The healthcare supply network: current state of the literature and research opportunities

Abstract

This literature review maps recent studies addressing supply chain management (SCM) in the healthcare sector through a systematic approach that synthesises 74 empirical studies (2006–2016). Our approach adopts a network lens to map the literature and offers key contributions to the field. First, we show that there is a lack of network level studies. Second, there is an imbalance of research attention regarding the various types of supply, namely health services, medicines, medical supplies and blood supply. Third, we underline the advantages of the network lens, indicating network actors and flows between those actors that need further research. Fourth, we show an alarming lack of theoretical lens in healthcare SCM studies and draw attention to the fact that even when explicitly adopting a theory, some studies show inconsistencies between theoretical lens and level of analysis. Ultimately, we offer a map of future research for healthcare SCM through a network lens in order to improve the understanding the complexities of the healthcare sector.     

Child Care,Maternal Employment,and Children’s School Outcomes. An Analysis of Italian Data

In this paper we analyse the impact of mothers’ employment status and formal child care attendance during early childhood on children’s school grades later in life, controlling for socio-demographic factors. We use the year 2008 of the Italian ISFOL-PLUS dataset. The dataset provides information on each respondent’s demographic characteristics, as well as a set of retrospective information on the individual’s school grades at the end of junior high school, high school, and university, along with (in the 2008 wave only) information about the respondent’s formal child care attendance and mother’s employment status when he or she was under age of three. We estimate the effects of maternal employment and child care attendance on the probability that the respondent would have high grades at the end of high school. Since maternal employment and child care attendance are likely to be endogenously determined, we use an instrumental variable approach. Our empirical results show that while having a mother who was working (during early childhood) had no significant effect on an individual’s high school grades, child care attendance had a positive and significant effect. These results have potential policy implications. As maternal employment does not seem to negatively affect the development process of children, while child care attendance appears to have a positive impact on academic achievement, policy makers should consider expanding the availability of child care and promoting women’s participation in the labour market.     

Datafying anti-poverty programmes: implications for data justice

ABSTRACT

This paper seeks to illuminate the significance of datafication for anti-poverty programmes, meaning social protection schemes designed specifically for poor people. The conversion of beneficiary populations into machine-readable data enables two core functions of social protection, those of recognising entitled beneficiaries and assigning entitlements connected to each anti-poverty scheme. Drawing on the incorporation of Aadhaar, India’s biometric population database, in the national agenda for social protection, we unpack a techno-rational perspective that crafts datafication as a means to enhance the effectiveness of anti-poverty schemes. Nevertheless, narratives collected in the field show multiple forms of data injustice on recipients, underpinned by Aadhaar’s functionality for a shift of the social protection agenda from in-kind subsidies to cash transfers. Based on such narratives the paper introduces a politically embedded view of data, framing datafication as a transformative force that contributes to reforming existing anti-poverty schemes.     

Urban or rural fragments: which soil use in forest surroundings induces greater litter deposition?

Urban Ecosystems - The soil use in surroundings of forest remnants, as well as, variations in seasonality and rainfall totals from each year might influence the composition, structure, and...     

Anti-Afropolitan ethics and the performative politics of online scambaiting

ABSTRACT

Online scambaiting problematises the identity of the 419 scammer whose virtual labours connect significantly to the digital dimensions of Afropolitanism. When examined through the photographic practices demanded of 419 scammers in several Internet communities, scambaiting, a form of Internet vigilantism that is targeted at online scammers to avert scam, produces epistemic violence which evacuates the black male body of human dignity. Although scambaiting is potentially an ethical project, it embeds a system of oppression that generates Afropolitan masculinities, caricatured performances of the bodies of 419 scammers exhibited online as objects of shame. As a philosophical and aesthetic response to translocality and mobility, Afropolitanism stresses the cultural experiences and agency of ordinary Africans who assert a global sense of awareness. As both the Afropolitan subject and the 419 scammer are entangled in the assertion of agency, the globalism of both is shown to converge at the intersection of the digital. Building on Lisa Nakamura's essay on dogshaming, I argue that the sexual exploitation of black bodies on scambaiting websites gestures at technology's complicity in interpellating digital subjects and circulating social injustices. Unlike Nakamura, I foreground the performative aspects of scambaiting and connect these to Afropolitanism's intrinsic digitality.     

Statistical models for e-learning data

In this paper we analyse a real e-learning dataset derived from the e-learning platform of the University of Pavia. The dataset concerns an online learning environment with in-depth teaching materials. The main focus of this paper is to supply a measure of the relative importance of the exercises (test) at the end of each training unit; to build predictive models of student’s performance and finally to personalize the e-learning platform. The methodology employed is based on nonparametric statistical methods for kernel density estimation and generalized linear models and generalized additive models for predictive purposes.     

Does accounting regulation enhance corporate governance? Evidence from the disclosure of share-based remuneration

Accounting for stock options and share-based remuneration is a controversial issue. The purpose of this study is to explore the impact of the mandatory adoption of IFRS 2 on accounting for share-based remuneration by Italian listed companies. The requirements under this standard could have relevant implications for corporate governance as IFRS 2 is expected to reduce the information asymmetry that may exist between corporate insiders and outsiders regarding such remuneration. Empirical evidence confirms that overall disclosure in annual reports concerning the costs of remuneration plans has increased following the adoption of IFRS 2, although some cases of lack of disclosure have also been found. We find that this change in accounting regulation has contributed towards revealing the ‘true’ cost of share-based remuneration to minority shareholders and other investors, together with some evidence of creative accounting surrounding the substance over form principle.     

Asymptotic behavior of RA-estimates in autoregressive 2D processes

In this work we study the asymptotic behavior of a robust class of estimators of the coefficient of a AR-2D process. We establish the precise conditions for the consistency and asymptotic normality of the RA estimator. The AR-2D model has many applications in image modeling and statistical image processing, therefore the relevance of knowing such properties. The adequacy of the AR-2D model is analyzed with real images; we also show the impact of contamination and the capability of the RA estimator to produce useful results even in the presence of spurious data.     

Use of the scale-up methods in injury prevention research: An empirical assessment to the case of choking in children

The scale-up method estimates the size of hard to count subpopulations. This method is based on the idea that the proportion of subjects in a subpopulation E known to each member of the general population T is the same as the proportion of members of E belonging to general population T.     

Bailouts: The lesser of two evils?

This paper investigates the relation between bailouts and regulation. Regulation, by limiting the room for government intervention in the market, can affect the likelihood and size of a bailout. While a higher level of regulation is associated with a lower likelihood of a direct acquisition, such countries resort to a higher use of State aid. The findings suggest the more transparent nature of direct acquisitions, makes them the lesser of two evils. In this light, policymakers should monitor State Aid and bailouts together, with the aim of making the former more transparent.