IRS proposed "physician recruitment" revenue ruling offers few kernels in search for

Not to sound corny, but things have really been popping since the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) recently released a proposed revenue ruling regarding the scope of recruitment incentives that may be offered to nonemployee physician members of tax-exempt hospital medical staffs. Commentators have criticized the proposed revenue ruling, however, because it offers little in the way of guidance in all but the most obvious cases of recruitment violations. Nonetheless, the proposed ruling may provide insight that may assist hospitals to prepare permissible recruitment incentives for physicians. The IRS provided a public comment period within which individuals and groups could submit proposals to improve or revise the proposed ruling. However, with or without such comments, clarification of the ruling is called for. "Health Law" is a regular feature of Physician Executive from the Washington, D.C., law firm Epstein Becker & Green. Mark Lutes of the law firm serves as editor of the column.     

IRS determinations present challenges to physician compensation mechanisms

In recent months, the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) has issued several pronouncements that may affect compensation arrangements based on hospital-physician joint ventures, as well as traditional employee/independent contractor compensation arrangements. The result of the pronouncements is that not-for-profit hospitals are without certainty in developing physician compensation schemes that are competitive in the marketplace and comply with newly evolving IRS guidelines.     

电商平台公平关切下低碳E-CLSC的决策研究

针对单一再造商与单一电商平台构成的低碳E-闭环供应链，文章构建了电商平台有无公平关切的分散决策和联合决策，并给出三种模型的最优策略。然后，分析公平关切、消费者对低碳产品的认知度等参数对决策的影响。在此基础上，对不同模型的决策进行比较分析，并设计"收益共享联合双成本共担"契约实现系统的协调。最后，采用数值分析验证文章的结论。研究表明：（1）电商平台不理性的公平关切行为不仅对再造商和系统运作不利，对自身也不利，而且不利于再造商和电商平台的合作。（2）提高消费者对低碳产品的认知度，不仅可以增加废旧品的回收量，而且可以增加再造商节能减排的积极性，有利于提高系统的经济效益和环境效益。（3）联合决策下，废旧品回收价格和碳减排水平最高，电商平台佣金最低，系统利润最优。采用文章设计的"收益共享联合双成本共担"契约可以实现系统协调。这些研究结论不仅有利于丰富完善低碳E-闭环供应链的理论基础，同时也为电商平台的决策提供理论依据。     

An improved distributed data aggregation scheduling in wireless sensor networks

This paper focuses on the distributed data aggregation collision-free scheduling problem, which is one of very important issues in wireless sensor networks. Bo et al. (Proc. IEEE INFOCOM, 2009) proposed an approximate distributed algorithm for the problem and Xu et al. (Proc. ACM FOWANC, 2009) proposed a centralized algorithm and its distributed implementation to generate a collision-free scheduling for the problem, which are the only two existing distributed algorithms. Unfortunately, there are a few mistakes in their performance analysis in Bo et al. (Proc. IEEE INFOCOM, 2009), and the distributed algorithm can not get the same latency as the centralized algorithm because the distributed implementation was not an accurate implementation of the centralized algorithm (Xu et al. in Proc. ACM FOWANC, 2009). According to those, we propose an improved distributed algorithm to generate a collision-free schedule for data aggregation in wireless sensor networks. Not an arbitrary tree in Bo et al. (Proc. IEEE INFOCOM, 2009) but a breadth first search tree (BFS) rooted at the sink node is adopted, the bounded latency 61R+5Δ?67 of the schedule is obtained, where R is the radius of the network with respect to the sink node and Δ is the maximum node degree. We also correct the latency bound of the schedule in Bo et al. (Proc. IEEE INFOCOM, 2009) as 61D+5Δ?67, where D is a diameter of the network and prove that our algorithm is more efficient than the algorithm (Bo et al. in Proc. IEEE INFOCOM, 2009). We also give a latency bound for the distributed implementation in Xu et al. (Proc. ACM FOWANC, 2009).     

Physician executive contracts: negotiating the future

Once viewed as a matter of standard protocol, physician executive contracts have become as complex as the health care industry itself. Historically, hospital administration and physicians negotiated a few key points, then sent the ideas to an attorney for insertion of standard legalize and boilerplate. Today, physician executive contracts are an important part of the changes in health care. They not only cover traditional hospital and physician relations, but increasingly apply to new types of relations (such as employment) between hospitals and physicians, physicians and physicians, and health plans and physicians. In this article, we will explore both the "content" and the "context" of physician executive contracts. Content will deal with the specific provisions typically included in contracts. Context will address issues associated with preparing for and negotiating a contract.     

There is more to contracts than incompleteness: a review and assessment of empirical research on inter-firm contract design

This paper aims at achieving a greater understanding of how contracts operate in practice through a review of recent empirical literature on inter-firm contract design. Our focus on the structure of contractual agreements differentiates this review from others that dedicated ample coverage also to the antecedents of the decision to contract and of the choice of contracting versus integration. Our framework develops Stinchcombe’s (Organization Theory and Project Management, 1985) hypothesis that contracts are an organizational phenomenon. This allows us to uncover considerable but unevenly distributed evidence on a number of organizational processes formalized in relational contracts, which partially overlap with the processes that are observed in integrated organizations. It also enables us to describe contracts in terms of a larger number of dimensions than is commonly appreciated. The paper summarizes the evidence by proposing a general and tentative framework to guide the design of relational contracts, discusses a number of lingering issues, and outlines directions for further research on contracts as an organizational phenomenon.

VMI供应链下考虑补货策略的的契约设计

结合(r,Q)和(s,S)两种库存补货策略,提出了货权属供应商的VMI供应链的契约设计问题。采用风险分担的思想,给出了两种可行的风险分担的契约形式。在离散需求下,通过参数试验的形式,分别研究了两种契约形式对供应链效率的影响。研究结果表明,两种契约能够使得供应链的效率达到满意,同时对于影响效率的参数有一定的鲁棒性,并且在一定情况下能协调供应链。相比收益分享契约,引入风险分享的契约形式能够使得供应链协作的效率更高。研究结论对VMI契约设计有参考意义。     

JEEA‐FBBVA Lecture 2012: USE AND ABUSE OF AUTHORITY: A BEHAVIORAL FOUNDATION OF THE EMPLOYMENT RELATION

Employment contracts give a principal the authority to decide flexibly which task his agent should execute. However, there is a tradeoff, first pointed out by Simon (1951, Econometrica, 19, 293–302), between flexibility and employer moral hazard. An employment contract allows the principal to adjust the task quickly to the realization of the state of the world, but he may also abuse this flexibility to exploit the agent. We capture this tradeoff in an experimental design and show that principals exhibit a strong preference for the employment contract. However, selfish principals exploit agents in one‐shot interactions, inducing the latter to resist entering into employment contracts. This resistance to employment contracts vanishes if fairness preferences in combination with reputation opportunities keep principals from abusing their power, leading to the widespread, endogenous formation of efficient long‐run employment relations. Our results inform the theory of the firm by showing how behavioral forces shape an important transaction cost of integration—the abuse of authority—and by providing an empirical basis for assessing differences between the Marxian and the Coasian view of the firm, as well as Alchian and Demsetz's (1972, American Economic Review, 62, 777–795) critique of the Coasian approach.     

An Adjustment Factor for Mode-of-Action Uncertainty with Dual-Mode Carcinogens: The Case of Naphthalene-Induced Nasal Tumors in Rats

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (USEPA) guidelines for cancer risk assessment recognize that some chemical carcinogens may have a site-specific mode of action (MOA) involving mutation and cell-killing-induced hyperplasia. The guidelines recommend that for such dual MOA (DMOA) carcinogens, judgment should be used to compare and assess results using separate "linear" (genotoxic) versus "nonlinear" (nongenotoxic) approaches to low-level risk extrapolation. Because the guidelines allow this only when evidence supports reliable risk extrapolation using a validated mechanistic model, they effectively prevent addressing MOA uncertainty when data do not fully validate such a model but otherwise clearly support a DMOA. An adjustment-factor approach is proposed to address this gap, analogous to reference-dose procedures used for classic toxicity endpoints. By this method, even when a "nonlinear" toxicokinetic model cannot be fully validated, the effect of DMOA uncertainty on low-dose risk can be addressed. Application of the proposed approach was illustrated for the case of risk extrapolation from bioassay data on rat nasal tumors induced by chronic lifetime exposure to naphthalene. Bioassay data, toxicokinetic data, and pharmacokinetic analyses were determined to indicate that naphthalene is almost certainly a DMOA carcinogen. Plausibility bounds on rat-tumor-type-specific DMOA-related uncertainty were obtained using a mechanistic two-stage cancer risk model adapted to reflect the empirical link between genotoxic and cytotoxic effects of the most potent identified genotoxic naphthalene metabolites, 1,2- and 1,4-naphthoquinone. Bound-specific adjustment factors were then used to reduce naphthalene risk estimated by linear extrapolation (under the default genotoxic MOA assumption), to account for the DMOA exhibited by this compound.     

Long-term Success of Adaptation Strategies: Evidence from Finnish Companies

This study analyses the success of adaptation strategies applied by Finnish companies during the recession in 1989–93. Five different strategies emerged from data gleaned from a questionnaire answered by 750 companies. In the medium term, investment in new product development and marketing and in the acquisition of new customers was the most successful strategy while a strategy heavily based on negotiating finance contracts and restructuring was the most unsuccessful. To evaluate the long-term effects of adopted strategies, financial statements from 644 companies in 1994 and 1997 were analysed. The results supported the medium-term conclusions. In general, they suggested that in the long-term, active adaptation strategies are most likely to lead to sustained success whereas passive (financial) strategies are associated with a high risk of failure.     

Riester-Vertr?ge: Zur Bedeutung von Kosten und Garantien aus Anlegersicht

The article discusses insurance- and mutual fund-based Riester contracts with respect to the different cost structures and the nominal capital guarantee. A mutual fund-based contract is represented by a plan with a high equity exposure and a nominal capital guarantee, while an insurance-based contract is approximated by a contract with a lower equity exposure and a guaranteed annual rate of return of 2.25%. Both approaches are implemented using a constant proportion portfolio insurance (CPPI) strategy to ensure the relevant capital guarantee. Without taking cost into account, mutual fund-based contracts seem to be the preferred choice for large segments of the population. However, insurance-based Riester contracts become more attractive once the differences in the cost structures are taken into account. The cost disadvantage of mutual fund-based Riester contracts, which occurs whenever the active managers cannot beat the market, is especially important for weakly risk-averse investors, i.e. for the classic clientele of risky investments. Similarly, these savers suffer most from the nominal capital guarantee of mutual fund-based contracts because these individuals would prefer a constant-mix strategy over a CPPI strategy. Thus, the differences in cost structure and the nominal capital guarantee can be identified as possible reasons for the persistently high market shares of insurance-based contracts in the Riester market. However, mutual fund-based Riester contracts are still the first choice for many savers. For example, people with relatively secure private property outside a Riester contract would prefer mutual fund-based contracts, despite cost and capital guarantee issues. The results suggest that mutual fund-based Riester contracts that use Exchange Traded Funds are an attractive product innovation in the Riester market.     

Contract design and insurance fraud: an experimental investigation

This paper experimentally examines the impact of contract design on insurance fraud. We test how fraud behavior varies for insurance contracts with full coverage, a straight deductible or claim-dependent premiums (bonus-malus contracts), in a setup where rational and selfish individuals have an incentive to always claim the maximum possible indemnity. We find a substantial impact of contractual arrangements: Deductible contracts lead to a greater extent to claim build-up than full coverage contracts. In contrast, bonus-malus contracts that entail the same net gains from fraud as deductible contracts do not increase claim build-up. Thus, our results indicate that bonus-malus contracts may be superior to deductible contracts for behavioral reasons.     

基于GARCH-EWMA原理的期货交易保证金随动调整模型

在EWMA模型和GARCH模型思想的基础上,结合SPAN系统的思想,以保证金在期货交易中可以弥补最大损失额和保证交易的正常进行等作用为考虑因素,运用数理统计和VaR等风险管理方法,建立了保证金随动调整模型。在满足给定风险系数和置信水平的前提下,制定合理的保证金的收取比例,为期货交易的保证金水平的确定提供了新的计算方法。本模型的特点一是利用GARCH模型对EWMA模型中的关键参数-衰减因子进行测定,解决了以往使用EWMA模型时,对该参数人为赋值而导致模型人为因素过强的问题。二是在模型中引入波动函数,用来确定随时点t而不断变化的波动系数值。并采用大量的历史数据对大豆、豆粕两种期货品种的波动函数进行线性拟合,得到时点t与波动系数之间的连续线性函数,以代替以往波动系数与时点t之间所采用的极为粗糙的分段函数,从而大大提高了模型的灵敏性。三是采用近4500个合约价格的历史数据,对大豆和豆粕两种期货合约价格的涨跌停情况进行统计分析,得到这两类期货品种的涨跌停情况的概率分布。并分别考虑各种可能发生的情况综合计算最终单位保证金,使得保证金的计算更具全面性。     

Supply chain coordination using revenue-dependent revenue sharing contracts

A typical single period revenue sharing contract specifies a priori a fixed fraction for the supply chain revenue to be shared among the supply chain players. Over the years, supply chains, especially in the movie industry, have adopted multi-period revenue sharing contracts that specify one fraction for each contract period. These revenue sharing contracts are of revenue-independent type such that the revenue sharing fractions are independent of the quantum of revenue generated. Motivated by the recent events in Bollywood – one of the popular arms of the Indian movie industry – in this paper we develop and analyze a game theoretic model for revenue-dependent revenue sharing contracts wherein the actual proportion in which the supply chain revenue is shared among the players depends on the quantum of revenue generated. Our aim is to understand why revenue-dependent revenue sharing contracts are (or not) preferred over revenue-independent contracts. We also examine if supply chains can be coordinated over multiple periods using both types of revenue sharing contracts. We build a two-period model characterizing supply chains in the movie industry and highlight the implications of the multi-period contractual setting for the supply chain coordinating revenue sharing contracts. We show that supply chains can be perfectly coordinated using both types of revenue sharing contracts; however, there exist situations in which revenue-dependent contracts outperform revenue-independent contracts. Using revenue-dependent revenue sharing contracts supply chains can be coordinated while providing positive surplus to the supply chain players that is otherwise not possible under certain situations in revenue-independent contracts. We also demonstrate how revenue-dependent contracts enhance supply chain coordination and highlight their significance when the drop in the revenue potential from one period to another is moderate.     

Steuerfreiheit von Gewinnen aus der Ver?u?erung von Kapitalgesellschaftsanteilen durch nat��rliche Personen?

Subject of this article is the question for the taxation of capital gains of holdings in corporations, in which tax effects are reduced. Thereby tax effects are explicated under realistic uncertainty. Under realistic uncertainty tax effects are possible in case of taxation of capital gains, but not mandatory. Furthermore the analysis shows that for capital gains from concealed reserves each form of taxation will entail tax effects. This also applies to tax exemption. In the case of capital gains from profit reserves in the applicable corporate income tax system, tax exemption of capital gains from profit reserves and immediate write-off of profit reserves itself evoke tax effects. In the current corporate tax system only the distribution induced write-down of a shareholding to going concern value reduces tax effects. Nevertheless, this only applies to personal corporations, for public corporations tax effects have to be accepted. Beyond the valid tax system, tax effects must also be expected in a tax system, in which the corporate tax is integrated in the income tax and in which capital gains from profit reserves are tax-exempt. In comparison, the Dual Income Tax as proposed by the German Council of Economic Experts is a better solution for the problem of tax effects caused by the tax exemption of capital gains.     

Popularity kills the Talentstar? Einflussfaktoren auf Superstargeh?lter in der NBA

The observation that top athletes earn top salaries is well known. The (controversial) debate on superstar-salaries is mainly based on the two competing but equally plausible explanations outlined by Rosen (Am Eco Rev 71(5):845–858, 1981) and Adler (Am Eco Rev 75(1):208–212, 1985). Although both authors illustrate conclusive arguments, the discussion which of these two theories is more adequate in explaining superstar salaries still remains unsolved. The present paper analyzes salary information from the National Basketball Association (NBA) to explore the effect of Rosen’s (Am Eco Rev 71(5):845–858, 1981) talent approach versus the network and media approach by Adler (Am Eco Rev 75(1):208–212, 1985). Using innovative indicators for talent (draft position) and popularity (Facebook fans) in one model, the results of our preferred quantile regression specification indicates that player talent is stronger related to earning than popularity, particularly in the upper quantiles.     

存在应收账款条件下中小企业不足额质押融资合同设计

债权融资合同和股权融资合同都存在经营者道德风险问题,与对称信息相比都尚存在效率改进的空间。针对此问题,在中小企业质押不足、存在应收账款的前提下,基于非对称信息博弈论给出了利用应收账款进行融资的"条件合同"。研究表明:与单纯的债权合同相比,"条件合同"能有效地减少中小企业谎报项目真实收益、将资金挪为它用投资更高风险项目的激励;与单纯的股权合同相比,"条件合同"能保证中小企业经营者付出更多的努力;进一步,"条件合同"是股权合同的严格帕累托改进,并且在一定条件下也是债权合同的严格帕累托改进。最后以一个算例说明了研究结论的有效性。     

Implementation With Contingent Contracts

We study dominant strategy incentive compatibility in a mechanism design setting with contingent contracts where the payoff of each agent is observed by the principal and can be contracted upon. Our main focus is on the class of linear contracts (one of the most commonly used contingent contracts) which consist of a transfer and a flat rate of profit sharing. We characterize outcomes implementable by linear contracts and provide a foundation for them by showing that, in finite type spaces, every social choice function that can be implemented using a more general nonlinear contingent contract can also be implemented using a linear contract. We then qualitatively describe the set of implementable outcomes. We show that a general class of social welfare criteria can be implemented. This class contains social choice functions (such as the Rawlsian) which cannot be implemented using (uncontingent) transfers. Under additional conditions, we show that only social choice functions in this class are implementable.     

Transfer from expatriate to local contracts: a multiple case study of an unexpected career transition

The transfer of company-assigned expatriate employees from balance sheet expatriate contracts to local contracts is an alternative international assignment compensation strategy increasingly adopted by global corporations. Despite its growing popularity, there is a significant lack of research on the impact (both professional and personal) of transferring employees from expatriate to local contracts. The purpose of this qualitative case study was to investigate this emerging international HR trend, with specific focus on exploring the experiences of career transition of company-assigned long-term expatriates (delayed localization) to local contracts at multinational organizations located in Sweden and America. Eight individual cases were analyzed. Findings revealed that localization was an unexpected career transition, a negative type of career shock, characterized by limited support from employers, mentors, and local colleagues. The findings further indicated that localization was a type of career transition rather different from other previous career transitions experienced by participants; it represented a major career and life transition. Based on the findings, we proposed HRD interventions to assist expatriates during the transition from expatriate to local contracts. Areas for future research are also suggested.     

Channel Coordination for a Supply Chain with a Risk‐Neutral Manufacturer and a Loss‐Averse Retailer*

This articles considers a decentralized supply chain in which a single manufacturer is selling a perishable product to a single retailer facing uncertain demand. It differs from traditional supply chain contract models in two ways. First, while traditional supply chain models are based on risk neutrality, this article takes the viewpoint of behavioral principal–agency theory and assumes the manufacturer is risk neutral and the retailer is loss averse. Second, while gain/loss (GL) sharing is common in practice, there is a lack of analysis of GL‐sharing contracts in the supply chain contract literature. This article investigates the role of a GL‐sharing provision for mitigating the loss‐aversion effect, which drives down the retailer order quantity and total supply chain profit. We analyze contracts that include GL‐sharing‐and‐buyback (GLB) credit provisions as well as the special cases of GL contracts and buyback contracts. Our analytical and numerical results lend insight into how a manufacturer can design a contract to improve total supply chain, manufacturer, and retailer performance. In particular, we show that there exists a special class of distribution‐free GLB contracts that can coordinate the supply chain and arbitrarily allocate the expected supply chain profit between the manufacturer and retailer; in contrast with other contracts, the parameter values for contracts in this class do not depend on the probability distribution of market demand. This feature is meaningful in practice because (i) the probability distribution of demand faced by a retailer is typically unknown by the manufacturer and (ii) a manufacturer can offer the same contract to multiple noncompeting retailers that differ by demand distribution and still coordinate the supply chains.