Endogenous Cycles and Liquidity Risk

Using an overlapping generations model with liquidity risk, we show that equilibrium aggregate investment and asset prices are cyclical. In an economy with neither a beginning nor an ending date, a stationary equilibrium can be obtained. In a startable equilibrium however, economic activity is highly cyclical. The first generations and consecutive odd ones invest most of their wealth in new long lived technologies, while even generations flock to seasoned claims that are sold by liquidity challenged older cohorts. We find that this liquidity driven cyclicality is driven by the optimal length of the investment horizon, not by agent live spanBusiness Cycles, Overlapping Generations, Liquidity

Financial Intermediaries and Transaction Costs

We present an overlapping generations model with spatial separation and agents who face unsystematic liquidity risk. In a pure exchange economy, agents engage in life cycle portfolio rebalancing. In an intermediated economy, intergenerational banks or mutual funds cater to diversified clienteles so as to avoid rebalancing transactions. In equilibrium, these intermediaries pay redemptions with portfolio income and never sell secondary assets. We also find that the pure exchange economy has a downward sloping yield curve and is inherently cyclical.Financial Intermediation, Overlapping Generations, Liquidity.

The Governance of Perpetual Financial Intermediaries

In this paper we re-examine the risk sharing potential of inter- generational financial intermediaries taking into account their governance structure. We argue that asset buffers of perpetual institutions are limited by the temptation of the living stakeholders to renegotiate contributions and distributions. We characterize the renegotiation constraint and show that it severely limits intergenerational risk sharing. Without renegotiation frictions, intermediaries cannot provide higher welfare than a market. The existence of (self-imposed) renegotiation costs relaxes the constraint. By forming a single monopolist intermediary, agents can further improve welfare

A study protocol to develop and test an e-health intervention in follow-up service for intensive care survivors' relatives

Background: The negative impact on long-term health-related outcomes among relatives of critically ill patients in the intensive care unit (ICU) has been well described. High-quality ICU specialized follow-up care, which is easily accessible with digital innovation and which is designed by and with relevant stakeholders (i.e., ICU patients' relatives and nurses), should be considered to reduce these impairments in the psychological and social domains. Aim: The programme's aim is to develop and test an e-health intervention in a follow-up service to support ICU patients' relatives. Here, the protocol for the overall study programme will be described. Study Design: The overall study comprises a mixed-methods, multicentre research design with qualitative and quantitative study parts. The study population is ICU patients' adult relatives and ICU nurses. The main outcomes are the experiences of these stakeholders with the newly developed e-health intervention. There will be no predefined selection based on age, gender, and level of education to maximize diversity throughout the study programme. After the participants provide informed consent, data will be gathered through focus groups (n = 5) among relatives and individual interviews (n = 20) among nurses exploring the needs and priorities of a digital follow-up service. The findings will be explored further for priority considerations among members of the patient/relative organization (aiming n = 150), which will serve as a basis for digital prototypes of the e-health intervention. Assessment of the intervention will be followed during an iterative process with investigator-developed questionnaires. Finally, symptoms of anxiety and depression will be measured with the 14-item Dutch version of the ‘Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale’, and symptoms of posttraumatic stress will be measured with the 21-item Dutch version of the ‘Impact of Events Scale-Revised’ to indicate the effectiveness of digital support among ICU patients' relatives. Relevance to Clinical Practice: The e-health intervention to be developed during this research programme can possibly bridge the gap in integrated ICU follow-up care by providing relevant information, self-monitoring and stimulating self-care among ICU patients' relatives

An empirical investigation of the speed of information aggregation: A study of IPOs

peer reviewedThis paper researches the microstructure of the price process after the IPO, to gain insight into the information aggregation process of secondary market trading. We investigate a sample of 2,040 US IPOs between 1993 and 2000 and find that it takes approximately one week for all IPO-related information to be reflected in the market price. Using a novel methodology to gauge event-time volatility, we attribute this fast information aggregation to the bookbuilding process and to the extraordinary liquidity in the IPO aftermarket. © 2010 Inderscience Enterprises Ltd

Increasing cardio-thoracic productivity at Erasmus MC

The Thoraxcenter of Erasmus MC started an improvement project in 2015 in order to increase the number of open-heart surgeries by 150 for three consecutive years (450 in total, +46%), and to decrease the access time from 12–14 to 2–3 weeks by the end of 2016. This was required to attain economy of scale in a highly competitive market. In this paper we describe the first year of the project, focusing on its structure and interventions taken, resulting in 165 additional open-heart surgeries carried out in 2016 and a significantly shorter access time of 2–3 weeks