Financial Management of Globalization of Developing Countries

human development, economic growth, globalization, inequality, poverty

Promises and Opportunity Cost

This paper experimentally investigates the hypothesis that promise-keeping behavior is affected by the opportunities that a counterpart foregoes by relying on the promise. We present two motivational mechanisms that could drive such an effect. One is that people dislike causing harm through a promise, and the natural way to measure such harm is to take into account what the counterpart would have received had she not relied on the promise. The other is that people may dislike causing regret in another person. We test these ideas in the context of an experimental trust game. The main treatment variable is the payoff that the first mover forgoes if he “trusts”. Consistent with our main hypothesis, we find that an increase in this foregone payoff increases promise-keeping behavior. The experiment is designed to rule out alternative explanations for such an effect. Our evidence suggests that the mechanism driving the effect may involve an aversion to causing regret in others

Prescription audit in outpatient department of a teaching hospital of North East India

Background: Quality of the prescriptions generated from OPD of Agartala Government Medical College and Govinda Ballabh Pant Hospital is never assessed. The study objectives were to find out the quality in terms of legibility, completeness and adherence to WHO core prescribing indicators of the prescriptions generated from OPD of this hospital.Methods: This hospital based cross-sectional study was conducted during 11th to 16th December 2017 among 442 prescriptions picked up from 12 OPDs by multi stage sampling technique and examined using a checklist designed to assess adherence to WHO core prescribing indicators, legibility and completeness. Data entry and analysis were performed with computer using SPSS 15.0. Descriptive statistics and Chi-square test were used to present data.Results: Total 1169 items were prescribed in 442 prescriptions. Only 50.90% prescriptions were legible. Average number of drugs prescribed per encounter was 2.64, 223 (19.07%) were generic drugs, 14 (1.19%) were injections, 176 (15.05%) were antibiotics and 618 (52.86%) items were from the national essential drug list. History was written in 62.70%, findings were written in 52.70%, diagnosis was written in 40.00%, 87.80% prescriptions contained no review instructions, 84.60% contained complete directions to the pharmacist, 87.10% did not contain complete direction to the patients and signature section was incomplete in 99.80% of the prescriptions. Significantly higher proportions of the high ranked prescribers wrote generic items, review instructions and complete directions to the patients in their prescriptions (p < 0.05).Conclusions: Most of the prescriptions generated from OPD of Agartala Government Medical College and Govinda Ballabh Pant Hospital were found to be incomplete, about half of them were illegible and sizeable proportions did not adhere to the WHO core prescribing indicators

The cancellation heuristic in intertemporal choice shifts people’s time preferences

Building on past research in risky decision making, the present research investigated whether the cancellation heuristic is evident in intertemporal choice. Specifically, the cancellation heuristic posits that whenever choice options are partitioned into multiple components, people ignore seemingly identical components and compare the non-identical components. We nudged people to employ the cancellation heuristic by partitioning both the smaller earlier reward and the larger later reward into a seemingly identical component and a non-identical component. Given diminishing marginal utility, we hypothesized that people would perceive an identical difference between the smaller earlier reward and the larger later reward as being subjectively greater when both amounts are smaller in magnitude, thereby increasing the relative attractiveness of the larger later reward in the partition condition. We conducted four studies, including two incentive-compatible lab experiments, one incentive-compatible lab-in-the-field experiment, and one survey study using choices among both gains and losses. We consistently found that this choice architecture intervention significantly increased people's likelihood of choosing the larger later reward. Furthermore, we provide evidence of the underlying mechanism-people's intertemporal decisions shifted to a greater extent in the cancellation condition, particularly if their marginal utility diminished faster. The findings indicate that two features of human psychology-diminishing marginal utility and the cancellation heuristic-can be simultaneously utilized to nudge people to make decisions that would be better for them in the long run

Liver Metabolic Alterations and Changes in Host Intercompartmental Metabolic Correlation during Progression of Malaria

1H NMR-based metabonomics was used to investigate the multimodal response of mice to malarial parasite infection by P. berghei ANKA. Liver metabolism was followed by NMR spectroscopy through the course of the disease in both male and female mice. Our results showed alterations in the level of several metabolites as a result of the infection. Metabolites like kynurenic acid, alanine, carnitine, and β-alanine showed significant alteration in the liver, suggesting altered kynurenic acid, glucose, fatty acid and amino acid pathways. Distinct sexual dimorphism was also observed in the global analysis of the liver metabolic profiles. Multiway principal component analysis (MPCA) was carried out on the liver, brain, and serum metabolic profile in order to explore the correlation of liver and brain metabolic profile to the metabolite profile of serum. Changes in such correlation profile also indicated distinct sexual dimorphism at the early stage of the disease. Indications are that the females are able to regulate their metabolism in the liver in such a way to maintain homeostasis in the blood. In males, however, choline in liver showed anticorrelation to choline content of serum indicating a higher phospholipid degradation process. The brain-serum correlation profile showed an altered energy metabolism in both the sexes. The differential organellar responses during disease progression have implications in malaria management

Timing of Communication

Using an experiment, we demonstrate that a communication regime where a worker communicates about his intended effort is less effective in i) soliciting truthful information, and ii) motivating effort, than a regime where he communicates about his past effort. Our experiment uses a real-effort task, which additionally allows us to demonstrate the effects of communication on effort over time. We show that the timing of communication affects the dynamic pattern of work. In both treatments, individuals are most cooperative closest to the time of communication. Our results reveal that the timing of communication is a critical feature that merits attention in the design of mechanisms for information transmission in strategic settings. JEL: C72, C91, D83 Keywords: cheap talk, asymmetric information, lying Across a wide range of settings, agents take actions which are not observable by their strategic counterparts. In these situations, the interacting parties often communicate to overcome the informational asymmetry that results from hidden action. Over the last decade, a large literature has analyzed these environments focusing on the effect of pre-play communication on static choices. These papers have established that statements of intent or non-binding promises can be informative and increase cooperation in social dilemmas

A Study On The Prevalence Of Vitamin B12 Deficiency In Eastern Indian Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus Patients With Peripheral Neuropathy On Metformin Presenting To A Tertiary Care Hospital

Introduction: The association between long-term metformin use in type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) and low vitamin B12 levels has been proven and screening for the same is recommended by American Diabetes Association (ADA) guidelines. The potential of the deficiency to cause or worsen diabetic peripheral neuropathy (DPN) in T2DM patients has been investigated in previous studies. However, the prevalence estimates of vitamin B12 deficiency in T2DM patients treated with long term metformin and having established DPN is lacking in our country. The aim of our study was to estimate the prevalence of vitamin B12 deficiency in T2DM patients with DPN on metformin and find out the risk factors for vitamin B12 deficiency in these patients. Methods: This cross-sectional study was conducted in the department of endocrinology in a tertiary care hospital on T2DM patients with DPN on long term metformin therapy. Vitamin B12 levels were estimated in all the subjects and the prevalence and risk factors for Vitamin B12 deficiency were assessed. Results: The prevalence of vitamin B12 deficiency in our patients was 32%. Based on the correlation estimates, none of the factors studied were significantly associated with variations in Vitamin B12 levels. Conclusion: Our study found that a third of metformin treated T2DM patients with peripheral neuropathy had vitamin B12 deficiency with no specific clinical predictor for the same. We thereby recommend screening for vitamin B12 deficiency in T2DM patients on long-term metformin and with established DPN

Rare site of presentation of a rare manifestation of graves’ disease

Infiltrative dermopathy is an uncommon manifestation of Graves’ disease frequently involving the lower extremities. The pretibial area is most commonly involved. Rarely the fingers, hands, elbows, arms, or face are affected. Skin thickening is the characteristic abnormality. Localized myxedema is an autoimmune manifestation of Graves’ disease. Here, we report the case of a 45-year-old who presented with thyroid-associated orbitopathy and localized myxoedema over both the shoulders. In a patient who has long-standing hyperthyroidism, the diagnosis of infiltrative dermopathy is usually confirmed by the location, non-pitting nature, and distinct borders of the lesions. As most of these lesions are asymptomatic, no specific therapy is required

Down syndrome with ambiguous genitalia: A rare association

Down syndrome (DS) is one of the most common chromosomal disorders. Although genitourinary anomalies, such as a cryptorchidism, micropenis, posterior urethral valves, and hypospadias, have been recognized as complications, the association of ambiguous genitalia with DS has been rarely reported. We report the case of a 1-year-old baby; assigned male sex at birth who was the first child born of a non-consanguineous marriage, by vaginal delivery at term with a birth weight of 2.2 kg. The baby had clinical features suggestive of DS with a micropenis, penoscrotal hypospadias, and incompletely fused labial-scrotal folds with palpable gonads. The external masculinization score was 3/12. The child was reared as a male and hormonal investigations were suggestive of androgen insensitivity. Karyotype was 47, XY, +21