Application of Baumol’s Cost Disease to Public Sector Services: Conceptual,theoretical and empirical falsities

This paper argues that justifying lack of productivity improvements in public services by referring to Baumol’s Cost Disease (BCD) is conceptually confused, theoretically misspecified and empirically blind. BCD misconceptualizes public services as categorically distinct from manufactured goods and is based on a theory of productivity not directly applicable to many public services, therefore failing to recognize evidence of substantial scope for improving public services’ productivity. Analysis of the structural and behavioural unbundling of value creation and decomposition of professional skills in service provision leads this paper to conclude that public services are not as technologically non-progressive as BCD asserts.     

Social and family load of Alzheimer’s disease

As the World Health Organization reports, mental illnesses have a serious impact on more than 25% of all population people worldwide at some time during their lives. Mental illnesses are universal; they affect people of any age, both women and men, the rich and the poor, no matter from which urban and rural environment they come from. Mental illnesses have an enormous economic effect on societies and on the quality of people’s life, including their families. The purpose of this study is to describe social and economic aspects of Alzheimer’s disease (AD) with respect to the early diagnosis. The authors provide an analysis of costs of treatment and care in the selected countries where the data from the available studies are recalculated into comparable quantities. Furthermore, the authors analyse aspects and possibilities of care for patients with AD in the informal (home) environment in compliance with individual phases of this disease. In the article, the method of research of available sources focusing on social and economic issues of AD is used. In order to compare costs of treatment and care of the AD patients, the Qualitative Comparative Analysis Method is exploited. The analyses have shown that the metric systems for monitoring the direct and indirect costs for the individual phases of AD are different.     

Could a Resource Export Boom Reduce Workers’ Earnings? The Labour-Market Channel in Indonesia

For a decade from 2000, Indonesia underwent a natural-resource export boom. Aggregate income rose, but real labour earnings stagnated. Employment rose, too, but mainly in low-skill sectors with predominantly informal employment arrangements. In this article, we reveal causal connections from the aggregate phenomenon of Dutch disease to these labour-market outcomes. We first explain broad sectoral trends, and then, integrating data from several national surveys, investigate sources of variation in boom-era labour earnings. We use instrumental variables to address issues of endogeneity and selection in earnings equations. After controlling for individual and district features, we find that the intensity of palm oil production—palm oil having been a key booming resource export—robustly predicts diminished formal employment, and that lower formality, in turn, robustly predicts lower earnings. Our findings establish causal linkages absent from prior studies, and so provide a structural dimension to ongoing debates over persistent poverty, rising inequality, and the lack of educational progress in Indonesia.     

浅谈锡盟草原公路常见的病害及养护方法

就锡盟草原地区公路常见病害产生的原因进行归纳分析,并提出养护整治方法。锡盟草原地区公路地处蒙古高原低山丘陵地,气候属中温带半干旱大陆性气候,多大风,冷暖多变,日温差大,形成的病害种类繁多,为养好公路设下了种种屏障。本人根据多年来进行草原地区公路养护的经验,对病害形成的原因、规模、出现的频率、种类等进行观察,归纳为以下几种类型并提出养护整治方法。     

特发性肺间质纤维化合并肺癌

特发性肺纤维化是常见的肺间质性疾病,发病率逐年上升,且近年来出现了大量关于特发性肺纤维化合并肺癌肺的报道。多项研究证实,肺纤维化患者的肺癌发病率高而且预后差。本文复习了近期相关的文献,对于特发性肺纤维化合并肺癌的流行病学、发病机理、临床与影像学特点、病理学特点及预后等进行文献复习,旨在提高临床工作者对该病的认识,提高警觉,以期达到特发性肺纤维化合并肺癌肺的早期发现和诊疗。     

新闻报刊中疾病隐喻表达的ICM分析

疾病隐喻中的许多表达方式都是由其他概念域的语言映射而来,是人类隐喻认知的结果。新闻报刊中与疾病相关的隐喻表达方式主要可归纳为战争隐喻、恶魔隐喻和自然灾害隐喻几种。对疾病隐喻表达做理想化认知模型（ICM）分析,探讨疾病隐喻的认知理据和分布特征,能够为人们认知疾病隐喻现象提供新的视角。     

论自我概念与青少年学生的考试焦虑

考试焦虑是青少年学生中较常见的心理卫生问题。影响考试焦虑的因素很多,其中自我概念也即自我评价在考试焦虑的产生和发展中扮演着重要角色。本文分别从差的自我概念和虚假的自我概念两个方面阐述了自我概念对考试焦虑的影响。     

Untangling government,market, and investment failure during the Nigerian oil boom: the Cement Armada scandal 1974–1980

Abstract

The ‘Cement Armada’ was a major Nigerian government scandal which culminated in hundreds of cement-laden ships arriving en masse at Lagos, creating severe multi-year-long port congestion during the height of the 1970s oil boom. In spite of the scale of the scandal, its causes and consequences have received little attention from scholars. This article presents new research which suggests the Armada was one of several contributing factors to the extraordinary inflation in the price of construction during period. It places the scandal in the context of debates about corruption, organisational failure and a ‘resource curse’ in Nigeria.     

The cost-effectiveness of extended-release calcifediol versus paricalcitol for the treatment of secondary hyperparathyroidism in stage 3–4 CKD

Abstract

Aims: Patients with chronic kidney disease (CKD) not on dialysis frequently have vitamin D insufficiency (VDI) and secondary hyperparathyroidism (SHPT), which are associated with an increased risk of cardiovascular (CV) disease, fracture, CKD progression, and death. This study estimated the cost-effectiveness of extended-release calcifediol (ERC) vs paricalcitol for the treatment of patients with CKD stages 3–4 that have SHPT and VDI.

Materials and methods: An economic analysis of SHPT treatments among a hypothetical cohort of 1,000 patients with CKD Stage 3 and 4 with SHPT and VDI was developed to estimate differences in the rates and costs of CV events, fractures, CKD stage progression, and mortality in patients treated with ERC and paricalcitol. A Markov model was developed with 1-year cycles and a 5-year time horizon from a US Medicare payer perspective with costs valued in 2017?US dollars.

Results: The outcomes of the model were rates of clinical events, total costs, quality-adjusted life-years (QALYs), and incremental cost-effectiveness ratio (ICER). Across a 1,000-person cohort, ERC was the dominant (less costly, more effective) treatment strategy when compared with paricalcitol. Treatment with ERC resulted in cost savings of $14.8?M (95% CI = –$10.0?M–$45.2?M) and an incremental gain of 340 QALYs (95% CI = 200–496) compared to treatment with paricalcitol.

Limitations: Bridging biochemical levels to clinical outcomes may not represent real-world risk of the clinical events modeled. Future real-world outcomes of patients treated with ERC and paricalcitol may be used to evaluate the model results.

Conclusions: This model demonstrated favorable short- and long-term clinical benefits associated with the use of ERC in patients with CKD Stage 3 and 4 with SHPT and VDI, suggesting ERC may be cost-effective from the Medicare perspective compared to paricalcitol.     

Estimating the health care savings from trans fat-free canola in Canada

Growing scientific evidence links consumption of trans fatty acids in the diet to elevated levels of cholesterol and therefore to coronary heart disease. Coronary heart disease is the single largest contributor to health care costs in Canada (both direct medical costs and indirect costs in the form of lost productivity). As with many industrialized nations, rising public health care costs are a major public policy concern in Canada. The major source of trans fats is hydrogenated vegetable oils and processed food products. New canola varieties are emerging which enable the production of canola oils that are virtually trans fat-free. This paper evaluates the potential savings in public health care costs from a trans fat-free canola oil. Using four scenarios and conservative assumptions, the paper estimates non-trivial potential health cost savings in the range of Cdn$280 million to Cdn$1.09 billion annually. A number of policy implications are discussed.