The Physician-Patient Relationship Revisited - the Patient's View

The importance of the physician-patient relationship for the health care market is beyond controversy. Most theoretical work is done in a principal-agent framework, dealing with moral hazard problems. Recent work emphasizes a two-sided asymmetric information relationship between physician and patient (double moral hazard). In contrast to most work looking only at the physician's perspectives, our paper concentrates on the patient's view. Estimation results using panel data support the hypotheses that physician consultation and health-relevant behavior are not stochastically independent. This means that health care demand is determined by the patient and not only by the physician. In the recursive bivariate probit model, the patient’s health-relevant behavior has a significant positive influence on the probability of a physician visit. This should be taken into account in the discussion that primary care physicians should function as gatekeepers.physician-patient relationship, health behavior, bivariate probit

Health, health care, and the environment: econometric evidence from German micro data

The paper develops and applies a Grossman-style health production model set up in discrete time to explain the impact of environmental pollution on the demand for both health and health care. In order to introduce the environment, our analysis takes changes in environmental conditions to influence the rate at which an individual's stock of health depreciates. While the theoretical part of our paper also contains a discussion of the full model, we restrict our analysis to a submodel which is known as the pure investment model. lbis is because the other submodel, the pure consumption model, implies a rather implausible case of satiation with respect to the individual's preferences. Our empirical findings' are based on data taken from the German Socio-economic Panel (SOEP). The stock of health capital and environmental pollution are treated as latent variables and estimated using a LINCS model. The quality of the environment turns out to be an important determinant of health capital. From the point of view of health economics, improvements in environmental conditions can be interpreted as preventive measures. In terms of prevention, public policies designed to protect the environment also yield significant health effects. As regards health care demand the influence is not dearcut, i.e. one cannot necessarily expect a reduction in resource use. --

Short-run dynamics and long-run effects of demographic change on public debt and the budget

The German population is aging. Since fewer children are born and simultaneously life expectancy rises, demographic changes will lead to a double aging process. The paper analyzes the effects of demographic changes on national debt and the public budget by applying a cointegration analysis to global budget variables. Our procedure which covers the period between 1950 and 1990 completes prevailing projections, emphasizing that low vital rates are not the basic problem but the long-run trend of decreasing fertility and mortality rates. The estimation results of several error- correction models show that in the long-run an increase in the old age dependency ratio, and a decrease in the reproduction rate will lead to higher public expenditures. As regards public revenue, the results are ambivalent. The change in the age structure results in higher tax revenue, whereas the decline of population has the opposite effect. Furthermore, we find empirical evidence that aging increases the debt ratio. This development counters current efforts to reduce the public debt share of production potential and the tax load ratio. As a consequence, more action is needed to improve Germanys competiveness as a business location. Compared to these long-run effects, the short-run dynamics is only of minor importance. Significant parameter estimates can be found mainly in the model for the social security contribution rate. --

Health Relevant Behavior and its Impact on the Physician-Patient Relationship

The importance of the physician-patient relationship for the health care market is beyond controversy. Recent work emphasizes a two-sided asymmetric information relationship between physician and patient. In contrast to most work looking only at the physician's perspective, our paper concentrates on the patient's view. Estimation results support the hypotheses that physician consultation and health relevant behavior are not stochastically independent. In the recursive bivariate probit model, patient’s health relevant behavior has a significant influence on the probability of a physician visit. This means that health care demand and not only the contact decision is determined by both, patient and physician.physician-patient relationship, health behavior, bivariate probit panel

Sila-Riechstoffe und Riechstoffisostere. - XII : Geruchsvergleiche homologer Organoelementverbindungen der vierten Hauptgruppe (C, Si, Ge, Sn)

Homologous compounds of the linalool type R(CH3)2El-OH (with R = C6H5CH2 and C6H5CH2CH2) as well as their derivatives R(CH3)2El-OCH3 and [R(CH3)2El]2O show, in dependence of El = C, Si, Ge and Sn partly similar, but sometimes very different characteristics of odor. Unexpected are high qualities of fragrance with El = Ge, whereas derivatives with El = Sn remain scentless, obviously owing to polymerization. Noteworthy are the strong differences of odor in the system C6H5CH2El(CH3)3 from C via Si and Ge up to Sn, standing fully contrary to the postulation of Amoore whereupon smell qualities are only controlled by size and shape of molecules. C6H5CH2Sn(CH3)2OH (A1Sn) crystallizes as poly-µ-hydroxo-benzyldimethyltin with an one dimensional SnOSnO chain (SnO 2.17(9) and 2.29(9) A°) in the monoclinic space group C2 (a = 12.696(4), b = 4.181(2), c = 10.626(3) A° and ß = 106.8(3)°)

Hadrons in Medium

We review the current status of theories and experiments aiming at an understanding and a determination of the properties of light vector and scalar mesons inside strongly interacting hadronic matter, with an emphasis on linking calculated properties of hadrons in medium to actual observables.Comment: Lecture by U. Mosel at NFQCD10, Kyoto, Japan, Febr. 201

Wilhelm Riegers Privatwirtschaftslehre und seine Bedeutung für das Controlling: Eine Würdigung zum 135. Geburtstag

Im Mai 2013 wäre der 1971 gestorbene Wilhelm Rieger 135 Jahre alt geworden. In seinem heute nahezu vergessenen Hauptwerk, der Einführung in die Privatwirtschaftslehre von 1928, formuliert er das theoretische Fundament des Shareholder Values. Obwohl er damit als einer der wichtigsten Wegbereiter der deutschsprachigen Betriebswirtschaftslehre gilt, ist in der heutigen betriebswirtschaftlichen Diskussion rund 40 Jahre nach seinem Tod nur wenig über seinen menschlichen und fachlichen Werdegang bekannt. Dieser Beitrag widmet sich zunächst einer ausführlichen Würdigung seiner Person und gibt einen Überblick über sein wichtigstes Schrifttum. Anhand der Kriterien Erkenntnisobjekt und methodologischer Standpunkt, Leitprinzipien sowie zugrunde gelegter Typus des Unternehmers werden daraufhin die unterschiedlichen Basisprogramme von Riegers Privatwirtschaftslehre im Sinne einer Rentabilitätsorientierung und einer Betriebswirtschaftslehre im Sinne einer Wirtschaftlichkeitsoptimierungslehre gegenübergestellt. Dabei zeigt sich, dass es mithilfe der Privatwirtschaftslehre gelingt, die konzeptionelle Orientierungslosigkeit in der deutschsprachigen Controllingforschung zu überwinden und folglich Riegers Arbeiten für die heutige betriebswirtschaftliche Diskussion keineswegs an Aktualität und Relevanz eingebüßt haben

Contact decision and frequency decision: an econometric model of the demand for ambulatory services

The decision to contact a physician and the decision, how often to contact a physician, are based on different decision makers. We introduce a negative binominal distributed hurdle model that specifies the two stages of the decision process as different stochastic processes, and takes also care of the discrete nature of the data. Empirical results are based on a cross-section of the West-German Socioeconomic Panel. Specification tests reveal, that the two stages of the process have to be treated as distinct processes. Ignoring this distinction leads to serious misinterpretations

Short-run dynamics and long-run effects of demographic change on public debt and the budget

The German population is aging. Since fewer children are born and simultaneously life expectancy rises, demographic changes will lead to a double aging process. The paper analyzes the effects of demographic changes on national debt and the public budget by applying a cointegration analysis to global budget variables. Our procedure which covers the period between 1950 and 1990 completes prevailing projections, emphasizing that low vital rates are not the basic problem but the long-run trend of decreasing fertility and mortality rates. The estimation results of several error- correction models show that in the long-run an increase in the old age dependency ratio, and a decrease in the reproduction rate will lead to higher public expenditures. As regards public revenue, the results are ambivalent. The change in the age structure results in higher tax revenue, whereas the decline of population has the opposite effect. Furthermore, we find empirical evidence that aging increases the debt ratio. This development counters current efforts to reduce the public debt share of production potential and the tax load ratio. As a consequence, more action is needed to improve Germany's competiveness as a business location. Compared to these long-run effects, the short-run dynamics is only of minor importance. Significant parameter estimates can be found mainly in the model for the social security contribution rate

Untersuchungen der Konsequenzen konzeptioneller Veränderungen auf das Controllinginstrumentarium

Mit der siebten Auflage seiner Einführung in das Controlling wendet sich Weber von der Koordinationsorientierung ab und vertritt fortan eine Rationalitätssicherungsorientierung des Controllings. Da in der Literatur die These, dass eine Änderung der Controllingkonzeption auch zu einer Änderung der Instrumente führen muss, vertreten wird, wird die vorgenommene Neuausrichtung dahingehend überprüft. Als Methode wird eine empirische Lehrbuchanalyse angewandt