The Economic Impacts of Native American Gaming in Wisconsin

An input-output model is utilized to assesses the economic impact of gambling in Native American casinos in Wisconsin. Important facts include interview information from 697 players. Positive economic gains discovered for local casino areas are offset by losses to other parts of the state and by losses due to social costs

Clinical negligence in the UK: Throwing the baby out with the bath water

As the total cost of clinical negligence claims has grown in the UK in recent years, calls for reform have resurfaced. The government now plans a White Paper on the subject next year. This paper assesses some of the economic arguments surrounding such reform. It suggests that the principle of negligence performs a useful economic function, that there is some uncertainty surrounding the precise costs of the UK's clinical negligence, and that costs of alternative systems may sometimes be larger than they first appear

Finding the right partners? Examining inequalities in the global investment landscape of hydropower

Clean and affordable energy is crucial to achieve a sustainable future. Despite being controversial, hydropower remains the predominant low-cost and reliable source of energy at global level, as it stabilizes the provision of electricity and it bears the power peaks without losing efficiency. However, hydropower requires huge upfront investments and patient functional capital. Under the Paris Agreement, countries committed to direct financial capital flows towards a low-emission pathway in order to enable the transition. Furthermore, private capital strongly engaged with a transition towards a climate-smart economy. The aim of this work is to study the investment system behind hydropower, investors’ behaviour and the optimal allocation of finance to favour the deployment of capital flows. We use Bloomberg Energy Finance database to track public–private investments over the past century (1903–2020). We use network models to represent the hydropower project financing landscape as a network of co-investments. We find that investors are highly localized, with continental players mostly interacting with counterparts in the same area of the world. Powerful exceptions are international organisations and multilateral banks which coinvest across the globe. They also tend to support low-income and fragile countries, meeting their mandate of sustainable development champions. Multilateral banks and international organisations are the most critical actors in enabling public–private co-investments; they activate partnerships with a wider diversity of investors within the network creating more opportunities for blended finance tools. Our results offer a novel perspective on finance for the energy transition: it challenges the idea that more capital invested is better and calls for a more efficient allocation of the available resources

Cyberlaundering: The Risks, the Responses

This Article discusses the potential use of electronic cash for money laundering and possible government responses to the problem. Parts I and II provide an overview of electronic cash. Part III explores the effects that electronic cash can have on money laundering. Part IV explains through a series of hypotheticals how cyberlaundering can occur. Part V analyzes the federal government\u27s response to the threat of money laundering with electronic cash. Part VI concludes the Article with suggestions

Social Costs Of Gambling: A Comparative Study Of Nutmeg And Cheese State Gamblers

An analysis of the social costs of problem gambling finds similar results from two surveys of gamblers in treatment in Wisconsin (N=98) and Connecticut (N=112). Cost factors examined include lost work time and unemployment, bad debts, thefts, civil court costs, criminal justice system costs, and welfare costs. The problem gambler in Wisconsin imposes an annual cost of $8,681 on other persons, while Connecticut costs amount to$15,994. The variations between the two groups surveyed are found, for the most part, in costs of thefts. The differences can be explained by the fact that legalized gambling has been established longer in Connecticut

Investment suitability and path dependency perpetuate inequity in international mitigation finance toward developing countries

Developed country pledges to provide finance to developing countries for their mitigation actions sit at the heart of international climate cooperation. Currently, climate finance largely flows to big and fast-growing developing countries while low-income and vulnerable countries are underserved. Here, using wind and solar project data, we highlight inequities in the distribution of international investments in mitigation across developing countries and explore the factors that influence public and private investment flows. Results show that public actors are influenced by domestic climate policies since the Paris Agreement, while private finance flows are shaped by investment suitability conditions, which restricts access to both types of finance in the poorest countries. Further, public and private flows are strongly shaped by path dependency, generating an “investment lock-in” that perpetuates distributional inequities. Future international commitments to direct climate finance should address distributional issues to meet countries’ needs and the goals of the Paris Agreement

Same-day antiretroviral therapy initiation in people living with HIV who have tuberculosis symptoms: a systematic review

Objectives Tuberculosis symptoms are very common among people living with HIV (PLHIV) initiating antiretroviral therapy (ART), are not specific for tuberculosis disease and may result in delayed ART start. The risks and benefits of same-day ART initiation in PLHIV with tuberculosis symptoms are unknown. Methods We systematically reviewed nine databases on 12 March 2020 to identify studies that investigated same-day ART initiation among PLHIV with tuberculosis symptoms and reported both their approach to TB screening and clinical outcomes. We extracted and summarised data about TB screening, numbers of people starting same-day ART and outcomes. Results We included four studies. Two studies deferred ART for everyone with any tuberculosis symptoms (one or more of cough, fever, night sweats or weight loss) and substantial numbers of people had deferred ART start (28% and 39% did not start same-day ART). Two studies permitted some people with tuberculosis symptoms to start same-day ART, and fewer people deferred ART (2% and 16% did not start same-day). Two of the four studies were conducted sequentially; proven viral load suppression at eight months was 31% when everyone with tuberculosis symptoms had ART deferred, and 44% when algorithm was changed so that some people with tuberculosis symptoms could start same-day ART. Conclusions Although tuberculosissymptoms are very common in people starting ART, there is insufficient evidence about whether presence of tuberculosis symptoms should lead to ART start being deferred or not. Research to inform clear guidelines would help maximise benefits of sameday ART

Fantastic plastic? Experimental evaluation of polyurethane bone substitutes as proxies for human bone in trauma simulations

Recent years have seen steady improvements in the recognition and interpretation of violence related injuries in human skeletal remains. Such work has at times benefited from the involvement of biological anthropologists in forensic casework and has often relied upon comparison of documented examples with trauma observed in skeletal remains. In cases where no such example exists investigators must turn to experimentation. The selection of experimental samples is problematic as animal proxies may be too dissimilar to humans and human cadavers may be undesirable for a raft of reasons. The current article examines a third alternative in the form of polyurethane plates and spheres marketed as viable proxies for human bone in ballistic experiments. Through subjecting these samples to a range of impacts from both modern and archaic missile weapons it was established that such material generally responds similarly to bone on a broad, macroscopic scale but when examined in closer detail exhibits a range of dissimilarities that call for caution in extrapolating such results to real bone

Diagnostic rates and treatment of dementia before and after launch of a national dementia policy: an observational study using English national databases.

To assess the 2009 National Dementia Strategy's (NDS) impact on dementia diagnosis and treatment