Increasing Fundraising Success by Decreasing Donor Choice

Suggested contributions, membership categories, and discrete, incremental thank-you gifts are devices often used by benevolent associations that provide public goods. Such devices focus donations into discrete levels, thereby effectively limiting the donors' freedom to give. We study the effects on overall donations of the tradeoff between rigid schemes that severely restrict the choices of contribution on the one hand, and flexible membership contracts on the other, taking into account the strategic response of contributors whose values for the public good are private information. We show flexibility dominates when i) the dispersion of donors' taste for the public good increases, ii) the number of potential donors increases, and iii) there is greater funding by an external authority. Using the number of default membership categories that National Public Radio stations offer as proxy for flexibility, we document the existence of empirical correlations consistent with our predictions: stations offer a larger number of suggested contribution levels as i) the incomes of the population served become more diverse, ii) the population of the coverage area increases, and iii) there is greater external support from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting.private provision, categories, restricting donations, heterogeneity, crowding out

Membership in citizen groups

We analyze the coordination problem of agents deciding to join a group that uses membership revenues to provide a discrete public good and excludable benefits. The public good and the benefits are jointly produced, so that benefits are valued only if the group succeeds in providing the public good. With asymmetric information about the cost of provision, the static membership game admits a unique equilibrium and we characterize the optimal membership fee. We show that heterogeneity in valuations for the excludable benefits is always detrimental to the group. However, in a dynamic contest in which heterogeneity arises endogenously (returning members receive additional seniority benefits at the expense of junior members), we show that, in the ex-ante optimal contract, offering seniority benefits is beneficial for the group, despite the heterogeneity in valuations created

Estimating the budget impact of innovative pharmacological treatments for patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus in Italy: the case of liraglutide (GLP-1).

Background Diabetes is among the most common chronic illnesses worldwide, with escalating rates around the world.  Four years after the launch of liraglutide (a human GLP-1 analogue for type 2 diabetes) we aimed to evaluate the impact of its use in terms of resources consumption and also in terms of some clinical outcomes.  Methods A budget impact model (BIM) has been developed. The model was used to assess the financial impact for the Italian NHS caused by an increased use of liraglutide in patients with type 2 diabetes (T2DM). The analysis was conducted in a 3-year time horizon considering year 2013 as baseline. We used real data of market consumption, reflecting the budget holder’s perspective, and not just a hypothetical cohort of patients.  Results Increasing the percentage of patients receiving liraglutide over the next 3 years, would lead to an increase of costs, ranging from €2.1 million in the first year to €6.7 million in the third year for a total of €13.7 million. However, for these additional costs, the Italian NHS would get more patients with glycaemic control.  Conclusions This study has shown that an increase in the use of liraglutide would determine a relatively low extra cost per patient with T2DM in the Italian NHS. The results could be considered conservative since we did not include savings associated to a reduction of hypoglycaemic events. More comprehensive assessments, considering total costs of treatment and expected health benefits, can help decision-makers analyse whether higher acquisition costs may be offset by higher therapeutic results, leading to future projected savings for the healthcare system

Is vaccination good value for money? A review of cost-utility analyses of vaccination strategies in eight European countries

Objective: The objective of this study is to review published cost-utility analyses of vaccination strategies in eight European countries and to assess whether there are differences in cost-effectiveness terms among countries and vaccinations. Methods: A systematic search of the literature was conducted using the National Health Service Economic Evaluation Database and the PubMed database. Cost-utility analyses of any type of vaccination that used quality-adjusted life years (QALYs) as measure of benefit and conducted in Belgium, France, Germany, Italy, Spain, Sweden, the Netherlands or the UK were included. Results: A total of 94 studies were identified. As a result of our search methodology, the vast majority of studies were conducted in the Netherlands or UK (33 and 30 studies, respectively). The most frequent vaccination types were against Human papillomavirus (HPV) with 23 studies, followed by vaccination against pneumococcal infections (19 studies). The analysed vaccinations were generally cost-effective but with high variability. Considering an incremental cost effectiveness ratio (ICER) of 40,000€/QALY, we noticed that the following vaccinations studies are below this threshold, i.e. all varicella and influenza (with one outlier) studies, 90% of the studies for HPV and 75% of the studies for pneumococcal vaccinations. Rotavirus vaccination was considered as not cost-effective, with only 30% of studies below the threshold of 40,000€/QALY. There was no clear trend for vaccinations being more cost-effective in some countries. Conclusions: The published literature has shown that vaccination strategies are generally cost-effective in European countries. High heterogeneity in the results among studies and countries was found

THz QCL - Based active imaging applied to composite materials diagnostic

This paper is a presentation of the recently developed researches at OLIMPES laboratory in the field of active imaging using THz Quantum Cascade Laser applied to composite materials diagnostic

THz QCL - Based active imaging applied to composite materials diagnostic

This paper presents a CW raster-scanning THz imaging setup, used to perform Non-Destructive Testing of Kevlar and carbon fibre samples. The setup uses a 2.5 THz Quantum Cascade Laser as a source. Delamination defect in a Kevlar sample was detected showing a sensitivity to laser polarization orientation. Detection of a break in a carbon/epoxy sample was also performed

"You can see how things will end by the way they begin". The contribution of early mutual obligations for the development of the psychological contract

This study explores dynamic processes in the development of the psychological contract, focusing on the interaction of obligations related to the two parties (i.e., employees' perceptions of both their own and the organization's obligations fulfillment) on attitudinal outcomes (organizational commitment and turnover intention) during the initial stage of the employment relationship. In a twofold cross-sectional and two-wave study on newly hired correctional police officers, we examined: (a) whether perception of organizational obligations fulfillment moderates the relationship between employee obligations and their attitudes (Study 1, n.500); (b) the direct and moderated influence of perceived obligations at the entrance stage on those in the following months (Study 2, n.223). Results confirmed that, in the eyes of the newcomer, the obligations fulfillment of each of the two parties interact, having an additional effect beyond the main direct effects, in influencing both subsequent obligations perceptions and, through this, the outcome variables. Theoretical and practical implications of the findings are discussed