Intraday Predictability of Overnight Interest Rates

Lee (2001) found the overnight Eurodollar rate in London and the effective Fed funds rate exhibit similar calendar-day effects although the absolute magnitudes are less. Explanations for the smaller calendar-day effects on the overnight Eurodollar rate include the difference between market-specific conventions in the two markets and the time difference in measuring two interest rates. This paper investigates the relationship between the Fed funds rate at 11:30 am EST, the effective Fed funds rate and the overnight Eurodollar rate in London. It is found that the different calendar-day effects are caused by both the difference between market structures and by data collecting time difference.

The Mediating Role of Staffing on Quality of Care in Nonprofit and For-Profit Nursing Homes in Indiana

This study attempts to disentangle the relationships between ownership, staffing, and nursing home quality using Indiana nursing home data. Typical Indiana nursing homes are known to be below average on health inspection and overall quality ratings. This is alarming because Indiana’s population aged 85 years or older is increasing and these individuals are likely to need long-term care services. With an ultimate goal of addressing the poor quality of long-term care institutions, this study analyzed the Nursing Home Compare data collected from 2010 to 2012 by utilizing chi- square tests, one-way ANOVAs, and correlation analysis. The results revealed that nonprofit nursing homes have superior quality and record a greater number of registered nurse and certified nursing assistant hours per resident day compared to for-profit nursing homes. In addition, higher staffing hours were positively associated with overall rating. These findings imply a possibility that higher staffing levels in nonprofit nursing homes have a mediating effect on the relationship between ownership and nursing home quality. In order to improve nursing home quality, registered nurse and certified nursing assistant staffing levels need to be boosted. Enactment of state staffing standards and the Medicaid wage pass-through policy could help to address this issue

Sharing Health Risk and Income Risk within Households: Evidence from Japanese Data

We examine the question of which household members should consume medical services, and in what quantities, by using Japanese household-level data. We employ two key concepts, health risk and income risk, and investigate whether family heads or dependents bear these risks. Health risk is the risk that a household member falls ill, while income risk is the risk that future household income decreases. We find that both heads and dependents make fewer visits to doctors as household size increases. We also find that only dependents visited doctors less frequently following the reform of the public health insurance system, which raised the co-payment rate of family heads from 10% to 20%. These findings imply that heads and dependents share health risk but dependents bear income riskco-payment; health risk; income risk; public health insurance

Bank lending and monetary policy: the effects of structural shift in interest rates

This paper provides evidence to show that the interest rate regime adopted by the monetary authority plays an important role in determining the effectiveness of the transmission mechanism of monetary policy via bank lending channel using Malaysian data. As part of the strategy to deal with the recent financial crisis, the Malaysian government introduced capital control measures which subsequently led to a structural shift in interest rates. Before the shift, interest rates were relatively high. The contractionary monetary policy achieved desirable results through the bank lending channel. However, responses of bank lending to interest rate changes were limited after the structural shift which characterises a period of low interest rate regime, rendering the bank lending channel ineffective.bounds test

Predicting occurrence of and responses to psychological difficulties: the interplay between achievement goals, perceived ability and motivational climates among Korean athletes

The present study investigated the interrelationship of goal orientations, perceived ability, and perceived motivational climate to the experience of stress, perceived controllability, and choice of coping strategies. A total of 404 Korean intercollegiate athletes participated in the study. The results from moderated multiple regression analyses revealed that the experience of psychological difficulties was positively predicted by a perceived ego-involving climate and negatively predicted by perceived ability. The perceived controllability over stress was highest among athletes who had higher levels of task and ego orientation in a more taskinvolving atmosphere. Athletes used more approach coping as they perceived a higher level of task orientation regardless the level of perceived ability, and when they indicated higher task orientation scores in a low ego-involving environment. The avoidance/withdrawal coping strategies were positively related to an ego-involving climate. The findings implied that an examination of cultural variations in motivational factors and coping process among sport participants in a different culture may further extend theoretical applicability across diverse populations