Ex-ante Moral Hazard and Primary Prevention, evidence from Portugal

This paper provides evidence on ex-ante moral hazard in Portugal. The issue is addressed in a setting where people buy voluntary private health insurance, on top of existing Government coverage. We identify the main factors that lead people to adopt healthy lifestyles, such as taking up sports and not smoking, which are associated with primary prevention. Moreover, it allows for an inference of the role of risk aversion of individuals in these decisions. We use a GHK recursive simulator of multivariate probit for insurance demand, smoking and sporting decisions, to provide joint estimates taking into consideration potential endogeneity of these decisions. Our results indicate that there is some evidence of ex-ante moral hazard with respect to primary prevention behaviors. Di¤erences in risk aversion across individuals do not seem to play a primary role in explaining distinct life styles.ex-ante moral hazard, prevention, lifestyles

Chapter European Health System Typologies: Last 30 Years Under Review

The quest of the researcher to classify national health systems into homogeneous groups has a long history. In this paper, the last 30 years are divided in two periods (1985–2000 and 2000–2015) in order to present and briefly describe the most influential national health system typologies

Cultural accessible pedestrian ways. The case of Faro historic centre

In a historic city the existence of accessible pedestrian routes constitutes an essential feature to a true access to culture heritage, contributing for processes of social inclusion. It is necessary to create accessible pedestrian infrastructures network to hold a set of attributes that guarantee usability for all citizens. The creation and design of an accessible physical environment should be considered as a criterion of urban quality, which will make walking more pleasant not only for the elderly and people with disabilities but, also, for the entire resident population and tourists. In this case study it is ascertainable whether the physical characteristics of pedestrian infrastructures of cultural interest, located in the Historical Centre of Faro (Portugal), comply with the requirements of the National Law of Accessibility. There has, therefore, been created a methodology for evaluating the accessibility of pedestrian infrastructure through the construction of performance indicators. The analysis is achieved through a model of evaluation of the degree of conformity of the spaces, and presented, spatially, with appeal to a Geographical Information System, which is a tool to support the decision taking in the processes of urban rehabilitation, thus contributing to the choice of priority areas of intervention in the field of accessibility. The diagnosis confirms the existence of inaccessible pedestrian infrastructure and concludes the need to trigger processes of urban renovation.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Visual patterns and the development of creativity and functional reasoning

Creativity has been recently recognized as an important factor of progress. However, its development has not been a priority of the school and, in particular, of Mathematics. Also, it has not been a topic greatly studied, especially in what concerns ‘normally’ (not gifted) students. On the other hand, students often reveal many difficulties in functional reasoning. Some studies have concluded that an adequate exploration of visual patterns may contribute to overcoming these difficulties. However, they suggest that we should continue to study their impact on other publics and in other contexts. Thus, we developed a qualitative (exploratory) case study aiming to find out to what extent the exploitation of tasks focused on visual patterns contributed to the development of creativity and functional reasoning in students of the 8th grade. Participant observation, inquiry and documental analysis were the main sources of data collection, supported by various instruments. The data collected were submitted to content analysis, guided by categories. Some of them emerged from the research questions and others were defined during the analysis. Generally, it was found that students improved their performance in tasks which resolution required the mobilization of functional reasoning. There was also a remarkable improvement of creativity in what concerns fluency, flexibility and originality. Some of the representations about creativity also evolved positively

Substitutes or complements? Diagnosis and treatment with non-conventional and conventional medicine

Background: Portugal has a strong tradition of conventional western healthcare. So it provides a natural case study for the relationship between Complementary/Alternative Medicine (CAM) and Western Medicine (WM). This work aims to test the relationship between CAM and WM users in the diagnosis and treatment stages and to estimate the determinants of CAM choice. Methods: The forth Portuguese National Health Survey is employed to estimate two single probit models and obtain the correlation between the consumption of CAM and WM medicines in the diagnosis and treatment stages. Results: Firstly, both in the diagnosis and the treatment stage, CAM and WM are seen to be complementary choices for individuals. Secondly, self-medication also shows complementarity with the choice of CAM treatment. Thirdly, education has a non-linear relationship with the choice of CAM. Finally, working status, age, smoking and chronic disease are determinant factors in the decision to use CAM. Conclusion: The results of this work are relevant to health policy-makers and for insurance companies. Patients need freedom of choice and, for the sake of safety and efficacy of treatment, WM and CAM healthcare ought to be provided in a joint and integrated health system

The impact of a happy positioning on willingness to pay for utilitarian products

This study intends to examine the relationship between a happy positioning, utilitarian products and willingness to pay. After reviewing existent literature, it is hypothesised that by associating utilitarian products to a happy positioning, willingness to pay will be positively impacted. In order to test this hypothesis, research was conducted following an experimental design involving one pre-test and one main study. The main study consisted of a between subjects experiment with two conditions: happiness vs performance positionings. Against the hypothesis, results suggest that willingness to pay for utilitarian products does not differ significantly depending on the condition individuals were allocated to

How gender free are HPWP?: a moderated mediation model across participatory safety towards team performance

The universal perspective of SHRM assumes a positive effect on the performance due to the implementation of HPWP. However, the mechanisms that underlie it are still a matter of research. We set ourselves to examine the relationship between these practices and the subjective team performance by means of the participatory safety as a mediator, testing boundary conditions related to gender (both sex and gender identity) in this relationship. With a sample of 123 employees, we use PROCESS macro (Hayes, 2017) to test the moderated mediation model. Finding show a partial mediation that does not change according with gender which highlights its gender neutral character. Despite limitations, findings encourage further research focused on participatory safety and gender within HR domain.A perspetiva universal de GERH assume um efeito positivo no desempenho decorrente da Práticas de Trabalho de Alto Desempenho. Contudo, ainda estão a ser explorados os mecanismos subjacentes a este processo. Propusemo-nos a examinar a relação entre estas práticas e o desempenho subjetivo de equipa através da participação segura como mediador, testando as condições-limite do género (sexo e identidade) nesta relação. Com uma amostra de 123 participantes, utilizámos o macro PROCESS de Hayes (2017) de modo a testar o modelo de mediação moderada. Os resultados evidenciam uma mediação parcial que não se altera em função do género o que evidencia o seu carácter neutro. Apesar das limitações existentes em relação ao nosso estudo, encorajamos ao estudo da participação segura e do género na temática dos RH