehavior and increases boys’ academic achievement by over one percentile point. These effects compare favorably with those of increased teacher quality and smaller class sizes.     

Trust,trustworthiness, and traditional Islamic education

This paper examines traditional Islamic school (i.e. madrasah) attendance as a determinant of social attitudes among secondary-schooled adolescents in rural Bangladesh. Although both recognized and traditional madrasah-enrolled adolescents show greater support for charity, we find no evidence that traditional madrasah attendance promotes “trust in others”. Attendance at recognized madrasahs, which use a state-approved curriculum, however, significantly increases social trust. The madrasah–trust connection is not explained by the role of teachers’ attitudes towards trust or professional background. Nor do we find evidence that the absence of an effect of traditional madrasah attendance on social trust is driven by their geographic locations. Given the differences between the two groups in terms of stated social preferences, our analysis warns against the practice of lumping state-recognized madrasahs and traditional madrasahs into one category.