IBD risk loci are enriched in multigenic regulatory modules encompassing putative causative genes.

GWAS have identified >200 risk loci for Inflammatory Bowel Disease (IBD). The majority of disease associations are known to be driven by regulatory variants. To identify the putative causative genes that are perturbed by these variants, we generate a large transcriptome data set (nine disease-relevant cell types) and identify 23,650 cis-eQTL. We show that these are determined by ∼9720 regulatory modules, of which ∼3000 operate in multiple tissues and ∼970 on multiple genes. We identify regulatory modules that drive the disease association for 63 of the 200 risk loci, and show that these are enriched in multigenic modules. Based on these analyses, we resequence 45 of the corresponding 100 candidate genes in 6600 Crohn disease (CD) cases and 5500 controls, and show with burden tests that they include likely causative genes. Our analyses indicate that ≥10-fold larger sample sizes will be required to demonstrate the causality of individual genes using this approach

Monastic governance: forgotten prospects for public institutions

To overcome agency problems, public sector reforms started to introduce businesslike incentive structures to motivate public officials. By neglecting internal behavioral incentives, however, these reforms often do not reach their stated goals. Our research analyzes the governance structure of Benedictine monasteries in order to gain new insights into solving agency problems in public institutions. A comparison is useful because members of both organizational forms, public organizations and monasteries, see themselves as responsible participants in their community and claim to serve the public good. We study monastic governance from an economic perspective. Benedictine monasteries in Baden-Württemberg, Bavaria, and German-speaking Switzerland have an average lifetime of almost 500 years, and only a quarter of them broke up because of agency problems. We argue that they were able to survive for centuries due to an appropriate governance structure, relying strongly on the intrinsic motivation of the members and internal control mechanisms. This governance approach differs in several aspects from current public sector reforms. JEL Classification: D73, G3, Z12, H83 Keywords: Public Governance, New Public Management, Public Sector Reform, Psychological Economics, Agency Problems, Monasteries, Benedictine Orde

Still Searching for the Evidence? Evidence-based Policy, Performance Pay and Teachers

The evidence based policy (EBP) movement became prominent in the UK in the late 1990s, portrayed as an ideology-free method of policy development and implementation. This article assesses the EBP claims by analysing a case study of one piece of policy implementation, namely the introduction of performance-related pay (PRP) for schoolteachers in England and Wales. Using primary and secondary sources, the article argues that while previous evidence was brought into the policy development processes, it was largely ignored. Indeed, prosaic political considerations may well have shaped the policy. Indeed, the teachers' attitudes towards PRP suggest that few of the objectives will be met

Correlacionando tipos de cultura organizacional com estratégias de remuneração utilizando a tipologia de Charles Handy

Este estudo identificou as correlações entre as estratégias de remuneração e a tipologia de cultura organizacional proposta por Handy (2003) baseada nas dimensões do grau de formalização e centralização que identifica a cultura: Zeus (poder), Apolo (papéis), Atena (tarefa), e Dionísio (pessoa). A pesquisa foi aplicada a gestores de remuneração de 76 empresas associadas ao Grupo de Permuta de Informações Salariais (Grupisa), e os questionários com um construto composto por doze componentes da remuneração organizacional foram analisados utilizando Correlação de Pearson e Regressão Múltipla. Concluímos que as variáveis de remuneração se correlacionam de forma diferente com cada um dos tipos de cultura: (i) organizações "Zeus" devem enfatizar os fatores comportamentais em todas as esferas do sistema de remuneração; (ii) para as organizações "Apolo" a ênfase deve ser aplicada nas oportunidades de crescimento e desenvolvimento, (iii) nas organizações "Atena" o foco deve ser nas recompensas financeiras, e, (iv) organizações "Dionísio" devem dar ênfase à qualidade da remuneração