The Metabolic Syndrome and All-Cause Mortality in an Insured Lives Population

Abstract

Metabolic syndrome and its association with mortality have not been studied in insured lives populations. The Swiss Re Study evaluated metabolic syndrome prevalence and associated mortality from all causes and circulatory disease in a cohort of 35,470 predominantly healthy individuals, aged 18–83 years, who were issued life insurance policies between 1986 and 1997. Metabolic syndrome was defined using the National Cholesterol Education Program (NCEP) Expert Panel Adult Treatment Panel (ATP) III guidelines. The NCEP obesity criteria were modified with a prediction equation using body mass index, gender, and age substituted for waist circumference. Adjustments also were made for nonfasting triglyceride and blood glucose values. Risk ratios for policyholders identified with metabolic syndrome were 1.16 (P = .156) for mortality from all causes and 1.45 (P = .080) for mortality from circulatory disease compared with individuals without the syndrome. Risk was proportional to the number of components, or score, of the metabolic syndrome present. Risk ratios for metabolic syndrome score were 1.14 (P < .001) for mortality from all causes and 1.38 (P < .001) for mortality from circulatory disease compared with individuals without metabolic syndrome factors. In both all-cause and circulatory death models, relative risk was highest for the blood pressure risk factor. Based on a modified NCEP definition, increased mortality risk is associated with metabolic syndrome in an insured lives cohort and has life insurance mortality pricing implications.     

A blogger in their midst

It was five minutes before show time, and only 15 people had wandered into the conference room to hear Lancaster-Webb CEO Will Somerset introduce the company's latest line of surgical gloves. More important, sales prospect Samuel Taylor, medical director of the Houston Clinic, had failed to show. Will walked out of the ballroom to steady his nerves and noticed a spillover crowd down the hall. He made a "What's up?" gesture to Judy Chen, Lancaster-Webb's communications chief. She came over to him. "It's Glove Girl. You know, the blogger," Judy said, as if this explained anything. "I think she may have stolen your crowd." "Who is she?" Will asked. Glove Girl was a factory worker at Lancaster-Webb whose always outspoken, often informative postings on her Web log had developed quite a following. Will was new to the world of blogging, but he quickly learned about its power in a briefing with his staff. After Glove Girl had raved about Lancaster-Webb's older SteriTouch disposable gloves, orders had surged. More recently, though, Glove Girl had questioned the Houston Clinic's business practices, posting damaging information at her site about its rate of cesarean deliveries--to Sam Taylor's consternation. This fictional case study considers the question of whether a highly credible, but sometimes inaccurate and often indiscreet, on-line diarist is more of a liability than an asset to her employer. What, if anything, should Will Somerset do about Glove Girl? Four commentators--David Wein-berger, author of Small Pieces Loosely Joined; Pamela Samuelson, a professor of law and information management at the University of California, Berkeley; Ray Ozzie, CEO and chairman of Groove Networks; and Erin Motameni, vice president of human resources at EMC-offer expert advice.     

Board Committee Meetings and Firm Financial Performance: An Investigation of Australian Companies

This article examines how the frequency of board committee meetings impacts on Australian firms' financial performance. Data were collected from 118 Australian listed companies – including 26 financial firms and 92 nonfinancial firms – for the period 1999–2007. Analysis of that data shows that the frequencies of audit committee meetings and remuneration committee meetings are positively and significantly associated with return on equity and return on assets. The frequencies of risk committee meetings do not show any significant effects on the financial performance of Australian firms. Estimated results are found to be robust after controlling for internal as well as external governance mechanisms that might affect Australian firm performance.     

Globalization,Financial Liberalization and the Behavior of the Long Run Money Demand in the Bangladesh Economy

ABSTRACT

The paper estimates the long run demand for money function in the Bangladesh economy using cointegration and the Vector Error Correction Modeling (VECM) technique. The cointegration results suggest that although the process of globalization has shown no significant impact on money demand by the fact that the foreign interest rate is seen as statistically not significant, the financial liberalization has an important impact, reflected in the statistically significant role of domestic interest rate, in influencing both M1 and M2 money demand. An estimate of VECMs also reveals the fact that the short run speed of adjustment is moderately influenced by the financial reform measures to establish the long run relation between money balances, income and domestic interest rates. The phenomenon of credit constraint in the context of a developing country has shown no significant role in influencing money demand, which may imply that the stage of financial development is getting higher level in the Bangladesh economy. The existence of exchange rate depreciation in the cointegration relation with the expected sign suggests that currency substitution is now effective in the monetary sector and, therefore, its impact should be considered in the Bangladesh monetary policy matrix.     

Sustainability Risk Disclosure Practices of Listed Companies in Australia

This paper investigates the extent to which the top 100 ASX listed companies disclosed economic, environmental and social sustainability risk factors during the 2014/15 financial year in light of the changes introducing Recommendation 7.4 to the third edition of the Corporate Governance Principles and Recommendations in 2014. While all companies complied with the Recommendation, questions of substance over form were raised because some companies had risks that were not disclosed according to Recommendation 7.4. Our conclusion outlines how this research contributes to the growing literature on sustainability and corporate governance. We add to the continuing debate on mandatory versus voluntary disclosures, advocating that Australia may need to introduce mandatory guidelines, beyond the ASX, to regulate the disclosure of material economic, environmental and social risks. Additionally, we conclude that Recommendation 7.4 is unlikely to substantially change Australian corporate reporting and disclosure practices – that, for most companies, it is ‘business as usual’. However, under business as usual, we can naturally expect to see further increases in sustainability and alternative reporting frameworks, such as integrated reporting, as well as increasing use of the Internet to report and disclose sustainability risks.     

与葛文谈话:鹿特丹电影节与当代独立电影制作

葛文:很高兴今天这么多人来听我的讲座,我很乐意和大家分享我的工作,并且谈谈我对中国独立电影,甚至非独立电影的看法。通常我在介绍电影的时候,总是忘了跟人们说我是谁。一场放映即将开始,我说这     

Quote disclosure and price discovery in multiple-dealer financial markets

We examine the effects of price disclosure on market performancein a continuous experimental multiple-dealer market in whichseven professional market makers trade a single security. Thedealers trade with one another and with computerized informedand liquidity traders. Our key comparison is between fully publicprice queues (pretrade transparent market) and bilateral quoting(pretrade opaque). We find that opening spreads are wider andtrading volume is lower in the opaque markets due to highersearch costs there. More importantly, however, higher searchcosts also induce more aggressive pricing strategies, so thatprice discovery is much faster in the opaque markets.     

Three measures of East Asian currency evaluation

One of the prominent explanations for the East Asian financial crises of 1997 relies upon East Asian currency overvaluation. However, most empirical studies of these crises do not undertake serious examination of whether these currencies were overvalued. In this article, three major approaches to identifying the equilibrium exchange rate are implemented: long-run purchasing power parity (PPP), a productivity-based model, and a monetary model of the nominal exchange rate. The PPP calculations indicate that as of May 1997, the Hong Kong dollar, baht, ringgit, and peso were overvalued, and the won undervalued. In a framework that explicitly accounts for the role of productivity, substantial overvaluation of the peso is detected, but an undervaluation of the won is also uncovered. Misalignments of the ringgit and baht are small. Finally, the estimated equilibrium rates from a monetary model do not imply much deviation from short-run equilibrium at the end of June 1997. A conclusion of substantial overvaluation on the eve of the East Asian currency turmoil is not very plausible, suggesting that some alternate mechanism for generating crises - other than one involving the conventional macroeconomic fundamentals - was at work.     

Interfuel substitution in Australia: a way forward to achieve environmental sustainability

This paper examines the possibilities for interfuel substitution in Australia in view of the need to shift towards a cleaner mix of fuels and technologies to meet future energy demand and environmental goals. The translog cost function is estimated for the aggregate economy, the manufacturing sector and its subsectors, and the electricity generation subsector. The advantages of this work over previous literature relating to the Australian case are that it uses relatively recent data, focuses on energy‐intensive subsectors and estimates the Morishima elasticities of substitution. The empirical evidence shown herein indicates weak‐form substitutability between different energy types, and higher possibilities for substitution at lower levels of aggregation, compared with the aggregate economy. For the electricity generation subsector, which is at the centre of the CO₂ emissions problem in Australia, significant but weak substitutability exists between coal and gas when the price of coal changes. A higher substitution possibility exists between coal and oil in this subsector. The evidence for the own‐ and cross‐price elasticities, together with the results for fuel efficiencies, indicates that a large increase in relative prices could be justified to further stimulate the market for low‐emission technologies.