Current Approaches to Improving the Value of Care: A Physician's Perspective

Evaluates the utility of judgment-based approaches to quality improvement -- pay-for-performance, public reporting, consumer-directed health plans, and tiering -- as ways to control costs. Recommends incentive- and accountability-based programs

Settlement risk under gross and net settlement

Previous comparative analyses of gross and net settlement have focused on the credit risk of the central counterparty in net settlement arrangements and on the incentives for participants to alter the risk of the portfolio under net settlement. By modeling the trading economy that generates the demand for payment services, we are able to show some largely unexplored advantages of net settlement. We find that net settlement can prevent certain gridlock situations, which may arise in gross settlement in the absence of delivery versus payment requirements. In addition, we show that net settlement can economize on collateral requirements and avoid trading delays.Payment systems ; Risk

A Participatory Model for Evaluating Social Programs

Describes the participatory approach to evaluation, which emphasizes client participation in the design and implementation process