bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Using Primary Care Prescribing Databases to Determine Drug Switching and Continuation of Care
Authors: Mohamed Isa Naina , Helms Peter J. , McLay James S.
Published: October 2015

Drug switching is a common medical practice. It indicates continuation of treatment regardless of the reason why the original therapy was stopped and switched. Therefore, the aims of this study were to develop a novel method for determining drug switching from routinely acquired NHS health data and to explore the aspect of continuation of care for patients. Patients who were first prescribed ramipril, simvastatin and an angiotensin receptor blocker (ARB) between 1 March 2004 and 28 February 2007 and discontinued their medication within 6 months of the index prescription were identified from the PTI database. The identified patients were then categorized into three groups: i) patients who were switched to a different drug for the same medical condition, ii) patients who were being prescribed with other types of antihypertensive/lipid‐regulating drug prior to the initiation of study; and iii) patients who were without any continuation of care or therapy. Twenty percent (808), 29%(1429) and 14%(455) of the identified patients discontinued ramipril, simvastatin and ARB, respectively, within 6 months of an index prescription. Among the ramipril discontinuation group, 36.4% of the patients were switched to another antihypertensive, while another 31.6% of them were without continuation of care. In patients discontinuing ARB, 30.6% were switched, while another 30.1% were without continuation of treatment. In patients discontinuing simvastatin, 28.8% were switched to another lipid‐regulating medicine, while another 63.1% of them were without continuation of care. The results of this study confirm that primary care prescribing databases can be used to determine drug‐switching information and continuation of care/therapy.
Where is the EU going? Collapse, fiscal union, a supersized Switzerland or a new democratic politics
Authors: Hix Simon
Published: October 2015

As debt worries continue to shake the eurozone, Simon Hix looks at four possible scenarios for a European Union facing an existential crisis, and argues that a contested presidency provides the best hope of a more democratic approach to European politics.
A return to two‐party politics?
Authors: Curtice John , McWhirter Iain , Wyn Jones Richard , Asato Jessica
Published: October 2015

In the first of three articles by writers looking back at the UK local and devolved elections in May and considering their implications for the future, electoral reform expert John Curtice asks whether the elections signaled the end of the beginning of political pluralism in the UK.

Iain McWhirter finds a re‐elected Scottish National Party playing the long game in the quest for independence.

Richard Wyn Jones examines the aftermath of the devolved elections, as the Labour Party forms a minority government in Wales.

Director of the Labour Yes to AV campaign Jessica Asato argues that a ‘people's campaign’ with no grassroots appeal was doomed from the start.
The Law, Policy, and Ethics of Employers' Use of Financial Incentives to Improve Health
Authors: Madison Kristin M. , Volpp Kevin G. , Halpern Scott D.
Published: October 2015

Individuals can often take steps to preserve or improve their own health. They can eat appropriate quantities of healthy foods, exercise, and refrain from smoking. They can obtain preventive care and adhere to their physicians’ advice about how best to manage their health. But they often fail to take these steps.

A widespread failure to adopt healthy behaviors can significantly erode public health while increasing health care costs. Obesity, for example, increases the risk of heart disease, stroke, liver disease, and certain cancers. By one estimate, it is responsible for almost 10 percent of medical spending in the United States, or about $147 billion per year. Smoking increases the risk of heart disease, stroke, lung disease, and cancer; it accounts for nearly 20 percent of deaths each year in the United States and about $96 billion in health care expenditures.
When Public Health and Genetic Privacy Collide: Positive and Normative Theories Explaining How ACA's Expansion of Corporate Wellness Programs Conflicts with GINA's Privacy Rules
Authors: Bard Jennifer S.
Published: October 2015

The passing of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (ACA) is a triumph for the field of public health. Its inclusion of many provisions intended to prevent illness and promote health endorses the core belief of public health as expressed by Dr. Georges Benjamin, the long-time executive director of the American Public Health Association, in a Washington Post opinion piece praising ACA for “provid[ing] care as far upstream as possible… [in order to] reduce costs by identifying problems early and then managing them to reduce or eliminate the need for more costly care in the future.” In this article, I consider the conflict between ACA’s adoption of public health goals seeing population health and societal interests in protecting individuals from discrimination based on their health. The article focuses on one aspect of ACA which seeks to lower the costs to employers who provide health insurance for their employees by making it easier for them to offer their employees substantial incentives for participating in and meeting the goals of employer-sponsored Wellness Programs.
Views and Experiences of IRBs concerning Research Integrity
Authors: Klitzman Robert
Published: October 2015

Institutional Review Boards (IRBs) can play vital roles in observing, monitoring, and responding to research integrity (RI) issues among researchers, yet many questions remain concerning whether, when, and in what ways these boards in fact adopt these roles. Increasingly, RI is being challenged due to many factors, yet the extent of violations, and institutional responses to these, remain unknown. As the amount and complexity of experiments on human participants, often funded by for-profit industry, mushrooms, scandals have occurred, posing dilemmas concerning how to best oversee research to protect these participants from harm.

For over 15 years, many institutions have been developing research compliance programs that monitor misconduct and conflict of interest (COI), and may interact with IRBs. In 2002, the Institute of Medicine (IOM) report, “Responsible Research: A Systems Approach to Protecting Research Participants,” called for increased assessment of the overall human research protections system, and oversight of research.
Is it Really All about the Money? Reconsidering Non-Financial Interests in Medical Research
Authors: Saver Richard S.
Published: October 2015

Conflicts of interest have been reduced to financial conflicts. The National Institutes of Health’s (NIH) new rules for managing conflicts of interest in medical research, the first major change to the regulations in over 15 years, address only financial ties. Although several commentators urged that the regulations also cover non-financial interests, the Department of Health and Human Services declined to do so. Similarly, the Institute of Medicine’s (IOM) influential 2009 Conflict of Interest Report focuses almost exclusively on financial conflicts. Institutional policies at academic medical centers and guidance from professional bodies and medical journals also primarily emphasize financial ties. Even broadly worded rules are applied more readily to financial ties than non-financial interests, such as the regulations that restrict institutional review board (IRB) members with conflicting interests from participating in protocol reviews.
When Does an Illness Begin: Genetic Discrimination and Disease Manifestation
Authors: Prince Anya E. R. , Berkman Benjamin E.
Published: October 2015

Congress passed the Genetic Information Nondiscrimination Act of 2008 (GINA) in order to remove a perceived barrier to clinical genetic testing. By banning health insurance companies and employers from discriminating against an individual based on his or her genetic information, legislators hoped that patients would be encouraged to seek genetic testing that could improve health outcomes and provide opportunities for preventive measures. Their explicit legislative goal was to fully protect the public from discrimination and allay their concerns about the potential for discrimination, thereby allowing individuals to take advantage of genetic testing, technologies, research, and new therapies.

However, GINA left a number of issues unresolved, most notably failing to define the concept of disease manifestation. GINA was structured such that it only provides protection against misuse of genetic information up until the point when an individual's disease has manifested. It protects an individual with a genetic predisposition for a disease, but not an individual actively suffering from that disease.
What is Unique about Nanomedicine? The Significance of the Mesoscale
Authors: Khushf George , Siegel Ronald A.
Published: October 2015

In prominent funding and policy statements, a particle with at least one dimension in the 1-300 nm size range must have novel physicochemical properties to count as a “nanoparticle.” Size is thus only one factor. Novelty of a particle's properties is also essential to its “nano” classification. When particles in this size range are introduced into living systems, they often interact with their host in novel ways that require some modification of existing methods and models used by pharmaceutical scientists and toxicologists for assessing their efficacy and safety. It is not clear, however, whether the novelty of the intended physicochemical properties is in any way related to the novel behavior of those particles when their toxicity is evaluated. In fact, when considering toxicity, much of the concern about nanoparticles relates to the unanticipated or poorly understood interactions.
Prudent Precaution in Clinical Trials of Nanomedicines
Authors: Marchant Gary E. , Lindor Rachel A.
Published: October 2015

Medical technologies, including nanomedicine products, are intended to improve health but in many cases may also create their own health risks. Medical products that create their own health risks differ from most other risk-creating technologies in that the very purpose of the medical technology is to prevent or treat health risks. This paradox of technologies intended to reduce existing risks that may have the effect of creating new risks has two conflicting implications. On one hand, we may be more tolerant of health risks from medical technologies because these products are intended to, and often (but not always) do, reduce overall health risks and improve our health. The health benefits of a medical technology may outweigh the unavoidable adverse effects of that same technology in an individual patient or in the overall treated population.
Handling Worker and Third-Party Exposures to Nanotherapeutics During Clinical Trials
Authors: Ramachandran Gurumurthy , Howard John , Maynard Andrew , Philbert Martin
Published: October 2015

Nanomedicine is a rapidly growing field in the academic as well as commercial arena. While some had predicted nanomedicine sales to reach $20.1 billion in 2011, the actual growth was much more rapid, with the global nanomedicine market being valued at $53 billion in 2009, and forecast to increase at an annual growth rate of 13.5% to reach more than $100 billion in 2014. In 2006, more than 130 nanotechnology-based drugs and delivery systems had entered preclinical, clinical, or commercial development. The European Medicines Agency (EMA) reviewed 18 marketing authorization applications for nanomedicines in 2010. In 2011, 22 drugs that had been approved by the FDA, and 87 Phase I and Phase II clinical trials were listed in the U.S. National Institutes of Health (NIH) data base, www.clinicaltrials.gov. Although the fastest growing areas of nanomedicine are applications in medical imaging and diagnosis using contrast-enhancing agents, most nanomedicine research and commercialization is in the area of cancer drug therapy, including nano gold shells.
Bad Blood Thirty Years Later: A Q&A with James H. Jones
Authors: Jones James H. , King Nancy M. P.
Published: October 2015

Historian James H. Jones published the first edition of Bad Blood, the definitive history of the Tuskegee Syphilis Experiment, in 1981. Its clear-eyed examination of that research and its implications remains a bioethics classic, and the 30-year anniversary of its publication served as the impetus for the reexamination of research ethics that this symposium presents. Recent revelations about the United States Public Health Service study that infected mental patients and prisoners in Guatemala with syphilis in the late 1940s in order to determine the efficacy of treatment represent only one of the many attestations to the persistence of ongoing, critical, and underaddressed issues in research ethics that Bad Blood first explored. Those issues include, but are not limited to: the complex and contested matters of the value of a given research question, the validity of the clinical trial designed to address it, and the priorities of science.
Firm Size and Work Compensation in China
Authors: Rickne Johanna
Published: October 2015

Remarkably, recent research on the Chinese labor market has suggested that the situation in China is inconsistent with the stylized fact that large firms pay higher wages and offer more generous benefits. Expanding the empirical basis from 78 to 300 000 industrial firms, I overturn the previous result and show that wage determination in the average firm fits the international norm. Exploring subsamples of firms I also point to a likely source for the conflicting findings: firm size is positively correlated with the average wage in private firms, but negatively correlated with the average wage in the state‐owned sector. These novel results could guide future studies aiming to understand the sources of the firm size wage premium, and, in particular, studies that target the largest industrial labor market in the world.
An analysis of the demand for and revenue from companion animal veterinary services in Australia between 1996 and 2026 using industry revenue data and household census and pet ownership data and forecasts
Authors: Baguley J
Published: October 2015

Objective  To examine the potential impact of household demographic and pet ownership trends on the demand for and revenue from companion animal veterinary services in Australia.

Design  The size of the market for companion animal veterinary services was estimated by creating a model using assumptions derived from the revenue equation. The model was verified and validated through sensitivity analyses and comparisons between model outputs and available industry data.

Results  The model provided outputs similar to alternative industry estimates and suggested that revenue growth in recent years has been much stronger than demand growth. Under the assumptions used in this model, forecast changes to household numbers and types are less important than pet ownership trends in determining the potential demand for and revenue from companion animal veterinary services. Forecast trends in household types and relatively stable pet ownership in the future will lead to growth in demand for companion animal veterinary services in real terms of approximately 1.2% per annum to 2026.

Conclusion  The market for companion animal veterinary services in Australia is mature and growth in demand is expected to remain low over the forecast period. For most veterinary practices within this environment, growth in revenue will be a function of growth in average client fees.
“We Are Not Aliens, We're People, and We Have Rights.” Canadian Human Rights Discourse and High School Climate for LGBTQ Students
Authors: TAYLOR CATHERINE , PETER TRACEY
Published: October 2015

La loi canadienne protège contre la discrimination en raison d'orientation sexuelle, mais nos Žcoles publiques ne rŽpondent pas ^ leurs obligations morales et lŽgales en lien avec la diversitŽ des sexualitŽs et des genres aupr□s des adolescents et adolescentes. Cet article rapporte une Žtude de sondage national sur l'homophobie et la transphobie dans les Žcoles secondaires aux Canada. Les participants et participantes (n=3,607) ont ŽtŽ sondŽ(e)s au sujet du climat de l'Žcole, l'harc□lement, l'attachement ^ l'Žcole, et les interventions institutionnelles. Nous avons dŽcouvert que les Žcoles ne sont ni sŽcuritaires ni respectueuses en ce qui concerne la diversitŽ des sexualitŽs et des genres et nous argumentons que la continuation de cette situation sape le respect des Žl□ves pour la Charte des droits aussi bien que leur confiance envers les adultes.

Canadian law protects people from discrimination on the grounds of sexual orientation, but our public schools do not fulfill their ethical and legal obligations where sexual and gender minority youth are concerned. This article reports on a national survey study on homophobia and transphobia in Canadian high schools. Participants (n=3,607) were questioned about school climate, harassment, school attachment, and institutional interventions. We found that schools were neither safe nor respectful for sexual and gender minority students, and we argue that ongoing exposure to this situation undermines students' respect for the Charter of Rights and their faith in adults.
Formen von Gedächtnis und Erinnerung in Beim Häuten der Zwiebel und Die Box1
Authors: Tafazoli Hamid
Published: October 2015

Dieser Beitrag befasst sich mit medialen Formen von Gedächtnis und Erinnerung in Günter Grass' Romanen Beim Häuten der Zwiebel und Die Box. Der Schwerpunkt liegt in der literarischen Darstellung von Spannungen zwischen Faktischem und Fiktivem im Rahmen von Debatten über Autobiographie und Autofiktion. Orientiert an der Auffassung vom Text als Ort, an dem das beschreibende und das beschriebene Ich aufeinandertreffen, möchte ich mich mit Möglichkeiten und Grenzen von Theorien über literarische Texte als Repräsentationsräume des kollektiven und kulturellen Gedächtnisses befassen. Mein Ziel ist es, die These zu begründen, dass das beschreibende und das beschriebene Ich individuell innerhalb eines kulturell konstruierten Kontexts im Text interagieren. Diese Interaktion vollzieht sich durch literarische Strategien am Text‐Ort, der selbst zu einem Raum individueller und kultureller Gedächtnis‐ und Erinnerungsarbeit wird, in dem die Grenzen des Faktischen und Fiktiven ineinander übergehen.
Kanada: Deutschstudien im Wandel — von neuen Gegebenheiten zu Ansätzen einer Selbsterneuerung
Authors: Guse Anette
Published: October 2015

This contribution describes the situation of the German profession in Canada, by presenting the latest trends in trans‐institutional cooperation, curriculum development, the job market, and promotion of the discipline. The author suggests that the adaptation to new realities, such as changes in student interests and the continuing cutbacks of resources, has resulted in the modernization of German programs and more effective strategies of self‐marketing. Rather than succumbing to resignation, the article highlights the need to capitalize on traditional strengths as well as the demand to pursue interdisciplinary work and to embrace the concept of collaboration with other departments.
Grief as social experience: Death and bereavement in Lihir, Papua New Guinea1
Authors: Hemer Susan R.
Published: October 2015

This paper explores the nature of grief in Lihir, Papua New Guinea, in light of psychological theories of bereavement and grief. Anthropologists have demonstrated that culture has an impact on both the expression and experience of grief and can offer both a challenge to established theories and new perspectives on the conceptualisations and experiences of the bereaved. Until recently, ‘grief work’ was the foremost model for understanding bereavement as a psychological process and was also used by anthropologists in cross‐cultural work. However, since the 1990s, a number of alternative models of normal grief have emerged, including the dual process coping model and the model that proposes resilience as a central concept. These newer models, particularly the one which incorporates resilience, offer more for understanding grief in Lihir. The article argues that grief in Lihir has a phase of sorrow and worry that is dealt with through the sociality and activity of the mourning period, and then a longer phase of active remembering and forgetting of the deceased. The social and cultural context of bereavement is not adequately captured in current psychological conceptualisations of social support, which need to be broadened to encompass cross‐cultural material.
“Eólicos e inversión privada: El caso de San Mateo del Mar, en el Istmo de Tehuantepec Oaxaca”
Authors: Rueda Elisa Cruz
Published: October 2015

Se expone el proceso de resistencia que comuneros de San Mateo del Mar—comunidad/municipio integrante del pueblo etnolingüístico Ikoot—han emprendido ante la promoción del mega proyecto de generación de energía eólica, por empresas trasnacionales (mexicanas y extranjeras) y por el Estado mexicano, pasando por alto derechos individuales y colectivos de indígenas y sus pueblos. El caso forma parte de la experiencia de movilización de los pueblos indígenas del Istmo de Tehuantepec en torno a los parques eólicos y por el respeto de sus derechos y que acompaña el Centro de Derechos Humanos Tepeyac del Istmo de Tehuantepec, Asociación Civil (CDHT), como parte de lo que Boaventura De Sousa Santos y Rodríguez Garavito (2007) identifican como Redes Trasnacionales Alternativas.
Gift Practices in Guyanese East Indian Diaspora: Belonging, Loss, and Status
Authors: Halstead Narmala
Published: October 2015

La población Indo‐Guyanesa en Guyana y New York, intercambia regalos como parte de una ideología del dar sin recibir, la cual, no obstante, se encuentra inmersa en las representaciones de status social. Esta noción india del regalo se está viendo desplazada por los cambios relacionados con la emigración de Guyana: el énfasis en el amor y el deber es cambiado por demostraciones de status más obvias y por la pérdida explícita de relaciones. Este artículo resalta un escenario interactivo de las prácticas del regalar y de emigración, donde las personas continúan dando en una modalidad de amor, pero donde también deben enfrentar la distancia y la separación de su familia cercana. El regalo expresa cómo el hogar está constituido en una localidad extendida donde la pérdida está representada o alterada a través de una concentración en el status social.
A Broken Hub Will Not Wheel: Water Reallocation in California
Authors: Zetland David
Published: October 2015

California's water transfer system depends on the Sacramento‐San Joaquin Delta to move water. Unfortunately, the Delta's ecosystem appears to be suffering from this use – and other uses. After discussing the stakeholders in the Delta, the causes of ecological decline, and the choices for change (including a radical political‐economic market), I conclude that business‐as‐usual is over, that any solution is costly, and that the politicians and bureaucrats in the middle of this process benefit from conflict and inaction. The Delta will remain broken for the foreseeable future.
Space‐Time Variations of Human Capital Assets Across U.S. Metropolitan Areas, 1980 to 2000
Authors: Scott Allen J.
Published: October 2015

abstract

This article examines the changing structure of human capital in U.S. metropolitan regions from 1980 to 2000. Data are drawn from the Dictionary of Occupational Titles and from the Integrated Public Use Microdata Series. Intensive empirical investigation leads to three main conclusions. First, forms of human capital in the United States are becoming more oriented to labor tasks that call for cognitive‐cultural skills. Second, cognitive‐cultural skills are accumulating most intensively in large metropolitan areas. Third, physical or practical forms of human capital are increasingly being relegated to smaller metropolitan areas. That said, important residues of human capital, focused on physical or practical tasks, remain a durable element of the economies of large metropolitan areas. I offer a brief theoretical explanation of these results.
Branding Inside Out and Outside In
Authors: Abbot Rodney , Birdsall Connie , Murphy Brendán
Published: October 2015

Brand repositioning is a big undertaking—an initiative that corporations undertake only rarely—and it often involves outside agencies working with designers on the client side. Three partners from Lippincott describe campaigns with Dell, Starbucks, and Wells Fargo and suggest some branding pointers for clients, as well as agencies, to keep in mind.
Effect of Extending the Growing Period on Yield Formation of Sugar Beet
Authors: Schnepel K. , Hoffmann C. M.
Published: October 2015

Autumn sown sugar beets (winter beets) are expected to yield markedly higher than spring sown beets. This requires a continuous growth during an extended growing period. So far, bolting‐resistant sugar beet varieties are not available to test winter beets under field conditions in Central Europe. The objective of this study was therefore to analyse yield formation and sugar storage of sugar beet plants during an extended growing period to estimate whether sugar beet has the potential to generate the theoretically expected yield increase. From 2008 to 2012, pot experiments were carried out in the glasshouse with 11 sowing dates spread over the years with sequential harvests. The oldest plants were grown for 859 days (14 242 °Cd). Root fresh matter yield continuously increased till the latest harvest. In contrast, the sugar concentration reached an optimum value between 3400 and 5000 °Cd and then decreased with time. Despite longer growing periods, the number of cambium rings, which are regarded as essential for sugar storage, did not change. This points to an early and genetically fixed determination of the formation of cambium rings. Additionally, the rate of photosynthesis decreased concomitantly with the sugar concentration. In conclusion, there is some evidence that the sugar concentration of the storage root is limited by the sink capacity, which in turn controls the source activity by a feedback regulation of photosynthesis and leaf formation. The dry matter composition of the storage root changed towards lower sugar concentration and concurrent higher concentration of cell wall compounds (marc). The sugar yield still increased beyond a thermal time at which winter beets will probably be harvested in practice. Hence, the theoretical yield increase in autumn sown sugar beets can be realized, provided that the plants show sufficient winter hardiness and bolting resistance.
Aligning Incentives at Systemically Important Financial Institutions: A Proposal by the Squam Lake Group
Authors: Baily Martin N. , Campbell John Y. , Cochrane John H. , Diamond Douglas W. , Duffie Darrell , French Kenneth R. , Kashyap Anil K. , Mishkin Frederic S. , Rajan Raghuram , Scharfstein David S. , Shiller Robert J. , Slaughter Matthew J. , Shin Hyun Song , Stein Jeremy , Stulz René M.
Published: October 2015

To address the moral hazard problem that can motivate bank executives to take excessive risks and to fail to raise capital when needed, a group of 13 distinguished financial economists recommends that systemically important financial institutions be required to issue contingent convertible debt (CoCos) and to hold back a substantial share—as much as 20%—of the compensation of employees who can have a meaningful impact on the survival of the firm. This holdback should be forfeited if the firm's capital ratio falls below a specified threshold. The deferral period should be long enough—the authors suggest five years—to allow much of the uncertainty about managers' activities to be resolved before the bonds mature. Except for forfeiture, the payoff on the bonds should not depend on the firm's performance, nor should managers be permitted to hedge the risk of forfeiture. The threshold for forfeiture should be crossed well before a firm violates its regulatory capital requirements and well before its contingent convertible securities convert into equity.

The Swiss Bank UBS has paid bonuses to its top 6,500 executives that have been structured in exactly this way. Management forfeits its deferred compensation if the bank's regulatory capital ratio falls below 7.5%, and its contingent convertible debt is set up to convert into equity if the bank's capital ratio falls below 5%.
A Primer on the Economics of Shale Gas Production Just How Cheap is Shale Gas?
Authors: Lake Larry W. , Martin John , Ramsey J. Douglas , Titman Sheridan
Published: October 2015

The authors analyze the economics of natural gas production in the U.S. in light of the government's recent dramatic upward revisions in gas reserve estimates as a result of advances in horizontal drilling and fracturing (“fracking”). While some observers believe the U.S. will enjoy very large supplies of low‐priced gas for a long time to come, others are not so sure. Using the data from gas wells completed in the Haynesville shale of northern Louisiana, the authors offer a probabilistic and economic perspective on these newly accessible reserves.

Their model and NPV simulations indicate that shale gas exploitation is probably sustainable (with a 60% likelihood), but with some important reservations. NPVs are highly sensitive to gas price assumptions and projected production volumes. The authors' base case assumes the continuation into the foreseeable future of the current gas futures price curve; but the authors also point out that a fall in price of just 17% along that curve would reduce well NPVs to zero. Although it is clear that production from shale wells declines more rapidly than production from conventional wells, engineers have too little history with shale wells to forecast ultimate production with great confidence. Nevertheless, shale gas drilling opportunities also present energy companies with valuable “follow‐on” real options that are not captured in NPV analysis. This additional source of value is inherent in vast shale gas formations in which successful wells tend to lead to more development opportunities.
Economic Growth and Inequality: Why It Matters and What's Coming Next
Authors: Pinney Chris
Published: October 2015

This article makes the case that the recent rise in income inequality in OECD countries reflects profound changes in the economic model that previously resulted in growth, prosperity, and social progress during the second half of the last century. The author begins by citing French economist Thomas Piketty's identification of the key driver of rising income inequality as the recent sharp increase in the share of national income going to capital (defined as interest, dividends and other investment returns) and the accompanying decline in the share going to labor (in the form of wages, salaries, pension, and other work‐related benefits). For most of the last 100 years, a successful balance was struck in a majority of OECD countries between the returns to capital and labor. Within the framework of nationally defined economies, labor could effectively advocate for its share of the productivity gains by capital, and governments had the ability to constrain the free movement of capital, set labor compensation standards, and redistribute income through progressive taxation.

The author explores how two developments—globalization and the rise of machine intelligence—are disrupting this social contract and reshaping our economy and society. The combination of these two developments, by accelerating the flow of income to capital and away from labor, is eroding the historical relationship between capital, labor, and governments that has long prevailed in most OECD countries. As this happens, we are seeing rising income inequality and the erosion of the middle class, which had been the driver of economic growth for most of the past century. Indeed, the thesis of Piketty's book, Capital in the Twenty‐First Century, is that such an effect may well be taking us back to the pre‐20th century norm of high income inequality and low economic growth.

In his closing arguments, the author suggests that avoiding this scenario will be more complicated than simply raising taxes on capital, as proposed by Piketty. It may well require a fundamental rethinking of the role of employment as the primary mechanism for income distribution in society and how we prepare our workforce for an economy and society in which the concept of work will be radically redefined.
More Evidence That Corporate R&D Investment (and Effective Boards) Can Increase Firm Value
Authors: Tong Jamie Y. , Zhang Feida (Frank)
Published: October 2015

The authors find that higher R&D expenditures generally lead to both higher expected future cash flow and a lower cost of equity. In addition, they find that the positive connections between R&D spending and higher expected future cash flow and lower cost of equity are stronger in companies with more effective boards (as indicated by measures of director independence and experience). Such findings should help senior executives overcome any concern that investors may not give full credit to R&D investments because they are fully expensed and lead to lower reported earnings in the short term.
Trans‐equatorial range of a land bird lineage (Aves: Rallidae) from tropical forests to subantarctic grasslands
Authors: Garcia‐R Juan C. , Elliott Graeme , Walker Kath , Castro Isabel , Trewick Steven A.
Published: October 2015

Despite the capacity for dispersal, range size varies considerably among birds species. Many species have restricted geographic spread, whilst others routinely travel long distances to reach preferred habitat. These alternatives are well expressed amongst the rails (Rallidae) and a varying tendency for movement results in overlapping distribution patterns. Here, we examine the situation of a particular lineage, theLewiniarails (L. mirifica, L. pectoralisandL. muelleri) that inhabit a very wide spatial and ecological range.Lewiniaoccurs from the Philippines, north of the equator in Oceania, to Australia and the subantarctic Auckland Islands far to the south. Allopatric distribution and differences in plumage colour result in their treatment as distinct species but our mitochondrial molecular analysis (cytband CR) reveals genetic distances of less than < 1%. The genetic and phylogeographical structure in theLewinialineage includes shared nuclear sequence alleles and this is consistent with a callibrated multigene phylogeny suggesting trans‐hemispheric dispersal since the middle Pleistocene. Despite this recent history, available morphometric data indicates that the subantarctic population has relatively small wings for its mass, and this implies adaptation away from flight.Lewiniaprovides a nice example of the way dispersal and adaptation intersect over short time frames to generate diversity.
Asset Write‐offs in Private Firms – The Case of German SMEs
Authors: Szczesny Andrea , Valentincic Aljosa
Published: October 2015

This paper finds that private firms make the decision to write off, and write off more in terms of total amount, if they are: (i) more profitable, (ii) have more financial debt, and (iii) pay dividends. Our findings are contrary to expectations based on accounting standards and the existing revaluation literature. They are, however, consistent with the codified, high book‐tax alignment economic setting in which sample private firms operate. This includes agency problems faced by private firms’ stakeholders. We use a comprehensive sample of German SMEs reporting in local GAAP, based on the German commercial code (Handelsgesetzbuch) in 2003–2006. We view write‐offs as corrections of departures of book values from their underlying economic values, in contrast to upward asset revaluations. This governs our choice of estimation – the tobit regression.
Government Intervention and Investment Comovement: Chinese Evidence
Authors: Chen Donghua , Khan Saqib , Yu Xin , Zhang Zhou
Published: October 2015

This study examines whether government intervention affects corporate investment comovement, and whether this impact varies across firms with different types of ownership. We use a large Chinese sample to investigate these questions, and perform a regional as well as firm‐level analysis. We show that government intervention is positively and significantly associated with investment comovement. We also find that the impact of government intervention on investment comovement is higher and more significant for state‐owned firms than for domestic private and foreign firms. Finally, we show that investment comovement hinders corporate performance for state‐owned and domestic private firms but not for foreign firms.
Analyst Pessimism and Forecast Timing
Authors: Barron Orie E. , Byard Donal , Liang Lihong
Published: October 2015

In this study, we show that on average relatively pessimistic analysts tend to reveal their earnings forecasts later than other analysts. Further, we find this forecast timing effect explains a substantial proportion of the well‐known decrease in consensus analyst forecast optimism over the forecast period prior to earnings announcements, which helps explain why analysts’ longer term earnings forecasts are more optimistically biased than their shorter term forecasts. We extend the theory of analyst self‐selection regarding their coverage decisions to argue that analysts with a relatively pessimistic view–compared to other analysts–are more reluctant to issue their earnings forecasts, with the result that they tend to defer revealing their earnings forecasts until later in the forecasting period than other analysts.
Trust, Owner Rights, Employee Rights and Firm Performance
Authors: Goergen Marc , Chahine Salim , Brewster Chris , Wood Geoffrey
Published: October 2015

This is a study of variations in trust relationships according to institutional setting. A wide body of comparative institutional literature within economics and finance engages with trust. However, as most of this literature uses macro‐level data and/or stylistic ideal types, it normally neglects intra‐firm trust. This paper redresses this lacuna by using both macro‐level data and comparative firm‐level evidence. We found that both country trust and firm trust increase firm performance, but that there is a trade‐off between the two as high levels of both reduce performance. Finally, both employee rights and investor rights are negatively correlated with country trust.
Institutional Investor Participation and Stock Market Anomalies
Authors: Shu Tao
Published: October 2015

This paper investigates the impact of institutional trading volume on stock market anomalies. The paper proposes a measure that evaluates the percentage of total trading volume of a stock accounted for by institutional trades. The empirical analyses using a large sample of firms from 1980–2005 provide strong evidence that the strength of stock market anomalies such as price momentum, post‐earnings announcement drift, the value premium, and the investment anomaly is decreasing in institutional trading volume. Additionally, the effects of institutional trading volume are stronger than those of institutional ownership, the major measure of institutional investor participation in the finance literature. These findings suggest that institutional trading significantly improves stock price efficiency.
Considering Supply Chain Management's Professional Identity: The Beautiful Discipline (Or, “We Don't Cure Cancer, But We Do Make a Big Difference”)
Authors: Fawcett Stanley E. , Waller Matthew A.
Published: October 2015

In recent months, we have participated in various discussions on the future of logistics and supply chain management (SCM). As the newest business discipline, it is not surprising that SCM is going through growing pains and seeking to chart its future course and define a meaningful destiny. Considering professional identity—that is, who are we and what do we do—is a natural part of maturation. As JBL exists to help construct the discipline's identity, we address SCM's value‐creation competence as a source of identity construction. As we explain, SCM's economic and social contributions are not just noteworthy but remarkable. Modern SCM makes a difference to the people of the world, driving economic growth and raising living standards. Truly, it is a good time to be a supply chain professional. Much research, however, needs to be conducted if we are to fulfill SCM's value‐creation promise.
The association of hypertension with periodontitis is highlighted in female adults: results from the Fourth Korea National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey
Authors: Ahn Yoo‐Been , Shin Myung‐Seop , Byun Jong‐Seok , Kim Hyun‐Duck
Published: October 2015

Aim

To evaluate the association of hypertension and high systolic and diastolic blood pressure (SBP and DBP) with periodontitis in a nationally representative Korean adult population.

Materials and Methods

Total of 14,625 participants of Fourth Korea National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (KNHANES IV) aged over 19 years were cross‐sectionally surveyed. Periodontitis was defined as CPI score of 3 or 4. Hypertension was categorized as: normotensive (SBP < 120 mmHg and DBP < 80 mmHg), pre‐hypertensive (120 < SBP < 140 mmHg or 80 < DBP < 90 mmHg) and hypertensive (SBP ≥ 140 mmHg or DBP ≥ 90 mmHg or taking antihypertensive medication). Multivariate Poisson regression analyses were performed controlling for age, sex, household income, drinking, smoking, physical activity, obesity, hypercholesterolaemia and diabetes mellitus. Stratified analyses were performed to identify specific risk groups.

Results

Hypertension showed a significant positive association with periodontitis in the fully adjusted model in female adults with a dose–response relationship. This association was highlighted in females aged 30–59 years (prevalence ratio = 1.25; 95% confidence interval: 1.11–1.40). The strength of the association was highest in females aged 30–39 years and decreased with increasing age. Among females aged 30–59 years, high‐risk groups of this link were lower middle income quartile, never drinker and non‐diabetes groups for both pre‐hypertension and hypertension.

Conclusion

Our data showed that hypertension was associated with periodontitis in Korean female adults independent of known confounders.
Sudden Unintended Used‐Price Deceleration? The 2009–2010 Toyota Recalls
Authors: Hammond Robert G.
Published: October 2015

Using data from the vehicle resale market, I test consumer responsiveness to large‐scale product recalls that are caused by safety problems. The used‐vehicle prices of Toyotas are compared to the used‐vehicle prices of the other major domestic and foreign manufacturers. The results quantify the losses suffered by Toyota vehicle owners in secondary markets due to the 2009–2010 safety recalls of more than 9 million Toyota Motors vehicles. The treatment effect of a recall is measured using panel data with a difference‐in‐differences estimation approach that allows for time‐varying treatment effects and serial correlation. I find that this recall episode had negative effects in the resale market for automobiles that were quantitatively small (less than 2% of the vehicle’s resale value), statistically indistinguishable from zero, and short lived (did not persist beyond December 2009). A comparison with Audi’s recalls in the 1980s of vehicles with sudden unintended acceleration suggests that the extent to which a company’s reputation is established is more important than whether or not a company has a reputation for producing high‐quality products.
Product Differentiation through Exclusivity: Is there a One‐Market‐Power‐Rent Theorem?
Authors: Hermalin Benjamin E. , Katz Michael L.
Published: October 2015

In systems industries, combinations of components are consumed together to generate user benefits. Arrangements among component providers sometimes limit consumers’ ability to mix‐and‐match components, and such exclusive arrangements have been highly controversial. We examine the competitive and welfare effects of exclusive arrangements among system components in a model of relatively differentiated applications that run on relatively undifferentiated platforms. We show that there is no “One‐Market‐Power‐Rent Theorem.” Specifically, exclusive deals with providers of differentiated applications can raise platforms’ margins without reducing applications’ margins, so that overall industry profits rise. Hence, for a given set of components and prices, exclusive arrangements can reduce consumer welfare by limiting consumer choice and raising equilibrium prices. In some cases, however, exclusivity can raise consumer welfare by increasing the equilibrium number of platforms, which leads to lower prices relative to the monopoly outcome that would prevail absent exclusivity.
Oligopolies with (Somewhat) Environmentally Conscious Consumers: Market Equilibrium and Regulatory Intervention
Authors: Deltas George , Harrington Donna Ramirez , Khanna Madhu
Published: October 2015

We consider a horizontally differentiated duopoly where consumers care about the product's “greenness.” Firms can be asymmetric: they may differ in the product's intrinsic value and may also differ in their chosen level of greenness. We examine the choice of greenness and the implications of various policy interventions. We show that (i) the choices of product greenness are strategic substitutes, (ii) the high‐intrinsic quality firm produces the greener product, (iii) the low‐quality firm's greenness may increase with the cost of its provision or decrease with consumer willingness to pay for it, (iv) a minimum quality standard (MQS) leads the greener firm to lower its environmental quality and can even reduce average quality, (v) greenness is underprovided even if consumers fully internalize the externality, and (v) an MQS can reduce welfare if the greenness of the high‐quality firm exceeds the MQS, even when environmental quality is underprovided. The effects of policy interventions on profits differ qualitatively across polices and firms: A firm that lobbies for one type of intervention may lobby against another similar one, and a firm may lobby for an intervention while its competitor may lobby against it. A subsidy for the development costs of a green product can financially hurt both firms.
A medium‐term, stochastic forecast model to support sustainable, mixed fisheries management in the Mediterranean Seaa
Authors: Rätz H.‐J. , Charef A. , Abella A. J. , Colloca F. , Ligas A. , Mannini A. , Lloret J.
Published: October 2015

A medium‐term (10 year) stochastic forecast model is developed and presented for mixed fisheries that can provide estimations of age‐specific parameters for a maximum of 10 stocks and 10 fisheries. Designed to support fishery managers dealing with complex, multi‐annual management plans, the model can be used to quantitatively test the consequences of various stock‐specific and fishery‐specific decisions, using non‐equilibrium stock dynamics. Such decisions include fishing restrictions and other strategies aimed at achieving sustainable mixed fisheries consistent with the concept of maximum sustainable yield (MSY). In order to test the model, recently gathered data on seven stocks and four fisheries operating in the Ligurian and North Tyrrhenian Seas are used to generate quantitative, 10 year predictions of biomass and catch trends under four different management scenarios. The results show that using the fishing mortality at MSY as the biological reference point for the management of all stocks would be a strong incentive to reduce the technical interactions among concurrent fishing strategies. This would optimize the stock‐specific exploitation and be consistent with sustainability criteria.