Essays on the Political Economy of Trade Policy

My thesis develops three models of political economy, examining different factors that affect equilibrium in political markets. The first paper develops a model based on that of Moutos (2001) whereby a government must choose between a tariff and an income tax in order to raise revenue to finance redistribution from rich to poor. I use a simple median voter model of political economy to show that an income tax may be preferred if it can raise more money than the tariff. This result links well with the empirical observation that more liberal trade regimes are often associated with larger government sizes. The second paper explores the idea of interactions between different parts of a political party’s platform and the benefit that different groups can receive from those policies. I show that even when parties have no predisposition towards any particular policy their policy announcements may differ due to the difference in demand for policy favours from special interests. I also discuss how this difference in demand can affect the relative success of interests groups and of the political parties themselves, and apply these results to a simple model of trade policy to show that left-wing parties proposing higher income tax rates may attract support from groups who support trade protection in developed countries. My third paper provides an extension to the well known model of special interest politics by Grossman and Helpman (1996). I introduce costly informative spending that special interests can use to convert uninformed voters into informed ones. This is advantageous to special interests when those being informed are of a similar political persuasion to the interest group members, thus skewing equilibrium policies towards the group’s objectives

Additional file 2: of The impact of a combinatorial digital and organisational intervention on the management of long-term conditions in UK primary care: a non-randomised evaluation

Heywood Middleton and Rochdale Long Term Conditions NHS Test-Bed: A service evaluation of implementation and impact. Qualitative study protocol. (DOCX 98 kb

Polymeric Electron-Selective Contact for Crystalline Silicon Solar Cells with an Efficiency Exceeding 19%

Carrier-selective contacts have become a prominent path forward toward efficient crystalline silicon (c-Si) photovoltaics. Among the proposed contacting materials, organic materials may offer simplified and low-cost processing compared with typical vacuum deposition techniques. Here, branched polyethylenimine (b-PEI) is presented as an electron-transport layer (ETL) for c-Si solar cells. The incorporation of a b-PEI interlayer between c-Si­(n) and Al leads to a low contact resistivity of 24 mΩ cm2. A silicon heterojunction solar cell integrated with b-PEI is demonstrated achieving a power conversion efficiency of 19.4%, which improves the benchmark efficiency of a c-Si solar cell with an organic ETL. This electron selectivity of b-PEI is attributed to its Lewis basicity, i.e., electron-donating ability, promoting favorable band bending at the c-Si surface for electron transport. Moreover, several other Lewis base polymers perform as efficient ETLs in organic/c-Si hybrid devices, indicating Lewis basicity could be a guideline for future organic ETL design

sj-docx-1-mdm-10.1177_0272989X211069931 – Supplemental material for Physicians under Pressure: Evidence from Antibiotics Prescribing in England

Supplemental material, sj-docx-1-mdm-10.1177_0272989X211069931 for Physicians under Pressure: Evidence from Antibiotics Prescribing in England by Thomas Allen, Dorte Gyrd-Hansen, Søren Rud Kristensen, Anne Sophie Oxholm, Line Bjørnskov Pedersen and Mario Pezzino in Medical Decision Making</p

Additional file 1 of Comparing the clinical practice and prescribing safety of locum and permanent doctors: observational study of primary care consultations in England

Additional file 1: Table S1. Codelist for antibiotics. Table S2. Codelist for opioids. Table S3. Codelist for benzodiazepines. Table S4. Codelist for z-drugs. Table S5. Codelist for conditions linked to potentially hazardous prescribing (READ codes). Table S6. Codelist for anticoagulants. Table S7. Codelist for antipsychotic drugs. Table S8. Codelist for aspirin products. Table S9. Codelist for antiplatelet drugs (non-aspirin). Table S10. Codelist for β-blockers. Table S11. Codelist for inhaler corticosteroids. Table S12. Codelist for long-acting beta-2 antagonists. Table S13. Codelist for non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDS). Table S14. Codelist for non-selective β-blockers. Table S15. Codelist for proton-pump inhibitors (PPIs) and H2 blockers

Spatial Mapping of Sub-Bandgap States Induced by Local Nonstoichiometry in Individual Lead Sulfide Nanocrystals

The properties of photovoltaic devices based on colloidal nanocrystals are strongly affected by localized sub-bandgap states associated with surface imperfections. A correlation between their properties and the atomic-scale structure of chemical imperfections responsible for their appearance must be established to understand the nature of such surface states. Scanning tunneling spectroscopy is used to visualize the manifold of electronic states in annealed ligand-free lead sulfide nanocrystals supported on the Au(111) surface. Delocalized quantum-confined states and localized sub-bandgap states are identified, for the first time, via spatial mapping. Maps of the sub-bandgap states show localization on nonstoichiometric adatoms self-assembled on the nanocrystal surfaces. The present model study sheds light onto the mechanisms of surface state formation that, in a modified form, may be relevant to the more general case of ligand-passivated nanocrystals, where under-coordinated surface atoms exist due to the steric hindrance between passivating ligands attached to the nanocrystal surface

Monolithic Perovskite/Silicon Tandem Photovoltaics with Minimized Cell-to-Module Losses by Refractive-Index Engineering

We report 26.2% efficient monolithic perovskite/silicon tandem single-cell solar modules with a short-circuit current density of 18.6 mA/cm2, enabled through enhanced optical design

Magnesium Fluoride Electron-Selective Contacts for Crystalline Silicon Solar Cells

In this study, we present a novel application of thin magnesium fluoride films to form electron–selective contacts to <i>n</i>-type crystalline silicon (c-Si). This allows the demonstration of a 20.1%-efficient c-Si solar cell. The electron-selective contact is composed of deposited layers of amorphous silicon (∼6.5 nm), magnesium fluoride (∼1 nm), and aluminum (∼300 nm). X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy reveals a work function of 3.5 eV at the MgF₂/Al interface, significantly lower than that of aluminum itself (∼4.2 eV), enabling an Ohmic contact between the aluminum electrode and <i>n</i>-type c-Si. The optimized contact structure exhibits a contact resistivity of ∼76 mΩ·cm², sufficiently low for a full-area contact to solar cells, together with a very low contact recombination current density of ∼10 fA/cm². We demonstrate that electrodes functionalized with thin magnesium fluoride films significantly improve the performance of silicon solar cells. The novel contacts can potentially be implemented also in organic optoelectronic devices, including photovoltaics, thin film transistors, or light emitting diodes

Comparing the rate of hazardous prescribing at 6 months and 12 months postintervention to preintervention, adjusted for GP practice and calendar time (excluding practices with less than 6 months of data postintervention).

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Scaling-up a pharmacist-led information technology intervention (PINCER) to reduce hazardous prescribing in general practices: Multiple interrupted time series study

BackgroundWe previously reported on a sandomsied trial demonstrating the effectiveness and cost-effectiveness of a pharmacist-led information technology intervention (PINCER). We soughtto investigate whether PINCER was effective in reducing hazardous prescribing when rolled out at scale in UK general practices.Methods and findingsWe used a multiple interrupted time series design whereby successive groups of general practices received the PINCER intervention between September 2015 and April 2017. We used 11 prescribing safety indicators to identify potentially hazardous prescribing and collected data over a maximum of 16 quarterly time periods. The primary outcome was a composite of all the indicators; a composite for indicators associated with gastrointestinal (GI) bleeding was also reported, along with 11 individual indicators of hazardous prescribing. Data were analysed using logistic mixed models for the quarterly event numbers with the appropriate denominator, and calendar time included as a covariate. PINCER was implemented in 370 (94.1%) of 393 general practices covering a population of almost 3 million patients in the East Midlands region of England; data were successfully extracted from 343 (92.7%) of these practices. For the primary composite outcome, the PINCER intervention was associated with a decrease in the rate of hazardous prescribing of 16.7% (adjusted odds ratio (aOR) 0.83, 95% confidence interval (CI) 0.80 to 0.86) at 6 months and 15.3% (aOR 0.85, 95% CI 0.80 to 0.90) at 12 months postintervention. The unadjusted rate of hazardous prescribing reduced from 26.4% (22,503 patients in thenumerator/853,631 patients in the denominator) to 20.1% (11,901 patients in the numerator/591,364 patients in the denominator) at 6 months and 19.1% (3,868 patients in the numerator/201,992 patients in the denominator). The greatest reduction in hazardous prescribing associated with the intervention was observed for the indicators associated with GI bleeding; for the GI composite indicator, there was a decrease of 23.9% at both 6 months (aOR 0.76, 95% CI 0.73 to 0.80) and 12 months (aOR 0.76, 95% CI 0.70 to 0.82) postintervention. The unadjusted rate of hazardous prescribing reduced from 31.4 (16,185 patients in the numerator/515,879 patients in the denominator) to 21.2% (7,607 patients in the numerator/358,349 patients in the denominator) at 6 months and 19.5% (2,369 patients in the numerator/121,534 patients in the denominator). We adjusted for calendar time and practice, but since this was an observational study, the findings may have been influenced by unknown confounding factors or behavioural changes unrelated to the PINCER intervention. Data were also not collected for all practices at 6 months and 12 months postintervention.ConclusionsThe PINCER intervention, when rolled out at scale in routine clinical practice, was associated with a reduction in hazardous prescribing by 17% and 15% at 6 and 12 months postintervention.The greatest reductions in hazardous prescribing were for indicators associated with risk of GI bleeding. These findings support the wider national rollout of PINCER in England.</p