"Quicker and sicker" under Medicare's prospective payment system for hospitals: new evidence on an old issue from a national longitudinal survey

Medicare's prospective payment system for hospitals (PPS), introduced in the USA in 1983, replaced cost reimbursement with a system of fixed rates which created incentives for hospitals to control costs. Previous studies found that elderly patients were discharged from hospital "quicker and sicker" under PPS and concluded that families were coping at home. We analyse a national longitudinal survey, the first National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey and its Epidemiologic Followup Study, which includes data on more outcomes over a longer period than earlier studies. We find that the rate of admission to nursing homes from the community in the first weeks after a hospital discharge more than tripled under PPS, suggesting that families were not always able to cope. As another response to sicker patients, discharges directly to nursing homes from hospitals, which jumped initially under PPS, may have risen further when payment rates were tightened in the early 1990s. Hospital readmissions fell after the first few years. Our findings are strengthened by the fact that we control for patients' health using health information collected independently of hospital admission.     

从冲突到融合——“知识型准移民”的路径选择

通过对湖南多城市的探索性问卷调查,研究城市准移民群体中规模庞大、亟待关注,却被忽略的"知识型准移民"青年的社会适应与城市融合问题。从道德社会学视角作了探讨。     

林地流转中不同类型农户决策行为博弈分析

研究目的:对林地流转中不同类型农户的林地流转决策行为进行博弈分析。研究方法:以博弈论为分析工具,建立林地流转中双方利益博弈模型的分析框架,并基于农户总预期收益函数构建林地流转双方决策行为博弈模型,对不同类型农户的林地流转决策行为进行博弈分析。研究结果:当同时存在一组满足林地流入方和林地流出方林业经营收益最大的劳动、资金和林地投入时,双方共同认可的流转租金价格为流转双方达成博弈的均衡解,即林地流入方和林地流出方实现(流转,流转)的策略,流转行为得以发生。研究结论:现实中通常会存在一些因素制约林地流转中均衡策略的选择,政府等有关部门应针对不均衡因素制定相应政策措施,以使林地流转均衡策略得以发生,达到促进林地流转的目的。     

城市污泥厌氧消化处理研究进展

对城市污泥利用厌氧消化处理的工艺前处理方法及其它相关相关研究进行了综述，并指出了城市污泥厌氧处理中今后要解决的问题和应用前景。     

货运量回归预测工具EXCEL和SPSS结合应用研究

对货运量预测工具EXCEL和SPSS各自的优缺点进行了分析，在此基础上建议将两种预测工具相结合，提出如何．陕速、准确得出预测值并作出预测图表的方法和步骤，最后以某市社会货运量统计为样本，进行实例说明。     

Types of Word-of-Mouth Messages: Information Search and Credence-Based Services

Word-of-mouth communication (WOMC) has been recognized as a powerful marketing communication medium and a credible information-gathering tool. To date, the various types of WOM messages have not been adequately studied, especially in credence-based services (CBS). Using the individual interview technique, this study fills this gap by describing the three types of WOMC messages in CBS information-gathering. The results contribute to the ongoing development of WOMC theory and also advance management's understandings of the types of WOMC messages in the CBS information-gathering process.     

国内外炭黑产需市场现状

本文分述了世界炭黑生产和需求现状和预测、我国炭黑生产和需求现状、我国炭黑生产扩能趋势，以及气相白炭黑的发展前景。     

Profiling Computer Predispositions

ABSTRACT

An exploratory study was undertaken to measure undergraduate student attitudes toward computers. A revised version of the Bath County Computer Scale (BCCAS) developed by George Bear, Herbert Richards, and Paul Lancaster was administered to a proportionality sample of 310 undergraduate students whose demographic make-up was very dissimilar to those who had participated in the original BCCAS instrument validation study.

A thirty-six item instrument was personally administered to 310 learners pursuing undergraduate studies, yielding a total of 11,160 individual responses. The data so obtained were subjected to several statistical tests of significance such as ANOVA. Through cross-classification numerous tables were generated and analyzed.

The findings indicate that demographic variables such as gender, status, GPA average, major, prior computer experience and anticipated future use of computers show significant differences in how Students feel about computers.     

Investment Opportunity Set and Voluntary Disclosure of Prospective Information: A Simultaneous Equations Approach

Abstract:   This paper examines empirically the relationship between the level of disclosure of prospective information and the investment opportunity set for firms in New Zealand. Using a systems (two‐stage least squares) approach that explicitly controls for potential endogeneity between disclosure and IOS, we find that the level of prospective information disclosure is significantly and positively related to IOS in both specifications in our simultaneous analysis. Further, we document that prospective information disclosure is positively related to firm size and new security offerings, and is not related to inside ownership and firm profitability. IOS is positively impacted by a firm's investments in fixed assets and its profitability. Finally, we find that forward looking disclosure levels are positively related to the proportion of outside directors on the board and negatively related to barriers to entry, but these findings are not robust across alternative model specifications.     

Don't call us,we'll call you: Considering cognitive and physical effort in designing effective response systems to manage extended in-process wait

People must often wait for days or weeks to receive test results, price quotes, products, etc. Service providers may manage user experience during such in-process waits using notification systems that inform users when a response is available or inquiry systems that require users to inquire about response availability, thereby imposing prospective memory requirements on users. Based on the prospective memory and wait time literature, we make predictions regarding how response system (notification vs. inquiry) moderates the effects of waits that are shorter or longer than the provider promised on user evaluation of the wait. We find that users of a notification system evaluate a wait more positively and are less sensitive to deviations of actual from promised wait time than are users of an inquiry system. This advantage was more pronounced for a wait that was longer (vs. shorter) than promised. These effects of system and expectation on evaluation were fully mediated by their impact on the cognitive and physical effort of navigating the system. Finally, a week after having experienced a wait, users of an inquiry system who had waited longer (vs. shorter) than promised cooperated less on a follow-up task, highlighting another downside of using an inquiry system.