Health Insurance Competition: The Effect of Group Contracts

In countries like the US and the Netherlands health insurance is provided by private firms. These private firms can offer both individual and group contracts. The strategic and welfare implications of such group contracts are not well understood. Using a Dutch data set of about 700 group health insurance contracts over the period 2007-2008, we estimate a model to determine which factors explain the price of group contracts. We find that groups that are located close to an insurers’ home turf pay a higher premium than other groups. This finding is not consistent with the bargaining argument in the literature as it implies that concentrated groups close to an insurer’s home turf should get (if any) a larger discount than other groups. A simple Hotelling model, however, does explain our empirical results.health insurance;health-plan choice;managed competition

Unfortunately The Introduction Of Our New Product Will Be Delayed: An Exploratory Examination Of Factors That Influence A Firm To Announce Changes In Its New Product Plans

New product preannouncement research investigates formal and deliberate communications by a firm regarding its future new product introductions (e.g., types of new products, new product attributes, plans for distribution, planned launch date). However, previous studies have primarily focused on communication related to the firm’s intent to introduce a new product and largely ignored communications regarding changes in their status, such as launch delays as well as cancellation of the new product introduction. The goal of this study is to address this shortfall by examining antecedents factors  influencing a preannouncing firm (i.e., one that preannounces its new products) to also announce changes in to its new product introduction plans (NPCs); specifically, delays in the introduction of a new product or its cancellation. This topic is particularly relevant given the importance that recent studies have placed on the investigation of false new product preannouncements or bluffs, especially in the software industry where they are termed vaporware.  Furthermore, in the wake of the many recent high-profile corporate scandals (e.g., Enron and Tyco), a growing emphasis on corporate disclosure, particularly regarding performance shortfalls (e.g., new product delays and cancellations), also highlights the need for further research on corporate communication regarding changes to new product introduction plans.  Additionally, unlike most extant preannouncement research that attempts to examine differences between preannouncers and non-preannouncers, our study only examines firms that preannounce their new product introductions and then, goes further, by examining post-preannouncement behavior. In developing our framework, we propose five antecedents that motivate a preannouncing firm’s propensity, when the situation arises, to issue announcements regarding delays in a new product introduction or its cancellation. Additionally, we highlight the use of NPCs as strategic marketing communication tools that can continually inform and influence a wide range of target audiences (e.g., buyers, employees, supply chain participants, investors, and business media). The hypotheses are tested via factor score regression with a sample of 221 U.S. – based manufacturers. Our findings indicate that it is not the firm’s desire to communicate in a general sense through information sharing nor its concerns regarding competitors that motivates preannouncing firms to issue NPCs. Instead, the preannouncing firm’s desire to build its reputation, the innovativeness of its industry, and the degree to which buyers must make substantial pre-purchase investments are the main drivers of communication regarding changes to its new product introduction plans. As a set, these findings are particularly interesting as they indicate that the preannouncing firm’s desire to reduce uncertainty, often in its own favor, underlies its decision to issue NPCs

The Role of the Euclid Archive System in the Processing of Euclid and External Data

Euclid is an ESA M2 mission which will create a 15,000 square degrees space-based survey: the Euclid Archive System (EAS) is a core element of the Science Ground Segment (SGS) of Euclid. The EAS follows a data-centric approach to data processing, whereby the Data Processing System (DPS) is responsible for the centralized metadata storage and the Distributed Storage System (DSS) supports the distributed storage of data files. The EAS-DPS implements the Euclid Common Data model and along with the EAS-DSS provides numerous services for Euclid Consortium users and SGS subsystems. In addition, the EAS-DPS assists in the preparation of Euclid data releases which are copied to the third EAS subsystem, the ESA developed Science Archive System (SAS) where they become available to the wider astronomical community. The EAS-DPS implements the object-oriented Euclid Common Data Model using a relational DBMS for the storage. The EAS-DPS supports the tracing of the lineage of any data item in the system, provides services for the data quality assessment and the data processing orchestration. The EAS-DSS is a distributed storage system which is based on a set of storage nodes located in each of the ten Science Data Centers of the Euclid SGS. The storage nodes supports a wide range of solutions from local disk, using a unix filesystem, to iRODS nodes or Grid storage elements. In this paper the architectural design of EAS-DPS and EAS-DSS are reviewed: the interaction between them and tests of the already implemented components are described

The Euclid Archive Processing and Data Distribution Systems: A Distributed Infrastructure for Euclid and Associated Data

The Euclid Archive System is an ambitious information system, which sits at the heart of the Euclid Science Ground Segment. It is a joint development between the Euclid Consortium and the ESAC Science Data Centre. It encompases both Euclid data and the large volume of associated ground based data (e.g. KiDS, DES and LSST). The Euclid Science Ground Segment consists of the Euclid Science Operations Centre and ten national Science Data Centres. The large data volumes demand that data transfer is minimized and that the processing is taken to the data. This is supported by the Euclid Archive Data Processing System and the Euclid Archive Distributed Data System. The Data Processing System consists of a central metadata repository, which contains the information necessary to process any data item and full data lineage of any data product created. The Distributed Data System provides a cloud solution with a node at each of the national Science Data Centres, which controls data storage and transfer. It supports a large number of storage types, including POSIX, iRODS, gridftp and Xrootd. No limitations are placed on the storage implemented at an individual SDC. Further more, the user of the system needs no knowledge of where data is located. Jobs will be started at the most appropriate locations, or data transferred as necessary

Meeting Report: Hackathon-Workshop on Darwin Core and MIxS Standards Alignment

The Global Biodiversity Information Facility and the Genomic Standards Consortium convened a joint workshop at the University of Oxford, 27–29 February 2012, with a small group of experts from Europe, USA, China and Japan, to continue the alignment of the Darwin Core with the MIxS and related genomics standards. Several reference mappings were produced as well as test expressions of MIxS in RDF. The use and management of controlled vocabulary terms was considered in relation to both GBIF and the GSC, and tools for working with terms were reviewed. Extensions for publishing genomic biodiversity data to the GBIF network via a Darwin Core Archive were prototyped and work begun on preparing translations of the Darwin Core to Japanese and Chinese. Five genomic repositories were identified for engagement to begin the process of testing the publishing of genomic data to the GBIF network commencing with the SILVA rRNA database

The Euclid Archive Processing and Data Distribution Systems: A Distributed Infrastructure for Euclid and Associated Data

The Euclid Archive System is an ambitious information system, which sits at the heart of the Euclid Science Ground Segment. It is a joint development between the Euclid Consortium and the ESAC Science Data Centre. It encompases both Euclid data and the large volume of associated ground based data (e.g. KiDS, DES and LSST). The Euclid Science Ground Segment consists of the Euclid Science Operations Centre and ten national Science Data Centres. The large data volumes demand that data transfer is minimized and that the processing is taken to the data. This is supported by the Euclid Archive Data Processing System and the Euclid Archive Distributed Data System. The Data Processing System consists of a central metadata repository, which contains the information necessary to process any data item and full data lineage of any data product created. The Distributed Data System provides a cloud solution with a node at each of the national Science Data Centres, which controls data storage and transfer. It supports a large number of storage types, including POSIX, iRODS, gridftp and Xrootd. No limitations are placed on the storage implemented at an individual SDC. Further more, the user of the system needs no knowledge of where data is located. Jobs will be started at the most appropriate locations, or data transferred as necessary

The Euclid Archive Processing and Data Distribution Systems: A Distributed Infrastructure for Euclid and Associated Data

The Euclid Archive System is an ambitious information system, which sits at the heart of the Euclid Science Ground Segment. It is a joint development between the Euclid Consortium and the ESAC Science Data Centre. It encompases both Euclid data and the large volume of associated ground based data (e.g. KiDS, DES and LSST). The Euclid Science Ground Segment consists of the Euclid Science Operations Centre and ten national Science Data Centres. The large data volumes demand that data transfer is minimized and that the processing is taken to the data. This is supported by the Euclid Archive Data Processing System and the Euclid Archive Distributed Data System. The Data Processing System consists of a central metadata repository, which contains the information necessary to process any data item and full data lineage of any data product created. The Distributed Data System provides a cloud solution with a node at each of the national Science Data Centres, which controls data storage and transfer. It supports a large number of storage types, including POSIX, iRODS, gridftp and Xrootd. No limitations are placed on the storage implemented at an individual SDC. Further more, the user of the system needs no knowledge of where data is located. Jobs will be started at the most appropriate locations, or data transferred as necessary