Applied Economics

The complete evaluation of the offsite effects of national policies or programs that affect levels of agricultural nonpoint source pollution requires linking extensive water quality changes to changes in recreational activity. A sequential decision model is specified to describe an individual's decisions about fishing. A participation model for recreational fishing that includes a water quality index reflecting regional water quality is developed and estimated as a logit model with national level data. A visitation model for those who decide to fish that also includes the water quality index is estimated using ordinary least squares. The water quality index is found to be significant in the participation model but not in the visitation model. Together, the two models provide a means of estimating how changes in water quality might influence the number of recreation days devoted to fishing. The model is used to estimate changes in fishing participation for the Conservation Reserv...

This analysis evaluates the extent to which water quality influences the cost of supplying domestic water and the extent to which finished water quality affects household water demand from price impacts. The water demand and cost models are based on nationwide data for individual systems collected by the American Water Works Association [1996]. The water cost model estimated in this analysis indicates that factors such as the size of the water supply system, the population density of the service area, the source of water supplies, and water quality all significantly affect the cost per unit of water delivered. The water use model indicates water demand is influenced significantly by household income, household size, temperature, precipitation, the price of water, and finished water quality. Combining the results of the models allows an analyst to evaluate the full impacts of water quality benefits on municipal water supplies.

OBJECTIVES: 1) To assess if a translatability assessment (TA) conducted prior to a psychometric evaluation in PRO instrument development could predict items subsequently eliminated, and 2) to provide evidence to the extent to which a TA adds value to the translation and cultural adaptation of PRO instruments. The Youth Quality-of-Life Instrument-Weight module (YQOL-W) was chosen as a candidate questionnaire for this exercise. METHODS: A team of two linguists, blinded to the results of psychometric analyses and decisions on item reduction, conducted a TA on the 32-item pre-final version of the YQOL-W. Results were categorized into several types of issues. Items for possible deletion were identified and compared to the results of the item-reduction phase, using both qualitative and psychometric methods performed by the developer. RESULTS: During the item-reduction phase, 11 items were dropped; seven for qualitative reasons (items 10, 30, 31, 27-32) and four for weak factor loading (items 14, 16, 18, 19). Out of the 11 items dropped, TA identified nine problematic items (82%) and, among them, advised dropping five items (45.4%), either for redundancy with others (items 14, 19, 29, and 32) or inconsistency of construct with respect to concept (item 27). For item 28, TA recommended changing the original for semantic reasons. For items 10, 30, and 31, TA recommended using alternative wording for translation purposes but did not suggest changing the original. Finally, for items 16 and 18, TA recommended no changes. CONCLUSIONS: Our study showed that a translatability assessment can anticipate results of the item-reduction phase. Although more empirical studies are needed, we have demonstrated that the involvement of linguists in the early development phase could be a plus in detecting irrelevant or inappropriate items, and that a translatability assessment can be a useful step in PRO instrument development.

take one-half tablet. Staff was notified of the programming change prior to execution, to ensure proper counselling of patients. It was assumed that the rate of tablet splitting would have remained unchanged without the electronic implementation. Therefore, cost savings for each medication and dose was calculated by multiplying the absolute number of prescriptions by the percent increase in tablet splitting realized. Difference in cost per year between utilizing whole and half tablets was applied to the additional number of prescriptions tablet split. RESULTS: Analysis was performed on selected prescription data including rosiglitazone, atorvastatin, simvastatin, sertraline, paroxetine, risperidone, and olanzapine. Prior to implementation, only 65% (3918/6000) of eligible prescriptions were tablet split. Within 6 months, the rate increased to 80% (5357/6680) with an estimated annual cost savings of US$158,000.00. Rate increased 10-92% per medication. CONCLUSIONS: Incorporating a tablet splitting guide with physician order entry is an efficient method of realizing substantial cost savings.

As a key component of global change, dam‐induced sediment reduction occurs in large rivers worldwide, which has profound implications on the fluvial systems. However, the systematic change of suspended sediment concentration (SSC) and its dynamic processes are not well known. We summarize typical SSC changes and propose a new sediment modeling framework for heavily dammed fluvial systems with the Changjiang (Yangtze River) as a background. We find that the fluvial SSC has declined by an order of magnitude, i.e., from ∼1.0 to ∼0.1 kg/m3, and even to ∼0.01 kg/m3 locally. The SSC distribution pattern along the mainstream has changed remarkably, with the sediment source/sink being partially reversed. Downstream of the Three Gorges Dam, the SSC recovery capacity gradually decreases with the sediment erosion quantity accumulated over time, and the SSC contribution rate of a linked large lake (Dongting) will change from negative (ca. −39%) to positive (ca. 17%), in the coming decades.

Progressive multifocal leukoencephalopathy causes an infection of the central nervous system by JC virus (JCV), a polyomavirus that destroys oligodendrocytes and their myelin processes. Here, we describe a patient with AIDS who developed a progressive multifocal leucoencephalopathy with the clinical and neuroimaging characteristics of the immune inflammatory reconstitution syndrome. Unlike other opportunistic infections, this disease can present when CD4 T cell counts are higher than those associated with AIDS and also when patients are receiving combined antiretroviral therapy. Clinical suspicion of this form of the disease is based on clinical examination that shows focal neurological deficits associated with magnetic resonance images findings. The histopathological examination of brain biopsy smears and the identification of JCV in cerebrospinal fluid or brain tissue are definitive for the diagnosis.

While African urban populations have been expanding rapidly, there has been a general decline in the availability of resources for essential urban services and facilities. Consequently, African cities have turned from a 'statist' model of service delivery to the 'privatization' of urban services, including effective local participation. To maximize benefits and reduce the potential problems associated with privatization, African urban policy-makers should attempt to improve two-way flows of communication, public sector/private sector coordination, and community participation in the financing and managing of local services.*

If the political and economic future of our globe is shrouded in obscurity and controversy, there is one striking trend of which we may be certain: our collective future will be even more urbanised than it is now. Current projections estimate that the whole world will be predominantly urban by the year 2007; and the 'developing' world, which has historically been much more rural than the 'developed' world, will itself, on the aggregate, pass the urban threshold by the year 2019 (United Nations, 2002, p. 163). As the world urbanises, it sorts itself into spatially distinct patterns with respect to both density and size. The trajectory of the number and average size of large cities is especially interesting. At the beginning of the 19th century, Peking (now Beijing) was the only city with a recorded population of more than a million. A century later, 16 cities had achieved this size. By 1950, the number had risen to 83, by 1975 to 195 (National Research Council, 2003, p. 85), and by the year 2000 it was estimated that there were 387 cities with one million or more population (United Nations, 2002, p. 309). While there are more and larger cities on the planet, an increasing number of them are located in developing, or 'less developed' and 'least developed' regions of the world, to use the current United Nations nomenclature. Thus of the 195 large cities in the world in 1975, 122 (or 63%) were in the developing regions; by 2000, 297 out of 387 (or 77%) were in developing regions, and by 2015, when it is estimated that the whole world will be well into its urban phase, 449 out of a total of 554 (or fully 81%) will be in the developing world. (National Research Council, 2003, p. 85). Finally, it is worth observing that the average size of the world's largest cities is also growing. Whereas in 1800 the world's 100 largest cities averaged 165,000, the average in the early years of the current millennium is greater than 6 million (National Research Council, 2003, p. 84). In their tabulation of the world's 'megacities'-or cities with more than 10 million persons-the UN observes that in 1950 there were only two, New York with more than 12 million inhabitants and Tokyo with over 11 million. By 1975 there were four, of which two-Shanghai and Mexico City-were in 'less developed regions'. And by 2015 there will be twentytwo, of which all but five will be in the developing world (United Nations, 2004, p. 7). This powerful surge of urbanisation, which has already consolidated itself in Europe, North America and most parts of southern Latin America, is increasingly being fuelled by intra-urban rather than migratory sources of growth. Much of this intra-urban growth will reflect the process of expansion, as large cities embrace rural settlements on their outskirts. In any case, as we are again reminded by the UN, '[a]lmost all the growth of the world's total population between 2000 and 2030 is expected to be absorbed by the urban areas of the less developed regions' (United Nations, 2004, p. 1). These trends of urban growth and consolidation have produced, all over the world, agglomerations that we have termed 'metropolitan areas'. Definitions of what is 'metropolitan' as opposed to merely urban abound, but the Canadian definition of a 'census metropolitan area' can stand as a useful starting point. These areas are defined as 'cities with a very large urbanized core, together with adjacent urban and rural areas which have a high degree of economic and social integration with that core' (United Nations, 2002, p. 134). To these elements we can add the notion of a threshold size for the core city-100,000 in Canada and at least 50,000 (at least until more complex definitions took over) in the United States (Stephens and Wikstrom, 2000, p. 15); and the idea of political and cultural importance (Johnston et al., 2000, p. 501). 'Metropolitan areas' around the world are generally comprised of a number of clustered, multi-centred cities, a large total population (normally over 1 million) and a complex Copyright # 2005 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. * The growth of population and the expansion of economic and social activity appear to cause urban municipalities to reach a saturation point. Economic growth may be retarded because one city or municipality has no say in the development of neighbouring localities. The latter may either resist developments which are in the interests of the central city, or may not coordinate these policies and activities with those of the central city. This can lead to stagnation or to unplanned and uncoordinated growth. The general complaint is that central cities and towns are denied reasonable space for essential development. * For certain services and infrastructural investments, individual municipalities within larger metropolitan areas no longer appear to have jurisdiction over the optimal area. Many services, such as police, public transport, sewerage and refuse disposal, should be provided for the area as a whole. * Land-use planning can only be provided in a co-ordinated way if the area includes the integrated economic and social metropolitan area as a whole. * The need-sanctioned by a more regionally-based government-to redistribute resources and services from richer to poorer areas (

In Thailand there is an ongoing debate concerning the most desirable form of higher education financing, with the critical concern being the form such a loan scheme should take. Conceptually, there are two generic possibilities: a mortgage-type loan, in which repayments are made on a consistent basis over a set period; and an income-contingent loan, in which the level and timing of repayments depend on a borrower's future income stream. From 1996 to 2006, Thailand's preferred approach to higher education financing took the form of a mortgage-type loan known as the Student Loans Fund (SLF). The SLF involved targeted funds being allocated for both income support and tuition, with a time-limited repayment period of 17 years after graduation. Piruna et al. (2008) analysed the SLF with respect to two important dimensions: taxpayer-financed interest rate subsidies; and measures of so-called 'repayment hardships'-calculations of the proportion of borrowers' future incomes that would need to be allocated to SLF repayments. Very similarly to the findings of Adrian Ziderman and others, Piruna et al. (2008) conclude that the SLF is associated with very substantial subsidies-perhaps of the order of 65 per cent. The source of the subsidy can be traced overwhelmingly to the interest rate regime. Consistent with these high subsidies, and in a unique contribution, they find also that the SLF has low rates of repayment hardship of about 4 per cent on average and only about 10 per cent for graduates whose future earnings are very low. In short, the SLF is a very generous scheme for students. In this chapter, we seek to replicate some significant aspects of Piruna et al. (2008) with respect to various suggested forms of income-contingent loan schemes for Thailand. By definition, this type of loan has 'repayment hardship' set as a collection parameter-for example, in the Thai Income Contingent Allowance and Loan (TICAL) system explained below and in place in Thailand improved loan systems with respect to interest rate regimes have the potential to result in subsidies of 3-18 per cent, even for low levels of debt. A major benefit of our approach is that we have used the same data, econometric techniques and present-value methods as employed by Piruna et al. (2008), providing a consistent basis from which to assess alternative loan schemes. We find that in design terms, and with respect to taxpayer subsidies, there seem to be viable possibilities for an income-contingent loan scheme for Thailand. But this conclusion is more credible for relatively low levels of debt than for the sizes of tuition fees that are more likely to be associated with higher-price private institutions. In this latter case, the subsidies of even well-designed schemes can be as high as 50 per cent. Whether or not Thai institutional and administrative arrangements are well suited to the collection of an income-contingent loan is a critical policy issue not addressed in what follows.

This paper aims to quantify the crowding-out effect of public debt and the related loss in longrun output in neoclassical growth models. To accomplish this task, we incorporate the government sector into the Ramsey-Cass-Koopmans (RCK) model, the Blanchard model and the Solow model, which differ only in their assumptions concerning the consumption behaviour of households. We also introduce a general framework that is capable of gauging the burden of public debt in a neoclassical world in the case of any type of consumption behaviour. Our results are threefold. First, contrary to the RCK model, public debt reduces long-run output in the Blanchard model and the Solow model, although to a different extent: the crowding-out effect is marginal in the former, whereas it can be very large in the latter. Second, the burden of public debt is country-specific depending crucially on the saving rate and the population growth rate. Finally, in developed countries the upper limit of the output loss related to public debt is moderate at best even if distortionary taxes are taken into account.

A major environmental tragedy of modern times is the widespread arsenic contamination of shallow drinking water wells in rural Bangladesh which went unrecognized for years. Large numbers of people are now starting to show a range of symptoms long associated with chronic arsenic exposure. Rural families in Bangladesh, one of the poorest countries in the world, face financial risks from major illness both from the cost of medical care and from the loss of income associated with reduced labor supply and productivity. Because of the lack of comprehensive government assistance programs and formal insurance markets, most of these households have to rely on private, informal, insurance mechanisms. For the poor these typically take place at the household level. While arsenic-related health problems in Bangladesh have long received considerable attention (e.g., Smith, Lingas, and Rahman 2000), implications for the labor supply have not been examined. In this article, we look at the impacts of arsenic contamination on both the overall level of hours worked and the distribution of these hours within households. Using a large sample of rural households matched to arsenic exposure, we find (i) overall household labor supply is 8% smaller due to arsenic exposure and (ii) intra-household reallocation of work between males and females is used to self-insure against the risk induced by arsenic exposure.

Evaluating investments with long-term consequences using discount rates that decline with the time horizon, (Declining Discount Rates or DDRs) means that future welfare changes are of greater consequence in present value terms. Recent work in this area has turned towards operationalising the theory and establishing a schedule of DDRs for use in cost benefit analysis. Using US data we make the following points concerning this transition: i) model selection has important implications for operationalising a theory of DDRs that depends upon uncertainty; ii) misspecification testing naturally leads to employing models that account for changes in the interest rate generating mechanism. Lastly, we provide an analysis of the policy implications of DDRs in the context of climate change for the US and show that the use of a state space model can increase valuations by 150% compared to conventional constant discounting.

This paper investigates‐whether liquidity and liquidity risk are priced in Japan. Using modified Amihud illiquidity measures, we find both cross‐sectional and time series evidence that liquidity is priced in the Japanese stock market during the period 1975–2006. The evidence is largely consistent with Amihud's (2002) findings in the US market. We further employ the liquidity‐adjusted CAPM proposed by Acharya and Pedersen (2005) to examine whether liquidity risk is priced in Japan. Consistent with Acharya and Pedersen's findings in the US, we show that liquidity risk is priced in the stock market, in addition to the liquidity level. These findings strengthen the confidence that liquidity is a determinant of stock returns.

We consider computational methods for evaluating and approximating multivariate chisquare probabilities in cases where the pertaining correlation matrix or blocks thereof have a low-factorial representation. To this end, techniques from matrix factorization and probability theory are applied. We outline a variety of statistical applications of multivariate chi-square distributions and provide a system of MATLAB programs implementing the proposed algorithms. Computer simulations demonstrate the accuracy and the computational efficiency of our methods in comparison with Monte Carlo approximations, and a real data example from statistical genetics illustrates their usage in practice.

We consider computational methods for evaluating and approximating multivariate chisquare probabilities in cases where the pertaining correlation matrix or blocks thereof have a low-factorial representation. To this end, techniques from matrix factorization and probability theory are applied. We outline a variety of statistical applications of multivariate chi-square distributions and provide a system of MATLAB programs implementing the proposed algorithms. Computer simulations demonstrate the accuracy and the computational efficiency of our methods in comparison with Monte Carlo approximations, and a real data example from statistical genetics illustrates their usage in practice.

This paper shows that non-productive activities aimed at influencing the distribution of income might increase when constitutional constraints against redistribution are imposed or strengthened. By facilitating redistribution, on the other hand, influence activities could be limited, and the economic performance improved. We argue that these effects could be important in countries with poorly developed democratic institutions, and that research in constitutional economics needs to be more aware of perverse effects of this kind.

The internal and external environment of all organizations challenges them adapt to the best practices and reconsider their relationship throughout the supply chain. In this paper, the authors have tried to propose an agile strategy for the supply chain of a steel company, which ranks 3rd in Iran in Gross Sale with 16,000 employees, in order to respond quickly to ever-changing needs. To do this, through the literature review the framework of balanced scorecard was utilized to structure agility factors in the supply chain of the steel industry. Then the experts were interviewed to reconcile on the factors identified. Utilizing 24 questionnaires by the use of Interpretive Structural Modeling framework, the relationship and sequence of factors were obtained from experts. The final model developed in the paper presents the agility factors for the steel industry supply chain. Also, these factors are grouped within the four perspectives of the BSC to better enhance the results and pursue ...

Medicine therapy-related quality of life (MTRQoL) is the difference between theoretically maximal obtainable and observed health-related quality of life (HRQoL) post-treatment. Health utility (HU) is a HRQoL measure that reflects both health status and preference for that health status. Little was known about the association between MTRQoL and HU. This study aimed to assess the relationship between MTRQoL and HU. METHODS: This study applied the database from our project "Psychometric properties of the Patient-Reported Outcomes Measure of Pharmaceutical Therapy for Quality of Life (PROMPT-QoL)." The sample of 1,156 patients was identified from three university hospitals in Bangkok, Thailand, between July 2014 and March 2015. Inclusion criterion were outpatients aged 18 or over who were continuously taking any medicines at least three months to treat their diseases. Exclusion criteria were the patients with cognitive impairment or with communicative or psychiatric problems. MTRQoL was measured by a novel instrument called the PROMPT-QoL which had 43 items with nine domains. Health utility measures included EQ-5D-5L and EQ-VAS. Multiple linear regression models using stepwise method were employed to evaluate the association between MTRQoL and HU. RESULTS: The regression model showed that EQ-5D-5L utility score had the highest significant correlation with Impact of Medicine and Side Effects follow by Satisfaction with Medicine Effectiveness, Psychological Impacts of Medication Use, and Availability and Accessibility domains of PROMPT-QoL, respectively (adjusted R2 = 13.7%). Another regression model demonstrated that EQ-VAS was highest associated with Satisfaction with Medicine Effectiveness, followed by Impact of Medicine and Side Effects and Overall QoL, respectively (adjusted R2 = 13.5%). CONCLUSIONS: This research found that the PROMPT-QoL explained about 14% of variance in EQ-5D-5L and EQ-VAS utility scores. This implies that these two concepts are different. Additionally, different HU methods are correlated with different domains of the PROMPT-QoL. More research can be done to explore these relationships.

This paper conducts a first systematic investigation of the determinants and costs of terrorism attacks at the aggregate level. We use newly assembled datasets on terrorism attacks, natural disasters and bank and currency crises to answer three questions: what are the determinats of terrorism incidence, is there an output cost after a terrorist attack and do democracies suffer a larger or smaller cost? We find that rich countries are the most prone to suffer attacks while democracies are neither more nor less vulnerable than other countries. There is a cost to terrorism, which is quantitatively small and associated with the occurrence of an event rather than with the number of casualties. Finally, we find strong evidence that the output cost of attacks is smaller in democracies.

La prise en compte de l'histoire, de la temporalité, de l'intergénérationnel aurait pu également, selon notre point de vue, être davantage abordée dans ce dictionnaire. Il n'y a de développement durable ou soutenable que dans le long terme. Le temps de la mondialisation (compétitivité, ouverture, adaptation aux nouvelles donnes technologiques, etc.) n'est pas celui du développement économique (mise en place d'institutions, de construction des marchés, de progrès durables de productivité) ni celui des trajectoires socio-historiques des sociétés (construction des États et des nations, redéfinition des frontières ou double légitimation externe et interne des pouvoirs). Les sociétés construisent leur propre modernité en combinant leur temps historique propre et le temps de la mondialisation. On peut enfin évidemment discuter de certaines analyses. La définition retenue, par exemple, des biens publics est néoclassique, en reposant sur des critères naturels tels que l'exclusion et la rivalité et non sur des constructions sociopolitiques. Enfin l'ouvrage ne présente pas d'index des entrées, ce qui en faciliterait la lecture. Ce ne sont que des remarques secondaires. Ce dictionnaire est remarquable par l'ampleur et la maîtrise des sujets traités, par la clarté de l'écriture, par l'actualité de nombreux sujets et par la combinaison entre la présentation distanciée impartiale des débats et le soubassement théorique et éthique qui anime l'auteur et qui constitue un fil directeur de l'ouvrage, permettant de relier les différentes entrées. Ce dictionnaire sera très utile tant pour les étudiants, que pour les acteurs de la société civile, les décideurs, les universitaires et chercheurs, ou tout simplement pour les lecteurs cherchant à comprendre le monde dans lequel nous vivons et vivront les futures générations.

This paper suggests a new explanation for the low level of annuitization, which is valid even if one assumes perfect markets. We show that, as soon there is a positive bequest motive, sufficiently risk averse individuals should not purchase annuities. A model calibration accounting for lifetime risk aversion generates a significantly smaller willingness-to-pay for annuities than the one generated by a standard time-additive model. Moreover, the calibration predicts that riskless savings finance one third of consumption, in line with empirical findings. Among the greatest risks in life is that associated with life duration. A recently retired American man aged 65 has a life expectancy of about 17.5 years. However, there is more than a 22% chance that he will die within the first 10 years and more than a 20% chance that he will live for longer than 25 years. Savings required to sustain 10 or 25 years of retirement vary considerably, and one would expect a strong demand Electronic supplementary material The online version of this article (doi: 10.1007/s11166-014-9190-3) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users. Both authors gratefully acknowledge financial support from Swiss-Re. A. Bommier ( )

This paper studies the problem of redistribution between individuals having different mortality rates. We use a continuous time model in which there are two types of individuals characterized by different survival probability paths. Individual preferences are represented by a generalized life cycle utility function which can exhibit temporal risk aversion. We successively compare utilitarian allocations when individuals exhibit temporal risk neutrality and temporal risk aversion. This problem is analyzed successively in the context of full information and asymmetric information on mortality rates.

We analyze the impact of risk aversion and ambiguity aversion on the competing demands for annuities and bequeathable savings using a lifecycle recursive utility model. Our main finding is that risk aversion and ambiguity aversion have similar effects: an increase in either of the two reduces annuity demand and enhances bond holdings. We obtain this unequivocal result in the flexible intertemporal framework of Hayashi and Miao (2011) by assuming that the agent's preferences are monotone with respect to first-order stochastic dominance. Our contribution is then twofold. First, from a decision-theoretic point of view, we show that monotonicity allows one to obtain clear-cut results about the respective roles of risk and ambiguity aversion. Second, from the insurance point of view, our result that the demand for annuities decreases with risk and ambiguity aversion stands in contrast with what is usually found with other insurance products. As such, it may help explain the low annuitization level observed in the data.

We study the role of alternative intertemporal preference representations in a model of economic growth, stock pollutant and endogenous risk of catastrophic collapse. We contrast the traditional "discounted utility" model, which assumes risk neutrality with respect to intertemporal utility, with a multiplicative choice model that displays risk aversion in that dimension. First, we show that both representations of preferences can rationalize the same "business as usual" economy for a given interest rate and no pollution externality. Second, once we introduce a collapse risk whose hazard rate is a function of the pollution stock, multiplicative preferences recommend a much more stringent policy response. An illustration in the context of climate change indicates that switching to the multiplicative preference representation has a similar effect, in terms of policy recommendations, as scaling up the schedule of the hazard rate by a factor of 100. Résumé -Nous étudions les implications de différentes représentations des préférences intertemporelles dans un modèle de croissance avec un stock de pollution et un risque catastrophique endogène. Nous comparons le modèle traditionnel de l'utilité escompté, qui est neutre par rapport au risque sur l'utilité intertemporelle, avec un modèle de choix multiplicatif qui présente une aversion pour ce risque. Nous montrons tout d'abord que les deux modèles peuvent rationaliser la même économie de « statu quo » sans externalité de pollution, pour un niveau donné du taux d'intérêt. Lorsque nous introduisons un risque catastrophique dont la probabilité dépend du stock de pollution, nous montrons en revanche que le modèle de choix multiplicatif recommande une politique climatique plus forte. Nous proposons une illustration numérique avec un modèle de changement climatique qui indique que le passage au modèle multiplicatif a un impact qualitativement semblable (en terme de politique climatique) à une multiplication par 100 du risque instantané de transition vers un état post-catastrophe climatique.

This paper studies the problem of redistribution between individuals having different mortality rates. We use a continuous time model in which there are two types of individuals characterized by different survival probability paths. Individual preferences are represented by a generalized life cycle utility function which can exhibit temporal risk aversion. We successively compare utilitarian allocations when individuals exhibit temporal risk neutrality and temporal risk aversion. This problem is analyzed successively in the context of full information and asymmetric information on mortality rates.

The results of this exploratory study suggest that computer operators experience a high level of inconsistency in their occupational status. Such inconsistency produces a differential impact upon the satisfaction of computer operators. When operators resolve the inconsistency by seeing their own status as low, they tend to be dissatisfied ; when they see their own status as high, they tend to be satisfied.

While demand estimates are used in policy making in a number of areas, there has not been a substantial literature on demand patterns and responses in Pakistan. We present estimates for thirteen classes of goods, based on a complete demand system, a modification of the Unear Expenditure System, using maximum likelihood techniques and observations at the household level for Pakistan and urban and rurll areas for 1976.

In my PhD thesis I investigate the relationship between corporates ́ financial and environmental performances. The concept of quantitative environmental performance measures was introduced to enable to compare and analyse environmental impacts of different socio-economic units e.g. companies, countries, regions. In my dissertation, I use environmental performance measures to examine their effect on the financial performance of different companies. In the first chapter, I apply a meta-analysis to examine the results of the previous studies which investigate the impact of firms ́ environmental performance on their financial performance. The outcomes propose that it is important to account for the omitted variable bias such as unobserved firm heterogeneity. The results suggest that it takes time for the environmental regulation to materialize into the financial performance, too. In the subsequent two chapters I study Czech firms over 2004-2008. First I study the intertemporal effects o...

Taxes on financial transactions have been especially controversial because of their potential effects on banking disintermediation. A modality of such taxes (Bank Debit Tax, BDT) was introduced in Colombia since the late nineties. Using monthly panel data from 1996 to 2014 for the major depository institutions, this paper provides evidence on the effects of the BDT on bank intermediation spreads. For the total sample (thirteen banks), results suggest that nowadays the hypothetical elimination of the BDT would reduce spreads in 90 basis points, from 7,7% to levels close to 6,8%. The results do not provide clear evidence of differential impacts by bank size. Tests for a regime switch of the BDT are performed, but no evidence is found to support this conjecture.

This study uses the fully modify ordinary least square (FMOLS) and the dynamic ordinary least square (DOLS) to examineexport-led growth hypothesis in West African countries over the period 1980 to 2018. To achieve the objective of the study, panel data on Real Gross domestic product (RGDP), Exchange rate (REXR), net exports (NXPT, labor (LABR)and investment (INVS)) were collected for seventeen West African countries from database of the international financial statistics (IFS) and World Development Index (WDI). The data were analyzed using dynamic ordinary least square (DOLS) and fully modify ordinary least square (FMOLS). Findings from the study show that exports had significant impact on economic growth of the West African countries investigated in this study. Based on the findings, it is recommended, among other things, that the governments of West African countries should continue with export-led economic growth since there is strong empirical evidence in support of the export-l...

Fırat Demir Department of Economics University of Oklahoma Hester Hall, 729 Elm Avenue Norman, OK USA 73019 E-mail: fdemir@ou.edu Tel: 1-405-325-5844 ... Nilgun Erdem Department of Public Finance Faculty of Political Sciences Ankara University 06590 Cebeci-Ankara, ...

The paper presents a political economy model linking terror and governments' respect for human rights. Using panel data for 111 countries over the period 1973-2002, we then empirically analyze whether and to what extent terror affects human rights -measured by three indices covering a wide variety of human rights aspects. According to our results, terror substantially diminishes governments' respect for basic human rights such as absence of extrajudicial killings, political imprisonment, and torture. To some extent, civil rights are also restricted as a consequence of terrorism, while we find no effect of terrorism on empowerment rights.

We provide a formal model illustrating the mutual relationship between corruption and capital account restrictions. Corrupt countries are more likely to impose capital controls because corruption reduces a government's ability to collect tax revenue. If controls exist, however, individuals try to mitigate the burden by offering bribes, thereby increasing corruption. We test the model using panel data for 80 countries over the period 1984-2002 and find that corruption and restrictions indeed affect each other. Government's attempts to increase revenue via controls on capital might thus invoke a restrictions-rent-seeking spiral with destructively high levels of both. Using capital controls to increase revenue should be reconsidered.

We examine the constitutional design required for democratic societies to overcome poverty traps. Restricting agenda setting by ensuring subsistence levels of consumption and applying simple majority voting as a decision rule will not enable a society to overcome poverty. We show that a combination of suitable constitutional rules can, however, overcome poverty and induce economic well-being. Besides majority voting, these rules include rotating agenda setting, agenda repetition, and tax-protection rules. We thus highlight the crucial role of democratic institutions for economic development.

We study the social interaction of non-smokers and smokers as a sequential game, incorporating insights from social psychology and experimental economics into an economic model. Social norms affect human behavior such that non-smokers do not ask smokers to stop smoking and stay with them, even though disutility from smoking exceeds utility from social interaction. Overall, smoking is unduly often accepted when accommodating smoking is the social norm. The introduction of smoking and non-smoking areas does not overcome this specific inefficiency. We conclude that smoking bans may represent a required (second-best) policy.

Using the KOF Index of Globalization and two indices of economic freedom, the authors empirically analyze whether globalization and economic liberalization affect governments’ respect for human rights in a panel of 106 countries over the 1981–2004 period. According to their results, physical integrity rights significantly and robustly increase with globalization and economic freedom, while empowerment rights are not robustly affected. Due to the lack of consensus about the appropriate level of empowerment rights as compared to the outright rejection of any violation of physical integrity rights, the global community is presumably less effective in promoting empowerment rights.

The employer learning model postulates that employers form employees' prior ability distribution from educational credentials and update its distribution by observing workers' performance on the job. This paper estimates the employer learning model for university-graduate white-collar workers using personnel datasets from two large manufacturers that contain rich information, including the name of the university from which the worker graduated, annual performance evaluations, and position in the promotion ladder. The estimates indicate that employers learn workers' ability relatively quickly through observing their performance on the job. The initial expectation errors on ability decline by a half in about three to four years in the two companies. Companies promote graduates of elite schools quickly mainly because they tend to perform better on the job.

Water resource management (WRM) through dams or reservoirs is worldwide necessary to support key human‐related activities, ranging from hydropower production to water allocation and flood risk mitigation. Designing of reservoir operations aims primarily to fulfill the main purpose (or purposes) for which the structure has been built. However, it is well known that reservoirs strongly influence river geomorphic processes, causing sediment deficits downstream, altering water, and sediment fluxes, leading to riverbed incision and causing infrastructure instability and ecological degradation. We propose a framework that, by combining physically based modeling, surrogate modeling techniques, and multiobjective (MO) optimization, allows to include fluvial geomorphology into MO optimization whose main objectives are the maximization of hydropower revenue and the minimization of riverbed degradation. The case study is a run‐of‐the‐river power plant on the River Po (Italy). A 1‐D mobile‐bed ...

This article quantifies the size of the implicit bid-ask spread and examines the impact of three structural changes on the relationship between the bid-ask spread and its determi-Ž . nants on the Johannesburg Stock Exchange JSE . A sample of 135 firms was analyzed using a time series over the period from January 1991 to February 1996. It was found that the size Ž of the spread is substantially larger on the JSE and that the independent variables price, . volatility and trading volume explain a smaller proportion of variation in the spread than on developed exchanges. The evidence shows that the spread decreased after tax structural change, but increased after both political and economic structural changes. The size of the spread decreased on average from 1.71% to 1.24% following tax structural change and increased from 1.67% to 1.83% and from 1.10% to 1.24% following political and economic structural changes, respectively. The evidence also shows that the impact of tax, political and economic structural changes on the relationship between the spread and its determinants is not statistically significant. The results show that while the independent variables explain from 23.45 to 48.2% of the variation in the spread, there is no statistically significant change in the coefficients of the independent variables between before and after structural change regressions.

This article derives a generalized algorithm for duration and convexity of option embedded bonds that provides a convenient way of estimating the dollar value of 1 basis point change in yield known as DV01, an important metric in the bond market. As delta approaches 1, duration of callable bonds approaches zero once the bond is called. However, when the delta is zero, the short call is worthless and duration of callable will be equal to that of a straight bond. On the other hand, the convexity of a callable bond follows the same behavior when the delta is 1 as shown in as well as in Mehran and Homaifar's (1993) derivations. However, in the case when the delta is zero, the convexity of a callable bond approaches zero as well, which is in stark contrast to the non-zero convexity derived in Dunetz and Mahoney's paper. Our generalized algorithm shows that duration and convexity nearly symmetrically underestimate (overestimate) the actual price change by 11/10 basis points for +/-100 basis points change in yield. Furthermore, our algorithm reduces to that of MH for convertible bonds assuming the convertible bond is not callable.

This article quantifies the size of the implicit bid-ask spread and examines the impact of three structural changes on the relationship between the bid-ask spread and its determi-Ž . nants on the Johannesburg Stock Exchange JSE . A sample of 135 firms was analyzed using a time series over the period from January 1991 to February 1996. It was found that the size Ž of the spread is substantially larger on the JSE and that the independent variables price, . volatility and trading volume explain a smaller proportion of variation in the spread than on developed exchanges. The evidence shows that the spread decreased after tax structural change, but increased after both political and economic structural changes. The size of the spread decreased on average from 1.71% to 1.24% following tax structural change and increased from 1.67% to 1.83% and from 1.10% to 1.24% following political and economic structural changes, respectively. The evidence also shows that the impact of tax, political and economic structural changes on the relationship between the spread and its determinants is not statistically significant. The results show that while the independent variables explain from 23.45 to 48.2% of the variation in the spread, there is no statistically significant change in the coefficients of the independent variables between before and after structural change regressions.

Frank points out a number of ironies in this account of Dutra's life (p. 168). For one thing, even though slavery was an institution based in exploitation and coercion, some former slaves were nevertheless able to make their fortunes once they were emancipated. For another, fortune, like freedom, can be unstable. Economic changes throughout the century brought about rapid deterioration in the fortunes of middle-income groups and led to the concentration of wealth with the development of the coffee economy and the transformation of social institutions. This book is a useful first step toward understanding the development of Brazilian society in the nineteenth century, but the topic awaits further research by historians of the period.

PurposeThis study attempts to examine the relationship between service quality perception and customers' satisfaction in Malaysian Islamic banking using the SEM approach.Design/methodology/approachThis model starts with SERVQUAL measurement scales consisting of six dimensional structures: tangibles, reliability, responsiveness, assurance, and empathy, and plus the compliance dimensions to measure Malaysian Islamic banking service quality. Respondents are the customers (Muslim and non‐Muslim) who visit the bank counters. They must have an account with one of the full‐fledged Islamic banking and dual‐banking systems.FindingsThe results showed that the proportion of Malaysian Muslims' awareness of the Islamic banking products and services were high compared to non‐Muslim customers. The majority of the Islamic banking customers were satisfied with the overall service quality provided by their banks. The findings suggest that the standard model of Islamic banking service quality ...

Background: Progressive multifocal leukoencephalopathy (PML), related to oligodendrocyte infection by reactivation of latent John Cunningham virus (J.C.) involvement of the nervous system in the context of immunosuppression, is poorly described in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) despite the high prevalence of AIDS, tuberculosis, leukemia, and probably autoimmune diseases. Methods: We conducted a retrospective, descriptive and analytical study of six ( ) observations of progressive multifocal leukoencephalopathy in the Neurology Department of the University Hospital of Conakry. The diagnostic con rmation formerly made from the brain biopsy, was certi ed by PCR (J.C) in the cerebrospinal uid, the magnetic resonance imaging in a neurological context: motor disorders, dysarthria, cognitive, cerebellar and sensory disorders. Results: This study shows that it is an unrecognized disease in sub-Saharan Africa. Men were more represented (4 men and 2 women). The clinical picture was dominated by cognitive disorders, motor de cits, neurosensory manifestations and cerebellar damage. The incriminated pathologies that led to severe immunosuppression were HIV in 3 cases, leprosy in one case, systemic lupus erythematosus in one case and African trypanosomiasis in one case. CSF PCR for J.C virus was positive in all patients. Magnetic resonance imaging contributed to the diagnosis by showing T2 hypersignals in the white matter. Conclusion: PML occurring in chronic autoimmune conditions should be sought in re-emerging tropical diseases in sub-Saharan Africa. These data are useful for the diagnostic, therapeutic and prognostic discussion.

Současná doba klade velké nároky na žáky, ale i na lidi, kteří už dávno opustili školní lavice. Neustálý rozvoj moderních technologií a z něj vyplývající nové možnosti pro jednotlivce, firmy a různé další instituce s sebou nese zvyšující se nároky na vědění, dovednosti-klíčové kompetence jako jsou například odpovědnost, spolehlivost, myšlení a učení, řešení problémů a tvořivost, samostatnost a výkonnost, komunikace a spolupráce, zdůvodňování a hodnocení apod. Jen malá část obyvatel rozvinutých zemí si může dovolit neučit se novým věcem a využívat znalosti ze školy a následně jen z praxe. Požadavky školy, trhu práce, strach ze ztráty zaměstnání , ale i činnosti ve volném čase jsou silnými motivy pro další sebevzdělávání. Práce zaujímá v žebříčku hodnot vysokou příčku a má zásadní vliv na vnímání naší identity a společenského postavení. Mezinárodní organizace (OECD, UNESCO aj.) si tuto novou realitu uvědomily a změnily požadavek celoživotního vzdělávání na požadavek celoživotního učen...

We analyze the effectiveness of various macroprudential policy instruments in reducing the procyclicality of loan-loss provisions (LLPs) using individual bank information from over 65 countries and applying the two-step GMM Blundell-Bond (1998) approach with robust standard errors. Our research identifies several new facts. Firstly, borrower restrictions are definitely more effective in reducing the procyclicality of loan-loss provisions than other macroprudential policy instruments. This effect is supported in both unconsolidated and consolidated data and is robust to several robustness checks. Secondly, dynamic provisions, large exposure concentration limits and taxes on specific assets are effective in reducing the procyclicality of loan-loss provisions. And finally, we find that both loan-to-value caps and debt-to-income ratios, are especially effective in reducing the procyclicality of LLP of large banks. Concentration limits and taxes are also effective in reducing the procyclicality of LLP of large banks. Dynamic provisions reduce the procyclicality of LLP independently of bank size.

UW FM Working Paper Series are written by researchers employed at the Faculty of Management of UW and by other economists, and are published by the Faculty. DISCLAIMER: An objective of the series is to get the research results out quickly, even if their presentations are not fully polished. The findings, interpretations, and conclusions expressed in this Working Paper are those of their author(s) and do not necessarily the views of the Faculty of Management of UW.