QALYs versus WTP.

Quality adjusted life years (QALYs) and willingness to pay (WTP) are alternative measures of the value of reductions in health risk that are often used in evaluating environmental, health, and safety practices. Although both methods are based on individual preferences, the underlying assumptions differ. The different bases yield systematically different conclusions about the relative value of reducing health and mortality risks to individuals that differ in age, preexisting health conditions, income, and other factors. The choice of which method to use depends on judgments about what constraints should be placed on individual preferences and what factors should be considered in aggregating preferences across people.     

Controlling health care costs: An evaluation of strategies

There has been much discussion about the factors underlying inflation in the health care sector and the means to moderate increases in health expenditures. This paper identifies various costcontainment strategies and synthesizes research findings that may be helpful in evaluating their effectiveness. The review demonstrates the complexity of the issues and relationships that must be confronted and understood in cost containment. The delivery system is shown to be not well-suited to improving efficiency and restraining health care expenditure. Any single strategy, whether it involves restructuring the market or more direct regulation, cannot in itself accomplish the combination of expenditure control and adequacy of services that is socially desirable. A number of mutually reinforcing strategies are required. Finally, more empirical and analytical information on incentives, provider and regulatory decisionmaking, costs of regulation, and the dynamics of negotiation, is essential for the design of an effective costcontainment program.     

Psychophysical conditions of air traffic controllers evaluated by the standard shiftwork index

Abstract

In the ambit of a large epidemiological survey on the Italian population of air traffic controllers, an evaluation of their health conditions was carried out using the Standard Shiftwork Index (SSI). The study took into consideration 572 male air traffic controllers, aged between 23 and 59 years, of whom 301 were engaged in three large Regional Centres, 189 in thirteen Airport Towers and 82. formerly active controllers, were working in administrative offices. The former controllers showed worse health levels, in particular minor psychological disorders and chronic fatigue. Sixteen of them had been transferred to administrative jobs because of health impairment, owing to severe diseases of the nervous, gastrointestinal and cardiovascular systems. Such disorders, and musculoskeletal ones, were mostly reported by the active controllers. The controllers engaged in Regional Centres showed more sleep disturbances than those engaged in towers. Beside age, some personal characteristics appeared to influence health and well-being. Neuroticism was correlated with chronic fatigue, digestive and cardiovascular complaints, minor psychological disorders, cognitive and somatic anxiety. On the other hand, morningness was correlated negatively with sleep disturbances on morning shift, and positively with sleep duration both on morning shift and rest days.     

浅论我国行政赔偿的范围

随着我国社会的发展出现的新情况以及《国家赔偿法》本身的原因,行政赔偿的不足表现在:行政赔偿归责原则单一;抽象行政行为被排除在侵权损害赔偿之外;精神损害赔偿的缺失;不作为和怠慢行政赔偿;赔偿标准不够完善等一系列问题。究其原因主要是:传统官本位思想的制约以及当今执政理念的宣传教化;国家财政负担问题;相关法学理论的不成熟;国家行政机关的强势地位等。结合行政赔偿范围的缺陷和原因,给出相关建议。     

Does work during childhood affect the health of Guatemalan adults?

The diversity of potential relationships between child labor and health makes the empirical disentanglement of the causal relationship a difficult exercise. This paper examines the long run impact of child labour on health by controlling for unobserved household specific characteristics. In order to control for the unobserved households specific effect, we estimate a conditional fixed effect model using data on siblings constructed from the Guatemalan National Survey of Living Condition. The estimation results reinforce the conventional wisdom that child labor is harmful for health in the long run. The results can be interpreted as a lower bound of the true impact since healthier children are most likely to offer themselves for employment and to be appointed. The views expressed in this paper are those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of IMF and IMF policy.     

Healthcare in India: Changing the Financing Strategy

The way in which healthcare is financed is critical for equity in access to healthcare. At present the proportion of public resources committed to healthcare in India is one of the lowest in the world, with less than one‐fifth of health expenditure being publicly financed. India has large‐scale poverty and yet the main source of financing healthcare is out‐of‐pocket expenditure. This is a cause of the huge inequities we see in access to healthcare. The article argues for strengthening public investment and expenditure in the health sector and suggests possible options for doing this. It also calls for a reform of the existing healthcare system by restructuring it to create a universal access mechanism which also factors in the private health sector. The article concludes that it is important to over‐emphasize the fact that health is a public or social good and so cannot be left to the vagaries of the market.     

社会工作在大学生就业辅导中的应用

高等教育由“精英化”教育向“大众化”教育的转变，毕业生的逐年增加，使大学生就业难的现象突现。据发达国家经验，大学生就业辅导的开展正是针对该现象提供的有效帮助，只是我国的大学生就业辅导起步较晚，还存在很多发展空间。本文试图从系统论和生涯理论的视角出发，探索社会工作的理念与方法在大学生就业辅导过程中的应用。     

Chinese and Americans Agree on What Is Fair,but Disagree on What Is Best in Societal Decisions Affecting Health and Safety Risks

Through surveys of students and junior professionals and interviews with business and government executives, we studied Chinese choices and fairness perceptions in risky health and safety decisions. The survey responses were compared with American responses from an earlier study by Keller and Sarin.The survey results show that the American and Chinese respondents had similar fairness perceptions, but the Chinese did not make decisions that were consistent with their fairness perceptions, whereas the Americans did. We found that the middle-age Chinese professionals tended to make choices that were more different from the Americans than were the choices of the young Chinese management students. It is likely that these discrepancies were caused by cultural differences, with the younger Chinese tending to face a stronger Western influence.The insights from the survey results were enriched by interviews that revealed fairness perceptions of Chinese business and government executives. A framework to interpret cultural influences on decision making was also proposed.     

Brand alliance and event management for social causes: Evidence from New Zealand

This paper uses findings from research on the effectiveness of a New Zealand health promotion program to make two arguments. The first is that, in appropriate cases such as this program, event management can play a key role in a social marketing health promotion campaign. In showing how event management added value to achieving that particular program's goals, it argues that event management could often be a valid and effective part of the mix for other campaigns promoting social causes. The second highlights important issues that can arise in relationships between non-profit organizations and the commercial sponsors of their events. It contends that organisers of campaigns for social causes need to be alert to the risks in brand alliances between such organizations and need to consider not only the appropriateness of the fit but also the need for an appropriate balance between the sponsor's commercial interests and the non-profit organization's goal.     

The Significance of Shift Work: Current Status and Future Directions

This paper provides a review and synthesis of research literature on the effects of shift work on workers’ physical health, mental health/well-being, and family life. The focus is on current knowledge, unanswered questions, and new directions for future research. The selection of research literature is guided by a general conceptual framework that identifies predictor variables, moderating variables, and outcome variables. The paper concludes with a discussion of the variables that should be incorporated into an agenda for future research.