6,404 research outputs found
Economic Slowdown in Japan and the Role of Intangible Assets on the Revitalization of the Japanese Economy
The Japanese economy has stagnated since the economic bubble collapsed in 1990. The paper points out two reasons for the long-term stagnation of the Japanese economy: the slow growth in capital accumulation including ICT assets and the decline of entrepreneurship. In the advanced countries, intangible assets play a crucial role in the growth at the aggregate and firm levels. To revitalize the Japanese economy, we need policies which promote accumulation in intangible assets.bubble, non-performing loans, ICT investment, MFP, intangible investment
Hospital production in a national health service: the physician's dilemma
There is a paucity of literature concerning the relation between the resource utilization decisions of the salaried hospital based physician and patient outcomes in a national health service. The purpose of our study is to model and test hospital production where the major decision makers are physicians. We view the output of the hospital as a distribution function over final health states of the patient. Our model contains a utility function for physicians whose arguments include the expected final health status of the patient and a pressure function which reflects the resource allocation and hospital financing policy of the Portuguese Health Ministry. Two sets of first order conditions derived from the theoretical model are estimated within a simultaneous equations framework using data consisting of inpatient discharges for the most frequent non-obstetric DRG during the 1992-1999 time period. We find evidence that budget setting methods and the possession of a third party payer outside of the NHS are important predictors for use of the resource in question. Moreover, we find that use of the resource is important in predicting the final health status of the patient.
Customs compliance and the power of imagination
This paper studies the role of beliefs about own performance or appearance for compliance at the customs. In an experiment in which underreporting has a higher expected payoff than truthful reporting we find: a large share, about 15-20 percent of the subjects, is more compliant if they have reason to imagine that their performance influences their subjective audit probability. In contrast, we do not find evidence for individuals who believe that by their personal performance they can reduce the subjective probability for an audit. Our results suggest that the power of imagination, i.e. the role of second-order beliefs in the process of customs declarations is important and may potentially be used to improve customs and tax compliance. --Customs,tax compliance,audit probability,second-order beliefs
Customs Compliance and the Power of Imagination
This paper studies the role of beliefs about own performance or appearance for compliance at the customs. In an experiment in which underreporting has a higher expected payoff than truthful reporting we find: a large share, about 15-20 percent of the subjects, is more compliant if they have reason to imagine that their performance influences their subjective audit probability. In contrast, we do not find evidence for individuals who believe that by their personal performance they can reduce the subjective probability for an audit. Our results suggest that the power of imagination, i.e. the role of second-order beliefs in the process of customs declarations is important and may potentially be used to improve customs and tax compliance.customs, tax compliance, audit probability, second-order beliefs
Computerized Provider Order Entry Implementation: Provider and Hospital Leadership Impacts on Success
Healthcare organizations are consistently exhausting efforts to improve their patient safety standards and outcomes, especially those that are regulated by federal and state agencies. Many healthcare organizations have chosen to implement an Electronic Health Record (EHR) to facilitate better decision-making and faster tumaround for providers, thus improving patient safety. The EHR allows providers to manage patient care with the help of decision support functions, and with greater accessibility to the patient\u27s information. One of the components of an EHR is the application of Computerized Provider Order Entry (CPOE). Although the benefits to both providers and patients have shown to be very positive in the use of CPOE, getting there can be a challenge. Implementing CPOE is considered to be enormous change for a healthcare organization. Having provider leadership engaged in the early stages and throughout a CPOE implementation is critical to the success of the overall short and longer term use
Mice Do Not Take Bribes
This paper explores the empirical association between internet use, e-government and corruption in a large panel of countries covering the 1998-2003 period. We show that higher numbers of internet users and higher levels of e-government are associated with significantly lower levels of corruption. Controlling for most variables used in previous work on corruption and addressing the endogeneity issue, results are shown to be robust and to carry economic significance. This leads us to conclude that well-designed ICT policies are likely to bring substantial benefits in the fight against corruption.corruption; ICT; internet; e-government
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Public Performance Metrics: Driving Physician Motivation and Performance
Introduction: As providers transition from “fee-for-service” to “pay-for-performance” models, focus has shifted to improving performance. This trend extends to the emergency department (ED) where visits continue to increase across the United States. Our objective was to determine whether displaying public performance metrics of physician triage data could drive intangible motivators and improve triage performance in the ED.Methods: This is a single institution, time-series performance study on a physician-in-triage system. Individual physician baseline metrics—number of patients triaged and dispositioned per shift—were obtained and prominently displayed with identifiable labels during each quarterly physician group meeting. Physicians were informed that metrics would be collected and displayed quarterly and that there would be no bonuses, punishments, or required training; physicians were essentially free to do as they wished. It was made explicit that the goal was to increase the number triaged, and while the number dispositioned would also be displayed, it would not be a focus, thereby acting as this study’s control. At the end of one year, we analyzed metrics.Results: The group’s average number of patients triaged per shift were as follows: Q1-29.2; Q2-31.9; Q3-34.4; Q4-36.5 (Q1 vs Q4, p < 0.00001). The average numbers of patients dispositioned per shift were Q1-16.4; Q2-17.8; Q3-16.9; Q4-15.3 (Q1 vs Q4, p = 0.14). The top 25% of Q1 performers increased their average numbers triaged from Q1-36.5 to Q4-40.3 (ie, a statistically insignificant increase of 3.8 patients per shift [p = 0.07]). The bottom 25% of Q1 performers, on the other hand, increased their averages from Q1-22.4 to Q4-34.5 (ie, a statistically significant increase of 12.2 patients per shift [p = 0.0013]).Conclusion: Public performance metrics can drive intangible motivators (eg, purpose, mastery, and peer pressure), which can be an effective, low-cost strategy to improve individual performance, achieve institutional goals, and thrive in the pay-for-performance era
Semi-collusive advertising and pricing in experimental duopolies
This article tests experimentally whether a high degree of collusion on advertisement expenditures facilitate tacit price collusion in duopoly markets. Two environments are tested, in which the size of the spillover between advertising expenditures is varied. The results show that the competitiveness of advertising and prices are significantly higher when the advertising spillover is higher than the price spillover than when advertising spillover is lower than the price spillover. In the second environment, a higher degree of advertising collusion leads for experienced players to a higher degree of price collusion. In the first environment, players behave at most semi-collusively, that is, if at all, they collude on advertising, but compete over prices.Advertising, duopoly competition, experimental economics, price collusion, semi-collusive markets
A Comparative Analysis of Trade Facilitation in Selected Regional and Bilateral Trade Agreement
This study compared the treatment of trade facilitation in four selected regional trade agreements, AFTA, APEC, SAFRA and PACER, and in one bilateral free trade agreement being the Australia-Singapore Free Trade Agreement (ASFTA), with a view to determining model trade facilitation principles and measures which may be instructive for developing country negotiations and policy makers.Liberalisation, Logistics Sector, Trade Facilitation, AFTA, APEC, SAFTA, PACER, ASFTA
DAKS: An R Package for Data Analysis Methods in Knowledge Space Theory
Knowledge space theory is part of psychometrics and provides a theoretical framework for the modeling, assessment, and training of knowledge. It utilizes the idea that some pieces of knowledge may imply others, and is based on order and set theory. We introduce the R package DAKS for performing basic and advanced operations in knowledge space theory. This package implements three inductive item tree analysis algorithms for deriving quasi orders from binary data, the original, corrected, and minimized corrected algorithms, in sample as well as population quantities. It provides functions for computing population and estimated asymptotic variances of and one and two sample Z tests for the diff fit measures, and for switching between test item and knowledge state representations. Other features are a function for computing response pattern and knowledge state frequencies, a data (based on a finite mixture latent variable model) and quasi order simulation tool, and a Hasse diagram drawing device. We describe the functions of the package and demonstrate their usage by real and simulated data examples.
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