Do daily retail gasoline prices adjust asymmetrically?

This paper analyzes adjustments in the Dutch retail gasoline prices. We estimate an error correction model on changes in the daily retail price for gasoline (taxes excluded) for the period 1996-2004 taking care of volatility clustering by estimating an EGARCH model. It turns out the volatility process is asymmetrical: an unexpected increase in the producer price has a larger effect on the variance of the producer price than an unexpected decrease. We do not find evidence for amount asymmetry, either for the long run or for the short run. However, there is a faster reaction to upward changes in spot prices than to downward changes in spot prices. This implies timing or pattern asymmetry. This asymmetry starts three days after the change in the spot price and lasts for four days.

Introduction to the special section:Designing a better user experience for self-service systems

June 2013 issue of IEEE Transactions on Professional Communication features a special section on 'Designing a Better User Experience for Self-Service Systems'. Self-service systems offers the users the benefit of 24/7 access to an ever-growing range of services and perhaps also a strong sense of autonomy and fulfillment. Three papers in this section approach the design of the user experience of self-service systems in an integrated way and show the readership of this journal what methods and techniques can be used in this type of design process. These are, 'Identifying User Experience Factors for Mobile Incident Reporting in Urban Contexts,' by Bach, Bernhaupt, and Winckler, 'Improving User Experience for Passenger Information Systems. Prototypes and Reference Objects,' by Wirtz and Jakobs, and in 'A User-Centered Design Approach to Self-Service Ticket Vending Machines,' by Siebenhandl, Schreder, Smuc, Mayr, and Nagl

Financing COVID-19-related health care costs in the Dutch competitive health system during 2020 and 2021:Overall experiences and policy recommendations for improving health system resilience

The Dutch health system is based on the principles of managed (or regulated) competition, meaning that competing risk bearing insurers and providers negotiate contracts on the price, quantity and quality of care. The COVID-19 pandemic caused a huge external shock to the health system which potentially distorted the conditions required for fair competition. Therefore, an important question is to what extent was the competitive Dutch health system resilient to the financial shock caused by the pandemic? Overall, the Dutch competitive health system proved to be sufficiently flexible and resilient at absorbing the financial shock caused by the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020 and 2021 due to an effective combination of regulatory and self-regulatory measures. However, based on the overall experiences in the Netherlands, from the health policy perspective improvements are needed aimed at (i) refining the catastrophic costs clause included in the Health Insurance Act, (ii) reducing the vulnerability of the Dutch risk equalisation system to distortions due to unforeseen catastrophic health care costs, and (iii) establishing more equal financial risk sharing between health insurers and health care providers. These improvements are also relevant for other countries with a health system based on the principles of managed (or regulated) competition

Sustainability and Resilience in the Dutch Health System

The Dutch health system provides broad universal health care coverage and is based on theprinciples of regulated competition. According to the OECD (2022), it is one of the best healthsystems in the world with regard to access to health care, equity and clinical outcomes. However,as also concluded by the Netherlands Scientific Council for Government Policy (WRR, 2021), as withother health systems, it faces important sustainability and resilience challenges, some of whichwere exposed and exacerbated during the COVID-19 pandemic.This report provides a comprehensive overview of the Dutch health system’s key features acrossthe seven domains of the PHSSR framework: health system governance, health system financing,workforce, medicines and technology, health service delivery, population health and environmentalsustainability. For each of these domains, the aim of the report is to (1) produce a criticalassessment of the country’s most salient strengths, weaknesses and threats regarding thesustainability and resilience of its health system and (2) derive recommendations for health carepolicy.In addition to the seven domains mentioned above, we present two case studies. The first focuseson the resilience of the Dutch health system to the financial shock caused by the COVID-19pandemic. The second examines whether collaboration (aimed at reducing coordination problemsand facilitating integrated health care) and competition are reconcilable in the Dutch health system.<br/