487 research outputs found
Advocatus, et non latro? Testing the Supplier-Induced-Demand Hypothesis for Italian Courts of Justice
We explore the relationship between litigation rates and the number of lawyers, in a typical supplier-induced demand (SID) frame. Drawing on an original panel dataset for the 169 Italian courts of justice between 2000 and 2007, we first document that the number of lawyers is positively correlated with different measures of litigation rate. Then, using an instrumental variables strategy we find that a 10 percent increase of lawyers over population is associated with an increase between 1.6 to 6 percent in civil litigation rates. Thus, our empirical analysis supports the SID hypothesis for the Italian lawyers: following an increase in their relative number, lawyers may exploit their informational advantage to induce clients to access to courts even when litigation is unnecessary or ineffective.Lawyers, Litigiosity, Causality
Optimal Contracts and Contractual Arrangements Within the Hospital: Bargaining vs. Take-it-or-leave-it Offers
We study the impact of different contractual arrangements within the hospital on the optimal contracts designed by third party payers when severity is hospital's private information. We develop a multi-issue bargaining process between doctors and managers within the hospital. Results are then compared with a scenario where doctors and managers decide independently by maximizing their own profit, with managers proposing to doctors a take-it-or leave-it offer. Results show that, when the cost of capital is sufficiently low, the informational rent arising on information asymmetry is higher in a set up where managers and doctors decide together through a strategic bargaining process than when they act as two decision-making units.Strategic Bargaining; Optimal Contracts; Hospitals; Asymmetric Information
Spacetime metric from linear electrodynamics
The Maxwell equations are formulated on an arbitrary (1+3)-dimensional
manifold. Then, imposing a (constrained) linear constitutive relation between
electromagnetic field and excitation , we derive
the metric of spacetime therefrom.Comment: 4 pages' latex-scrip
Behavioral aspects of policy formulation: experiments, behavioral insights, nudges
Policy formulation relies upon the interplay of knowledge-based analysis of issues with power-based considerations, such as the political assessment of the costs and benefits of proposed actions, and its effects on the partisan and electoral concerns of governments. Policy scholars have long been interested in how governments successfully create, deploy and utilise policy instruments, but the literature on policy formulation has, until now, remained fragmented. This comprehensive Handbook unites original scholarship on policy tools and design, with contributions examining policy actors and the roles they play in the formulation process
Paying incentives to be healthy only works in the long term if you pay to NOT do something
Monetary incentives to encourage people to live healthier lifestyles only work in the longer term when they are designed to stop negative behaviour, rather than promote positive choices, suggests new research from LSE
Book review: review of “behavioral economics and healthy behaviors: key concepts and current research”, edited by Yaniv Hanoch, Andrew J. Barnes, and Thomas Rice (2017)
Behavioral Economics and Healthy Behaviors: Key Concepts and Current Research”, edited by Yaniv Hanoch, Andrew J. Barnes, and Thomas Rice (2017). Routledge, Oxon, 236 pages, £25.5
Because I'm worth it: a lab-field experiment on the spillover effects of incentives in health
We conduct a controlled lab-field experiment to directly test the short-run spillover effects of one-off financial incentives in health. We consider how incentives affect effort in a physical activity task – and then how they spillover to subsequent eating behaviour. Compared to a control group, we find that low incentives increase effort and have little effect on eating behaviour. High incentives also induce more effort but lead to significantly more excess calories consumed. The key behavioural driver appears to be the level of satisfaction associated with the physical activity task, which ‘licensed’ highly paid subjects to indulge in more energy-dense food
Digit ratio (2D:4D) and altruism: evidence from a large, multi-ethnic sample
We look at the links between the Digit Ratio - the ratio of the length of the index finger to the length of the ring finger – for both right and left hands, and giving in a Dictator Game. Unlike previous studies with exclusively Caucasian subjects, we recruited a large, ethnically diverse sample. Our main results are as follows. First, for Caucasian subjects we estimate a significant positive regression coefficient for the right hand digit ratio and a significant negative coefficient for its squared measure. These results replicate the findings of Brañas-Garza et al. (2013), who also observe an inverted U-shaped relationship for Caucasian subjects. Second, we are not able to find any significant association of the right hand digit ratio with giving in the Dictator Game for the other main ethnic groups in our sample. Third, we find no significant association between giving in the Dictator Game and the left hand digit ratio
Behavioral experiments in health economics
The state-of-the-art literature at the interface between experimental and behavioral economics and health economics is reviewed by identifying and discussing ten areas of potential debate about behavioral experiments in health. By doing so, the different streams and areas of applications of the growing field of behavioral experiments in health are reviewed, by discussing which significant questions remain to be discussed, and by highlighting the rationale and the scope for the further development of behavioral experiments in health in the years to come
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