Involvement of Ministries of Health in Health Service Coverage Decisions: Is England an Aberrant Case?

This article examines the involvement of ministries of health in making health service coverage decisions in Denmark, England, France and Germany. The study aims to inform debate in England about the feasibility of reducing perceived ministerial and bureaucratic ‘interference’ in decisions affecting the National Health Service, based on interviews with senior government officials and other health system stakeholders. Ministries of health differ in their involvement in health system governance and coverage decisions (‘the benefits package’), reflecting differences in institutional arrangements. In all four countries, organizations at arm's length or independent from government are either involved in providing technical advice to the ministry of health or have been mandated to take these decisions themselves. However, ministries of health occasionally intervene in the decision‐making process or ignore the advice of these organizations. The Department of Health in England is not an aberrant case, at least in relation to coverage decisions. Indeed, ministries of health in Denmark and France play a larger role in making these decisions. Public pressure, often amplified by the media, is a shared reason for ministerial and ministry involvement in all four countries. This dynamic may thus limit the feasibility of attempts to further separate the NHS from both the Department of Health and wider political pressures.     

农民专业合作社成员参与行为、效果及作用机理

农民专业合作社成员参与行为包含了业务参与、资本参与和管理参与三维度,成员的业务和资本参与能使成员获得不错的经济收益,而成员管理参与是维护成员在合作社中合法收益的制度保障。依托路径分析方法,实证分析研究结果支持成员收益程度更加取决于成员的业务和资本参与水平,成员满意程度更加依托于成员的管理参与水平,研究结果也支持了股东成员更加积极进行管理参与。为推进农民专业合作社的规范可持续发展,促进成员增收致富等,需要考虑鼓励成员进行资本、业务和管理三维度的全面参与,限定单个成员最高入股比例,多途径吸引成员进行产品惠顾;鼓励成员参与成员大会、进行重大事项投票等,并正视成员的非经济期望与需求。     

Morality and Nuclear Energy: Perceptions of Risks and Benefits,Personal Norms,and Willingness to Take Action Related to Nuclear Energy

We examined factors underlying people's willingness to take action in favor of or against nuclear energy from a moral perspective. We conducted a questionnaire study among a sample of the Dutch population (N = 123). As expected, perceptions of risks and benefits were related to personal norms (PN), that is, feelings of moral obligation toward taking action in favor of or against nuclear energy. In turn, PN predicted willingness to take action. Furthermore, PN mediated the relationships between perceptions of risk and benefits and willingness to take action. In line with our hypothesis, beliefs about the risks and benefits of nuclear energy were less powerful in explaining PN for supporters compared to PN of opponents. Also, beliefs on risks and benefits and PN explained significantly more variance in willingness to take action of opponents than of supporters. Our results suggest that a moral framework is useful to explain willingness to take action in favor of and against nuclear energy, and that people are more likely to protest in favor of or against nuclear energy when PN are strong.     

企业多元化战略的选择分析

本文要通过交易费用理论和委托--代理理论分析企业多元化战略的选择;试图解释(1)不同多元化战略的经济利益和管理成本有何差异?(2)为什么企业会选择特定的初始战略?(3)是什么因素决定企业改变原来的战略?本文的目的是为企业在选择多元化战略时提供一个经济利益--管理成本的分析框架.     

Quantifying Potential Human Health Impacts of Animal Antibiotic Use: Enrofloxacin and Macrolides in Chickens

Use of similar or identical antibiotics in both human and veterinary medicine has come under increasing scrutiny by regulators concerned that bacteria resistant to animal antibiotics will infect people and resist treatment with similar human antibiotics, leading to excess illnesses and deaths. Scientists, regulators, and interest groups in the United States and Europe have urged bans on nontherapeutic and some therapeutic uses of animal antibiotics to protect human health. Many regulators and public health experts have also expressed dissatisfaction with the perceived limitations of quantitative risk assessment and have proposed alternative qualitative and judgmental approaches ranging from "attributable fraction" estimates to risk management recommendations based on the precautionary principle or on expert judgments about the importance of classes of compounds in human medicine. This article presents a more traditional quantitative risk assessment of the likely human health impacts of continuing versus withdrawing use of fluoroquinolones and macrolides in production of broiler chickens in the United States. An analytic framework is developed and applied to available data. It indicates that withdrawing animal antibiotics can cause far more human illness-days than it would prevent: the estimated human BENEFIT:RISK health ratio for human health impacts of continued animal antibiotic use exceeds 1,000:1 in many cases. This conclusion is driven by a hypothesized causal sequence in which withdrawing animal antibiotic use increases illnesses rates in animals, microbial loads in servings from the affected animals, and hence human health risks. This potentially important aspect of human health risk assessment for animal antibiotics has not previously been quantified.     

试论媒体评论的效益

媒体评论的效益研究,一直比较薄弱。现有的媒体评论效益研究,主要从宏观层面分析其积极的一面,缺乏应有的维度和深度。实际上,评论的社会效益有“正”、“负”两类。媒体评论不仅具有显著的社会意义,也能够给媒体和作者带来直接或间接的经济收益,其社会责任和效益是媒体评论的客观属性,二者只有协调共存,才能有助于和谐社会的构建。     

实验市场中的股权结构、信息与控制权收益

实验室环境下的决策过程研究可以较好地考察决策变量的行为基础和动态临界值.本文以中国股市中的股权结构为背景,在实验框架下考察了股权结构、信息披露和控制权收益的关系.文章先从理论上计算股东的夏普利值并以此代表股东控制权.再分不同设置变量来实验地考察控制权收益.结果表明:(1)股东控制权越平均,控制权收益越少;大股东与小股东形成"核"联盟的机会越多,其取得控制权的机会越少.(2)信息对控制权收益的影响主要体现在信息在联盟的形成和维持中的作用.(3)大股东夏普利值的高低和信息情况决定了联盟的方式.(4)控制权溢价并不一定就是控制权收益,也许只是大股东为防止自身利益被侵害而支付的成本.(5)信息不完全不一定是坏事,部分信息的隐含更能增加公司的分配效率.     

Where do we stand? Recent AEA member views on professionalization

The professionalization of evaluation continues to be debated at numerous conferences in the U.S. and abroad. At this time, AEA member views on the potential benefits and negative side effects of professionalization are essential as the discussion evolves. This study provides recent views on major topics in professionalization, including potential benefits, negative side effects, processes, competencies, and procedures. Results from in-depth interviews and an online survey demonstrate that AEA members view potential benefits of professionalization to be stakeholder trust, evaluator reputation and identity, while concerns about a potential negative side effect known as the “narrowing effect” (i.e., some evaluators will be alienated based on their background, competencies, etc.) were expressed by participants. These recent findings can inform the ongoing discussion of professionalization, and suggest new directions for future research on evaluation.     

金陵大学农学院农业推广及其效益

金陵大学农学院举世注目的科研成就,为农业推广提供了丰富的物质材料;完善的农业推广体制,保证了推广工作的顺利进行,从而增加了作物产量,促进了农村改良。建立的一套完善的农业推广体制,成为中国近代建立从中央到地方基层的全国农业推广体制的良好开端;从中摸索出的一套农业推广经验,为中国近代其它农业院校及农业机构在农业推广中所借鉴。对于我国当今的高等农林院校科研成果的推广也有借鉴意义。