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Healing The Health Care System: Summaries From The Department Of Health Policy Summer Seminar, David B. Nash, Nora Dowd Eisenhower, Rosemarie Greco, Deborah C. Meiris

College of Population Health Faculty Papers

Editorial Introduction:
The disease management field continues to evolve. The range of chronic diseases treated has expanded to include such conditions as obesity and pain management, and the care continuum now encompasses wellness, prevention, and population health. One population that is an ideal candidate for our collective efforts is that of older adults. Global and national population projections reveal the impending staggering increase in the age 65+ cohort, which will cause a sharp increase in the demand for health care and other services due to such age-related issues as multiple chronic conditions, falls, and depression.

To begin to address these …

How Does Quality Enter Into Health Care Purchasing Decisions?, Neil I. Goldfarb, Vittorio Maio, Chureen T. Carter, Laura Pizzi, David B. Nash

College of Population Health Faculty Papers

A number of employers, business consortia, and public purchasers are promoting "value-based purchasing" as a way to improve the quality of patient care. Some purchasers are using publicly available information on health plan and provider performance to make their health plan and provider choices, while others are using their market power to drive improvements in patient care and safety. This article examines six key strategies used by purchasers.

Income Growth In U.S. States: Is It Pro-Poor?, Brandon Curtis

Master's Theses - Economics

While it is generally assumed that economic growth will have a positive effect the vast majority of the population, this claim is often left unchallenged. In particular, the effect of economic growth on the low-income segment of the population is not well understood. In particular, it is not clear if 1) the poor benefit from economic growth, and if so 2) what is the size of the benefit? A growing number of studies have been devoted to answering these questions. This field of study is commonly known as the pro-poor growth literature.

December 23, 2007: The Evangelical Stance On Global Warming, Bruce Ledewitz

Hallowed Secularism

The Evangelical Stance on Global Warming

Quantile Inferences For Inflation And Its Variability: Does A Threshold Inflation Rate Exist?, Wenshwo Fang, Stephen M. Miller, Chih-Chuan Yeh

Economics Working Papers

Using quantile regressions and cross-sectional data from 152 countries, we examine the relationship between inflation and its variability. We consider two measures of inflation - the mean and median - and three different measures of inflation variability - the standard deviation, coefficient of variation, and median deviation. Using the mean and standard deviation or the median and the median deviation, the results support both the hypothesis that higher inflation creates more inflation variability and that inflation variability raises inflation across quantiles. Moreover, higher quantiles in both cases lead to larger marginal effects of inflation (inflation variability) on inflation variability (inflation). …

Tax Collection In History, Metin M. Cosgel, Thomas J. Miceli

Economics Working Papers

Methods of tax collection employed by modern governments seem dull when compared to the rich variety observed in history. Whereas most governments today typically use salaried agents to collect taxes, various other types of contractual relationships have been observed in history, including sharing arrangements which divide the tax revenue between the government and collectors at fixed proportions, negotiated payment schemes based on the tax base, and sale of the revenue to a collector in exchange for a lump-sum payment determined at auction. We propose an economic theory of tax collection that can coherently explain the temporal and spatial variation in …

The Puzzle Of Delegated Revenge, Kenworthey Bilz

Kenworthey Bilz

Why should people ever be satisfied when a third party punishes in their name, as opposed to having the opportunity to exact revenge personally? When theories of delegated revenge are offered at all, they explain why a well-ordered society needs centralized punishment as a matter of practicality. But this doesn’t adequately explain why they actually the public actually prefers it, and why they accept some forms of delegated agents more than others. Moreover, these theories do not have a good explanation for why or when delegated revenge will fail to satisfy victims, nor when the state will indulge this preference, …

Redistribution By Insurance Market Regulation: Analyzing A Ban On Gender-Based Retirement Annuities, Amy Finkelstein, James Poterba, Casey Rothschild

Economics Faculty Scholarship

This paper illustrates how a model of an insurance market with asymmetric information can be calibrated and solved to evaluate the economic consequences of government regulation. We estimate the impact of restricting gender-based pricing in the United Kingdom retirement annuity market, a market in which individuals are required to annuitize their retirement savings by selecting among a range of different annuity contracts. After calibrating a lifecycle utility model and estimating a model of annuitant mortality that allows for unobserved heterogeneity, we solve for the range of equilibrium contract structures with and without gender-based insurance pricing. Eliminating gender-based annuity pricing is …

Paying To Save: Tax Withholding And Asset Allocation Among Low- And Moderate-Income Taxpayers, Michael S. Barr, Jane Dokko

Law & Economics Working Papers Archive: 2003-2009

We analyze the phenomenon that low- and moderate-income (LMI) tax filers exhibit a “preference for over-withholding” their taxes, a measure we derive from a unique set of questions administered in a dataset of 1,003 households, which we collected through the Survey Research Center at the University of Michigan. We argue that the relationship between their withholding preference and portfolio allocation across liquid and illiquid assets is consistent with models with present-biased preferences, and that individuals exhibit self-control problems when making their consumption and saving decisions. Our results support a model in which individuals use commitment devices to constrain their consumption. …

Tax Motivated Takings, Thomas J. Miceli, Kathleen Segerson, C. F. Sirmans

Economics Working Papers

Tax motivated takings are takings by a local government aimed purely at increasing its tax base. Such an action was justified by the Supreme Court's ruling in Kelo v. New London, which allowed the use of eminent domain for a private redevelopment project on the grounds that the project promised spillover public benefits in the form of jobs and taxes. This paper argues that tax motivated takings can lead to inefficient transfers of land for the simple reason that assessed values understate owners' true values. We therefore propose a reassessment scheme that greatly reduces the risk of this sort of …

Asset Pricing With Heterogeneous Agents, Incomplete Markets And Trading Constraints, Tsvetanka Karagyozova

Economics Working Papers

The consumption capital asset pricing model is the standard economic model used to capture stock market behavior. However, empirical tests have pointed out to its inability to account quantitatively for the high average rate of return and volatility of stocks over time for plausible parameter values. Recent research has suggested that the consumption of stockholders is more strongly correlated with the performance of the stock market than the consumption of non-stockholders. We model two types of agents, non-stockholders with standard preferences and stock holders with preferences that incorporate elements of the prospect theory developed by Kahneman and Tversky (1979). In …

Technical Efficiency In The Indian Textiles Industry: A Nonparametric Analysis Of Firm-Level Data, Anup Kumar Bhandari, Subhash C. Ray

Economics Working Papers

The Indian textiles industry is now at the crossroads with the phasing out of quota regime that prevailed under the Multi-Fiber Agreement (MFA) until the end of 2004. In the face of a full integration of the textiles sector in the WTO, maintaining and enhancing productive efficiency is a precondition for competitiveness of the Indian firms in the new liberalized world market. In this paper we use data obtained from the Annual Survey of Industries for a number of years to measure the levels of technical efficiency in the Indian textiles industry at the firm level. We use both a …

Proposal For A Market-Based Solution To Airport Delays, Oliver Richard

Oliver Richard

With the clamor rising over airport delays and with both the Congress and the Administration considering remedies, this paper advocates the use of market mechanisms, specifically slot auctions, to promote efficient usage of airport capacity, reduce airport delays, and, more generally, promote competition.

Widespread Economic Doubts, Julio J. Prado

Julio J Prado

Many people think –perhaps with just reason- that the economy is a boring theoretical science, and that it does not have its feet upon the ground. In order to try to change that perception, we are going to propound for ourselves some day to day questions, to which we can provide an answer (to the extent possible) with a bit of economic “logic”.

November 2007, Syracuse Department Of Economics

Economics - All Scholarship

No abstract provided.

November 1, 2007: The Limits Of Materialism, Bruce Ledewitz

Hallowed Secularism

The Limits of Materialism

Brazilians In The U.S. And Massachusetts: A Demographic And Economic Profile, Alvaro Lima, Carlos Eduardo Siqueira

Gastón Institute Publications

Brazil has long seen itself as a destination for immigrants from across the globe, welcoming the likes of Portuguese, Spanish, German, Russian, Polish, Czech, Japanese, and many other nationalities throughout the twentieth century. Migration out of Brazil is a relatively new phenomenon. It was catalyzed in part by the military coup of 1964, when thousands of Brazilians went into exile (though many of them returned following the amnesty of 1979). Over the last few decades, the search for better economic opportunities has led more and more Brazilians to leave their homeland. Five of Brazils’ twenty-six states – Minas Gerais, Espírito …

Intermittent Currents: The Failure Of Renewable Electricity Requirements, Robert J. Michaels

Robert J. Michaels

Concern over emissions and climate change has led over half of the states to enact “renewable portfolio standard” legislation requiring regulated electric utilities to obtain some fraction of their power requirements from sources defined as “renewable.” Legislation to institute a federal RPS may follow. In reality RPS is a policy in search of a rationale, at odds with principles of efficient environmental regulation and poorly suited to promote other policies favored by its supporters. The actual record of state implementations has been largely symbolic. Only one state with a binding RPS requirement is currently in compliance with its own program, …

Using The Unidroit Principles To Fill Gaps In The Cisg, John Y. Gotanda

Working Paper Series

The United Nations Convention on the International Sale of Goods (CISG) sets forth only a basic framework for the recovery of damages, thereby giving a court of tribunal broad authority to determine an aggrieved party’s loss based on circumstances of the particular case. Unfortunately, the lack of specificity has resulted in much litigation, and seemingly conflicting results. To remedy this problem, some have argued that the gaps in the CISG damages provisions should be filled with the UNIDROIT Principles of International Commercial Contracts. In this paper, I argue that the gap-filling rules of CISG preclude the UNIDROIT Principles from being …

Hilltopics: Volume 4, Issue 5, Hilltopics Staff

Hilltopics

Economics: Are computers to blame for inequality in the world, read about some who are claiming so. Page 2

An Award Well Earned?: Beth Anderson reflects on Al Gore’s recently receiving the Nobel Peace Prize, page 3

SMU: Two students weigh in thier thoughts about the task force and their reflections inlight of the recent Town Hall Meeting, pages 4 & 5.

Football: With the “Bowl” games fast approaching, is it time for BCS to reconsider it’s current system? James Longhofer reflects, page 6.

Be Heard: Hilltopics is always looking for good submissions on virtually any topic. Email your ideas, …

The Rise Of Customary Businesses In International Financial Markets: An Introduction To Islamic Finance And The Challenges Of International Integration, Ali A. Ibrahim

Ali A Ibrahim

This paper demonstrates theoretical foundations of Islamic finance and their correlation with the Islamic finance industry. In this respect, the paper presents an over-all survey of the Islamic finance industry, Islamic-law injunctions pertaining to Islamic finance, quasi regulatory institutions, financial engineering, transaction structures and the evolving practices. The paper also highlights various areas of further research, a comprehensive treatment of which is critical to the continuing growth of Islamic finance in the international financial markets.

The Economic Contribution Of Marine Science And Education Institutions In The Monterey Bay Crescent, Judith T. Kildow Dr, Nathaniel Miller

Publications

Ocean and coastal areas of the United States contribute significantly to our nation’s overall economy. The extent to which our economy benefits from the wide range of marine and coastal activities is not completely understood. The National Ocean Economics Program (NOEP) has attempted to track and value the ocean and coastal- related economic activities in the United States. To date six sectors are included in its information system (www.oceaneconomics.org). The economic contribution of marine research and education institutions is a sector of activity that lies outside of the normal federal government datasets, but one which seemed to have growing importance …

Antidumping Duties Under Asymmetric Cost Information, Xenia Matschke, Anja Schottner

Economics Working Papers

In the last two decades, trade liberalization under GATT/WTO has been partly offset by an increase in antidumping protection due to the inclusion of sales below cost in the definition of dumping. The cost-based definition gives regulating authorities an opportunity to choose protection according to their liking. This paper investigates the domestic government's antidumping duty choice in an asymmetric information framework where the foreign firm's cost is observed by the domestic firm, but not by the government. To induce truthful revelation, the government can design a tariff schedule, contingent on firms' cost reports, accompanied by a threat to collect additional …

Emissions Control And The Regulation Of Product Markets: The Case Of Automobiles, Rasha Ahmed, Kathleen Segerson

Economics Working Papers

The paper investigates alternative policies to regulate emissions from polluting product markets, specifically considering the case of the automobiles market. The two policies we consider are: a quota that limits the quantity produced of the polluting model and a more flexible average efficiency standard that requires a minimum energy efficiency across all models produced by a firm, similar to the US Corporate Average Fuel Economy (CAFE) standards. We use a duopoly model of vertical differentiation where firms produce both an economy (i.e., low polluting) version and a luxury (i.e., high polluting) version of a given product. We show that while …

Auctions With A Buy Price: The Case Of Reference-Dependent Preferences, Nicholas Shunda

Economics Working Papers

In an auction with a buy price, the seller provides bidders with an option to end the auction early by accepting a transaction at a posted price. The "Buy-It-Now" option on eBay is a leading example of an auction with a buy price. This paper develops a model of an auction with a buy price in which bidders use the auction's reserve price and buy price to formulate a reference price. The model both explains why a revenue-maximizing seller would want to augment her auction with a buy price and demonstrates that the seller sets a higher reserve price when …

Public School Choice And Integration: Evidence From Durham, North Carolina, Robert Bifulco, Helen F. Ladd, Stephen Ross

Economics Working Papers

Using evidence from Durham, North Carolina, we examine the impact of school choice programs on racial and class-based segregation across schools. Theoretical considerations suggest that how choice programs affect segregation will depend not only on the family preferences emphasized in the sociology literature but also on the linkages between student composition, school quality and student achievement emphasized in the economics literature, and on the availability of schools of different types. Reasonable assumptions about how these factors differ for students of different races and socio-economic status suggest that the segregating choices of students from advantaged backgrounds are likely to outweigh any …

Mba Program Reputation And Quantitative Rankings: New Information For Students, Employers, And Program Administrators, Yongil Jeon, Stephen M. Miller, Subhash C. Ray

Economics Working Papers

Since 1988, Business Week biennially ranks MBA programs based on qualitative ("subjective") surveys of students and employers. The Business Week ranking, and similar rankings, based on perceptions of MBA-program customers, rings the alarm that image, rather than substance, may become the raison dÇetre of MBA-program evaluation and selection. We rank MBA programs using the quantitative ("objective") data collected with the 2004 Business Week survey, attempting to address these concerns about image over substance. We employ equal-weighted and principal components indexes to rank MBA programs. Our indexes fall into three categories - output, input, and output-input indexes - that rank MBA …

A Monetary Policy Framework For Sudan, Warren Coats

Warren Coats

This short overview of the money supply process and the central bank's control of the money supply is tailored to the situation of Southern Sudan, now the independent country of South Sudan.

La Inversión En Argentina: ¿Presente Incierto, Futuro Promisorio?, Martin Enrique Krause, Aldo Abram, Felipe De La Balze, Javier González Fraga, Carlos Rodriguez Braun

Martin Krause

Argentina sufrió la peor crisis de su historia en los años 2001-2002. A partir de entonces ha experimentado una fuerte recuperación, en la que incluso se ha superado el máximo nivel de PBI anterior a la caída, generando un ciclo de cinco años de crecimiento como nunca antes durante todo el siglo XX, con superávit fiscal y, hasta el momento, evitando la volatilidad de la que ha sido aquejada en forma constante. Una economía profundamente deprimida tenía un largo camino por recorrer para acercarse a su frontera de posibilidades de producción, punto que parece haber alcanzado en la mayoría de …

Childhood Disadvantage And Obesity: Is Nurture Trumping Nature?, Patricia M. Anderson, Kristin F. Butcher, Diane Whitmore Schanzenbach

Faculty Research and Scholarship

Obesity has been one of the fastest growing health concerns among children, particularly among disadvantaged children. For children overall, obesity rates have tripled from 5% in the early 1970s to about 15% by the early 2000s. For disadvantaged children, obesity rates are closer to 20%. In this paper, we first examine the impact of various measures of disadvantage on children's weight outcomes over the past 30 years, finding that the disadvantaged have gained weight faster. Over the same period, adult obesity rates have grown, and we expect parental obesity to be closely tied to children's obesity, for reasons of both …