Thirty Years of Spatial Econometrics

In this paper, I give a personal view on the development of the field of spatial econometrics during the past thirty years. I argue that it has moved from the margins to the mainstream of applied econometrics and social science methodology. I distinguish three broad phases in the development, which I refer to as preconditions, takeoff and maturity. For each of these phases I describe the main methodological focus and list major contributions. I conclude with some speculations about future directions.

Innovation in Healthcare, An analysis of the regional preconditions in Skåne for innovation in digital healthcare.

The upcoming changes in the demographic structure will put pressure on the healthcare system in Skåne. Tax financed hospitals with more beds, doctors, nurses and other personnel will not be the solution to cope with the upcoming demands. Increasing healthcare productivity is one way, where digital healthcare is a potential part of the solution. One of the major limitations of the digital healthcare market is not the shortage of technology but rather the innovation-uptake is slow in healthcare compared to other sectors. The problem is to understand why the technology uptake is slow, which barriers prevents uptake and what decelerate continued innovation in the healthcare sector. Purpose: The main purpose aim to describe and analyze the regional preconditions in Skåne for innovation in digital healthcare. The goal has been to identify strengths, opportunities and various barriers that prevents or delay innovation in the region. Identifying and proposing innovative health strategies with the TOWS-framework. Sub purposes are to identify upcoming global trends in healthcare and gather a list of digital healthcare projects in the region. Methodology: The methodology for gathering data for this master thesis consists of a combination of primary and secondary data. Collected from secondary research, explorative quantitative survey study, semi structured interviews with key actors, attending and observing national and local eHealth events. Conclusions: The region of Skåne in the south of Sweden got the possibilities for a good climate for innovation in healthcare. There is a possibility to gather ideas and projects for incremental innovation in the region. Both the healthcare professionals and patients are sitting with valuable expertise and knowledge, which at this time is not fully utilized. To get a more radical change in the healthcare sector some barriers need to be broken down. These changes need a more strategic and political approach, many of them need to be brought up on a national level. Today security laws regulation the use of information need to be modified to allow the use of unidentified healthcare data. Making it easier for the academia and companies to use this information would allow them to pursue new research areas and possible innovations. For new entrepreneurs and businesses there is need to learn how to use the reimbursement model to support their business plans. It is also important that the way into the healthcare sector, procurements, is built to handle and promote these new ventures. Skåne has a gap in expertise regarding semantic interoperability, both in the business and academic sector. This is not a unique problem for Skåne and can be seen in other regions as well. Collaborations with other regions and worldwide expertise is needed to fill this gap and promote advances in this field. Comparing to other countries, Sweden are ranked 3rd on the list of innovation uptake in healthcare just beaten by Denmark and Estonia. Third place in digital healthcare solution implementation is good but we can’t sit down and be satisfied with the result. Even if you are in first place you need to constantly revaluate your position and look for areas to improve. The region have most of the building blocks to get a good climate for innovation in digital healthcare. Region Skåne have to join the blocks together, here is a unique opportunity to facilitate cross-border meetings, be a collaborate voice, and put digital healthcare on the agenda. There is a need for a link into healthcare to get providers, doctors and nurses to share their ideas and needs to business, entrepreneurs, and the academia. Lobbying to politicians and policymakers should be done to raise the awareness and try to change some regulations and laws that acts as barriers for innovation today

Assessing Automated Administration

To fulfill their responsibilities, governments rely on administrators and employees who, simply because they are human, are prone to individual and group decision-making errors. These errors have at times produced both major tragedies and minor inefficiencies. One potential strategy for overcoming cognitive limitations and group fallibilities is to invest in artificial intelligence (AI) tools that allow for the automation of governmental tasks, thereby reducing reliance on human decision-making. Yet as much as AI tools show promise for improving public administration, automation itself can fail or can generate controversy. Public administrators face the question of when exactly they should use automation. This paper considers the justifications for governmental reliance on AI along with the legal concerns raised by such reliance. Comparing AI-driven automation with a status quo that relies on human decision-making, the paper provides public administrators with guidance for making decisions about AI use. After explaining why prevailing legal doctrines present no intrinsic obstacle to governmental use of AI, the paper presents considerations for administrators to use in choosing when and how to automate existing processes. It recommends that administrators ask whether their contemplated uses meet the preconditions for the deployment of AI tools and whether these tools are in fact likely to outperform the status quo. In moving forward, administrators should also consider the possibility that a contemplated AI use will generate public or legal controversy, and then plan accordingly. The promise and legality of automated administration ultimately depends on making responsible decisions about when and how to deploy this technology

The New Capital Adequacy Framework: Institutional Constraints and Incentive Structures

This paper considers the implementation challenges facing the Basel Committee's new proposals on bank capital standards. When compared with the existing Capital Accord, the proposals represent a shift across two intersecting dimensions-regulatory versus economic capital, and rules-based versus process-oriented regulation. On minimum capital standards, the case for using external ratings may be stronger than has been recognized, given the divergences in the purpose and design of internal ratings. On supervisory review, ensuring comparability among supervisors and building supervisory capacity will present serious challenges. On enhancing market discipline, incentives for markets to exercise discipline will be required.

Post crisis blues

Debates that emphasize rapid economic recovery from major crises can extinguish progressive views that examine fundamental issues for sound economic management of present-day capitalist systems, such as: the determination of appropriate modes of cooperation including the procedures for intervention during crises, the introduction of structural changes that enable domestic economies to pursue appropriate industrial policies as well as erect institutions that could withstand external shocks, and, more importantly, the pursuit of fundamental reforms in the international economic architecture to allow for the management of cross-border flows of resources as well as coordinated adjustments to economic imbalances. There remains a lot to be done to make present-day capitalist systems reach a balance between domestic and global goals and thereby allow them to enlarge economic welfare without compromising national sovereignty.1997 Asian Crisis; 2008 Global Crisis; post-crisis; economic policy

Paquetes de rescate de la balanza de pagos: ¿Pueden funcionar o no?

(Disponible en idioma inglés únicamente) En este trabajo se genera una tipología de crisis de la balanza de pagos con expectativas racionales, específicamente crisis de liquidez y solvencia. La aplicación ex post de dispositivos de rescate financiero oficial de magnitud suficiente es una cura perfecta para las crisis de liquidez, pero representa un rescate ineficaz y costos de los inversionistas privados en el caso de crisis de solvencia. La anticipación de programas de rescate alienta el endeudamiento, lo cual a su vez anula toda mejora de la solvencia. Debido a las probables imperfecciones de su aplicación, los programas de rescate reales conllevan pérdidas financieras para el sector público y fácilmente pueden ser contraproducentes debido al riesgo moral.

A research review of quality assessment for software

Measures were recommended to assess the quality of software submitted to the AdaNet program. The quality factors that are important to software reuse are explored and methods of evaluating those factors are discussed. Quality factors important to software reuse are: correctness, reliability, verifiability, understandability, modifiability, and certifiability. Certifiability is included because the documentation of many factors about a software component such as its efficiency, portability, and development history, constitute a class for factors important to some users, not important at all to other, and impossible for AdaNet to distinguish between a priori. The quality factors may be assessed in different ways. There are a few quantitative measures which have been shown to indicate software quality. However, it is believed that there exists many factors that indicate quality and have not been empirically validated due to their subjective nature. These subjective factors are characterized by the way in which they support the software engineering principles of abstraction, information hiding, modularity, localization, confirmability, uniformity, and completeness