Do health system reforms stand a chance?

While most major reforms of health systems fail, those that succeed are motivated by politicians' quest for reducing the health burden on their budget in response to a shift in voters' preferences away from public health. An Edgeworth box is used to depict their preferences, in addition to those of (potential) patients and health‐care providers. Politicians are found to severely constrain the area of mutual advantage, suggesting that only minor reforms are possible unless they promise to lower health‐care expenditure. An efficiency‐enhancing change that would enlarge the box and hence the area of mutual advantage would be to suppress the requirement imposed on health insurers to purchase domestically, rather than being free to directly import health‐care services and drugs.     

贴现因子、偏好和行为经济学

本文讨论了影响人们跨时选择的重要因素--贴现因子的最新进展以及他们在经济学和金融中的重要应用,给出了目前关于改变贴现因子的模型.     

INCENTIVES AND SOCIAL NORMS: A MOTIVATION‐BASED ECONOMIC ANALYSIS OF SOCIAL NORMS

Abstract It is now commonplace to regard social norms as a subject of growing interest in the economic literature (e.g. game theoretical approaches based on ‘other‐regarding’ individual preferences, the analysis of the impact of rewards or punishment on individuals’ behaviour through experimental economics as well as field experiments, the revival of the institutionalist tradition spurred on by the influential work of Douglas North and followed by many others and the growing influence of neuroeconomics). In this paper, we focus on the relationship between incentives and social norms and survey the literature that could constitute the foundations of a motivation‐based economic analysis of social norms. Our main findings are that (1) the interaction between incentives and social norms is far from obvious since taking social norms into account involves the introduction of supplementary motives, in addition to self‐interest, into the economic analytical framework; (2) the analysis of the interaction between incentives and social norms resists an approach exclusively in terms of crowding‐in and ‐out effects because it is sensitive to whether it concerns behaviours driven by honour or by social stigma; (3) as a result, it is difficult to precisely evaluate the policy implication of the interactions between incentives and social norms.     

WHY FREE MARKETS SHOULD NOT BE BLAMED FOR THE CURRENT RECESSION

Interventionist thinkers are now claiming intellectual victory, blaming the free‐market system and its ideology for the current economic collapse. We find this thesis untenable, drawing on the Austrian Business Cycle Theory. Instead, we argue that the roots of our present downturn lie in the monetary system, whose institutional structure is far from any free‐market ideal. Moreover, several government policies have contributed to the problems.     

Why Sweden's pension reform was able to be successfully implemented

Governments that do not reform pay-as-you-go (PAYG) pension systems will eventually face a pension crisis. In a democracy, reforms require majority support. The problem is that pension reform requires today's generation to bear the burden to avoid burdening tomorrow's generation. Sweden recently passed pension legislation that specifies a gradual transition from a public defined-benefit plan to a defined contribution plan. Why was Sweden successful in reforming its pension system? We find that a political economy perspective helps to answer this question: there are more winners who would vote in favour of the reform than non-winners who would vote against it. When comparing the net effect (present value of expected benefits minus present value of remaining contributions) of the new and old systems, contributions of the working generation (age < 53) are reduced by more than their expected benefits.     

Regret in auctions: theory and evidence

The sealed-bid first-price auction of a single object in the case of independent privately-known values is the simplest auction setting and understanding it is important for understanding more complex mechanisms. But bidders bid above the risk-neutral Nash equilibrium theory prediction. The reasons for this “over bidding” remain an unsolved puzzle. Several explanations have been offered, including risk aversion, social comparisons, and learning. We present a new explanation based on regret and a model that explains not only the observed over bidding in sealed-bid first-price auctions, but also behavior in several other settings that is inconsistent with risk aversion. The authors gratefully acknowledge support from the National Science Foundation.     

亚文化及广东区域文化制约经济发展的机理分析

阐述了亚文化制约经济发展的机理,认为广东区域文化心理的二元结构具有兼容性与自闭性、竞先性与惧安性、商效性与即实性等特性,二元文化心理及隐性文化因子运动的持续增强是区域文化制约经济发展的内在机理,广东区域经济中出现的品牌次级化现象是区域文化制约经济的作用显现。     

人口规模、经济增长与碳排放:经验证据及国际比较

根据国际能源署（IEA）公布的1971—2008年碳排放数据,探讨中国与典型发达国家、发展中国家（G8＋5）人口规模、经济增长与碳排放变化的差异性。结果表明：随着GDP增长,中国碳排放快速增长,人均碳排放已超过世界平均水平;单位GDP碳排放持续降低,但依然高于世界平均水平。利用秩相关系数检验人均GDP与单位GDP碳排放,发现7个发达国家均呈显著下降趋势,发展中国家南非、中国呈显著下降趋势,巴西、印度、墨西哥呈上升趋势但并不显著;人均GDP与人均碳排放秩相关系数表明,7个发达国家中,美国、法国、德国、英国呈显著下降趋势,加拿大呈不显著上升趋势,日本、意大利呈显著上升趋势;5个发展中国家处于工业化快速发展阶段,能源消费急剧增加,随着人均GDP增长,人均碳排放均呈显著上升趋势。基于此,归纳出世界主要发达国家和发展中国家人口增长、经济增长与碳排放变动的三种模式。     

高职高专院校大学生心理健康现状分析与教育对策

大学时期是人生心理矛盾的多发期,而高职高专院校的大学生较其他本科大学生承受着更多的心理压力。目前,高职高专院校大学生心理健康问题呈现递增趋势,已成为阻碍大学生健康成长和顺利完成学业的重要因素。本文从心理健康概念的内涵、高职院校学生心理健康问题的表现特征、高职学生心理健康问题的形成因素进行分析总结,并提出几点教育对策。     

以均衡为目标的车辆调度问题研究

针对物流配送企业私人承包车辆以及均衡配送线路工作量等新的物流管理理念,提出新的车辆调度模型,将车辆调度问题（VRP）转换为车辆选型和车辆路径优化两个子问题,设计Ak-FirstFit混合算法解决车辆选型问题,运用遗传算法解决车辆路径问题。基于JAVA编写计算机程序,运行结果表明该两阶段算法能够在有效时间内得到满意解。与基于传统物流管理理念的模型进行比较,得出新的两阶段模型能充分体现兼顾效率与公平思想的结论,其理念在物流配送企业中具有相当的借鉴性和推广前景。