Sectoral Shocks and Structural Unemployment

When current employers rave more information about worker quality than to potential employers, sectoral shocks cause structural unemployment. That is, some workers laid off from an injured sector remain unemployed despite the fact that trey are of sufficient quality to be productively employed in an expanding sector at toe prevailing wage, Moreover, sectoral unemployment rates are not monotonic in one severity of sectoral shocks due to one interaction of layoff activity and hiring activity. Finally, equilibrium employment decisions are not constrained Pareto efficient, and can be improved by a policy of adjustment assistance.

Profitability of Product Bundling

Using copulas to model the stochastic dependence of values, this paper establishes new general conditions on the profitability of product bundling. A multiproduct monopolist generally achieves higher profit from mixed bundling than from separate selling if consumer values for two products are negatively dependent, independent, or have limited positive dependence. With more than two goods, the same conditions are sufficient for an optimal monopoly selling scheme to include a bundle of at least two products. The profitability of monopoly bundling also extends to situations where a multiproduct firm competes with a single-product rival

Measuring the Relative Performance of Providers of a Health Service

A methodology is developed and applied to compare the performance of publicly funded agencies providing treatment for alcohol abuse in Maine. The methodology estimates a Wiener process that determines the duration of completed treatments, while allowing for agency differences in the effectiveness of treatment, standards for completion of treatment, patient attrition, and the characteristics of patient populations. Notably, the Wiener process model separately identifies agency fixed effects that describe differences in the effectiveness of treatment ('treatment effects'), and effects that describe differences in the unobservable characteristics of patients ('population effects'). The estimated model enables hypothetical comparisons of how different agencies would treat the same populations. The policy experiment of transferring the treatment practices of more cost-effective agencies suggests that Maine could have significantly reduced treatment costs without compromising health outcomes by identifying and transferring best practices.

Price-increasing competition

In a discrete choice model of product differentiation, the symmetric duopoly price may be lower than, equal to, or higher than the single-product monopoly price. While the market share effect of competition encourages a firm to charge less than the monopoly price because a duopolist serves fewer consumers, the price sensitivity effect of competition motivates a higher price when more consumer choice steepens the firm's demand curve. The joint distribution of consumer values for the two conceivable products determines the relative strength of these effects, and whether presence of a symmetric competitor results in a higher or lower price compared to single-product monopoly. The analysis reveals that rice-increasing competition is unexceptional from a theoretical perspective

Product improvement and technological tying in a winner-take-all market

In a winner-take-all duopoly market for systems in which firms invest to improve their products, a monopoly supplier of an essential system component may have an incentive to advantage itself by technological tying; that is, by designing the component to work better in its own system. If the vertically integrated firm is prevented from technologically tying, then there is a pure strategy equilibrium in which the more efficient firm invests and serves the entire market. However other equilibria may exist, including a pure strategy equilibrium in which the less efficient firm invests and captures the market and mixed strategy equilibria in which each firm captures the market with positive probability. In contrast, if the vertically integrated firm is able to degrade the quality of its rival's system with a technological tie, and if the wholesale price of the essential component is insufficiently remunerative, then there is a unique equilibrium outcome in which the supplier of the essential component invests alone and forecloses a more efficient rival with an actual, or merely threatened, technological tie. A comparison of these equilibria for the two game forms demonstrates that a prohibition of technological tying can either increase or decrease social welfare depending on equilibrium selection

Measuring the relative performance of providers of a health service

A methodology is developed and applied to compare the performance of publicly funded agencies providing treatment for alcohol abuse in Maine. The methodology estimates a Wiener process that determines the duration of completed treatments, while allowing for agency differences in the effectiveness of treatment, standards for completion of treatment, patient attrition, and the characteristics of patient populations. Notably, the Wiener process model separately identifies agency fixed effects that describe differences in the effectiveness of treatment ('treatment effects'), and effects that describe differences in the unobservable characteristics of patients ('population effects'). The estimated model enables hypothetical comparisons of how different agencies would treat the same populations. The policy experiment of transferring the treatment practices of more cost effective agencies suggests that Maine could have significantly reduced treatment costs without compromising health outcomes by identifying and transferring best practices

Feasibility investigation of allogeneic endometrial regenerative cells

Endometrial Regenerative Cells (ERC) are a population of mesenchymal-like stem cells having pluripotent differentiation activity and ability to induce neoangiogenesis. In vitro and animal studies suggest ERC are immune privileged and in certain situations actively suppress ongoing immune responses. In this paper we describe the production of clinical grade ERC and initial safety experiences in 4 patients with multiple sclerosis treated intravenously and intrathecally. The case with the longest follow up, of more than one year, revealed no immunological reactions or treatment associated adverse effects. These preliminary data suggest feasibility of clinical ERC administration and support further studies with this novel stem cell type

Allogeneic endometrial regenerative cells: An "Off the shelf solution" for critical limb ischemia?

Critical limb ischemia (CLI) is an advanced form of peripheral artery disease which is responsible for approximately 100,000 amputations per year in the US. Trials to date have reported clinical improvement and reduced need for amputation in CLI patients receiving autologous bone marrow or mobilized peripheral blood stem cells for stimulation of angiogenesis. While such treatments are currently entering Phase III trials, practical and scientific pitfalls will limit widespread implementation if efficacy is proven. Hurdles to be overcome include: a) reduced angiogenic potential of autologous cells in aged patients with cardiovascular risk factors; b) invasiveness/adverse effects of bone marrow extraction and G-CSF mobilization, respectively; and c) need for on-site cellular manipulation. The Endometrial Regenerative Cell (ERC) is a mesenchymal-like stem cell derived from the menstrual blood that is believed to be associated with endometrial angiogenesis. We discuss the possibility of using allogeneic ERCs as an "off the shelf" treatment for CLI based on the following properties: a) High levels of growth factors and matrix metalloprotease production; b) Ability to inhibits inflammatory responses and lack of immunogenicity; and c) Expandability to great quantities without loss of differentiation ability or karyotypic abnormalities

Clinical feasibility of umbilical cord tissue-derived mesenchymal stem cells in the treatment of multiple sclerosis.

BACKGROUND: Multiple sclerosis (MS) is a progressively debilitating neurological condition in which the immune system abnormally erodes the myelin sheath insulating the nerves. Mesenchymal stem cells (MSC) have been used in the last decade to safely treat certain immune and inflammatory conditions. METHODS: A safety and feasibility study was completed on the use of umbilical cord MSC (UCMSC) as a treatment for MS. In this 1-year study, consenting subjects received seven intravenous infusions of 20 × 10 RESULTS: Twenty subjects were enrolled in this study. No serious adverse events were reported. Of the mild AEs denoted as possibly related to treatment, most were headache or fatigue. Symptom improvements were most notable 1 month after treatment. Improvements were seen in EDSS scores (p \u3c 0.03), as well as in bladder, bowel, and sexual dysfunction (p \u3c 0.01), in non-dominant hand average scores (p \u3c 0.01), in walk times (p \u3c 0.02) and general perspective of a positive health change and improved quality of life. MRI scans of the brain and the cervical spinal cord showed inactive lesions in 15/18 (83.3%) subjects after 1 year. CONCLUSIONS: Treatment with UCMSC intravenous infusions for subjects with MS is safe, and potential therapeutic benefits should be further investigated. Trial registration ClinicalTrials.gov NCT02034188. Registered Jan 13, 2014. https://clinicaltrials.gov/ct2/show/NCT02034188

Autologous stromal vascular fraction therapy for rheumatoid arthritis: rationale and clinical safety

Advancements in rheumatoid arthritis (RA) treatment protocols and introduction of targeted biological therapies have markedly improved patient outcomes, despite this, up to 50% of patients still fail to achieve a significant clinical response. In veterinary medicine, stem cell therapy in the form of autologous stromal vascular fraction (SVF) is an accepted therapeutic modality for degenerative conditions with 80% improvement and no serious treatment associated adverse events reported. Clinical translation of SVF therapy relies on confirmation of veterinary findings in targeted patient populations. Here we describe the rationale and preclinical data supporting the use of autologous SVF in treatment of RA, as well as provide 1, 3, 6, and 13 month safety outcomes in 13 RA patients treated with this approach