Coping Strategies Among Mothers of Chronically Ill Children: A Case Study in Malaysia

ABSTRACT

 The purpose of this study is to identify the stresses and coping strategies of five mothers in caring for their chronically ill and disabled children. These mothers were receiving services from a nonprofit hospital in Malaysia. Through an in-depth case study design, the findings indicated that emotional stress caused high levels of depression, which decreased life satisfaction that led to poorer physical health. Issues explored included employment, noncooperation of family members, as well as factors related to the mother's individual abilities and how these factors might affect maternal caregiving. Recommendations for future research include identifying probable psychosocial stresses and other associated factors while emphasizing the importance of community-based programs that minimize these stresses.     

Price Incentives and Coordination in a Two‐Product Decentralized Supply Chain

We investigate pricing incentives for competing retailers who distribute two variants of a manufacturer's product in a decentralized supply chain. Under a two‐dimensional Hotelling model, we derive decentralized retailers' prices for the products, and distortions in pricing when compared to centrally optimal prices. We show that price distortions decrease as consumers' travel cost between retailers increases, due to less intense competition. However, price distortions do not change monotonically in consumers' switching cost between products within stores. To fix decentralized retailers' price distortions, we construct a two‐part pricing contract that coordinates the supply chain. We show that the coordinating contract is Pareto‐improving and analyze increase in the supply chain profit under coordination.     

An inventory model with random discount offerings

We consider an inventory model in which a supplier makes deal offers with random discount prices at random points in time. Assuming that discount offerings follow a Poisson process and discount price is a discrete random variable with a known distribution, we propose a continuous-review control policy for the model and derive optimality conditions for the policy parameters. The model is then extended to the case of multiple suppliers that offer discount deals with supplier-specific Poisson processes and discount prices. Numerical examples are presented to demonstrate cost savings due to discount offers.     

股价信息含量与资本投资效率——基于投资现金流敏感度的视角

本文以2001-2008年在沪深证券交易所上市的制造业公司为研究样本,基于投资现金流敏感度的视角研究了股价信息含量与资本投资效率之间的关系,得到以下研究结论 :富含信息的股价有效降低了资本投资对现金流的敏感程度。进一步研究后发现,富含信息的股价不仅能够有效降低融资约束导致的投资现金流敏感度,而且也能够有效降低代理冲突导致的投资现金流敏感度问题,以上结论在添加了诸多影响资本投资的控制变量及稳健性检验后仍然成立。本文的研究从一个全新的视角证明,富含信息的股价通过缓和融资约束和代理冲突问题,有效地改善了企业的资本投资效率。     

Commodity price shocks and the distribution of income in commodity-dependent least-developed countries

Many least developed countries (LDCs) face commodity dependence on the export and import side. This paper develops a structuralist computable general equilibrium model for commodity-dependent LDCs and simulates global commodity price shocks for Burkina Faso, Ethiopia and Mozambique. Results show important macroeconomic and distributional effects. Although increasing export commodity prices are beneficial, the high correlation with import commodity prices causes low or even negative combined effects. The magnitude of effects depends on the degree of import and export dependence, the production structure of the key commodity sectors and policies that determine the distribution of windfall profits.     

经营模式、供水价格与社会福利——关于农村饮用水工程运行问题的研究

在对农村饮用水工程的经营模式、权力归属与责任归属进行描述的基础上,对不同经营模式下经营主体的行为逻辑及其对供水价格和社会福利带来的影响进行了分析.研究表明,对于规模比较大的集中供水工程,选择县国有乡镇水务公司统一经营,对于规模比较小的单村供水工程,选择村水乡管,供水价格适中,社会福利最大；乡镇供水站或村集体分散经营,尽管供水价格较低,但因工程维护得不到保障以及产生莱本斯坦所谓的“X-非效率”问题,社会福利反而达不到最大；而租赁承包和私有化经营,由于经营者追求利润最大化的行为,导致供水价格偏高,社会福利较低.     

明代的药材流通与药品价格

明朝初年,药材之流通较不顺畅,至15世纪,因商品经济日益蓬勃,药材商业化亦相当明显,而为了供应市场需求,专业种植不乏其例。城市内药铺之开设也越来越多,其中不乏传续数百年者。而且,在水陆交通要地,出现了一些著名的药市,江西的樟树镇即为其一。由于药材有利可图,市场上出现许多假货。在价格方面,一般的药材价格不贵,但像人参这种稀罕之物则要价甚高,特别是在16世纪末以后,价格日渐攀高,平民根本用不起。     

基于特许开发权两段式竞价的中国限价房“两价”经济规制分析

"国六条"中提出旨在缓解住宅供给结构矛盾、解决中低收入住房问题的"两竞两限"中国限价房,标志着政府开始对住宅市场微观层面的供给进行直接经济规制,以打破开发商对市场供给垄断而导致的供给结构失衡、房价畸高的困局。然而,限价房"两竞"中房与地竞价的反向政府经济规制,以及质量、价格、面积等经济规制的多维竞争目标维度,导致"两竞"结合体的复杂性。为此,有必要分析特许开发权竞价机理,提出基于特许开发权的两段式竞价限价房"两价"等多维组合经济规制模式及其运作程式;分析各竞争维度的政府经济规制及其优劣势,提出限价房经济规制对策。     

煤矿工人“统计”的生命价值研究

 目前国内主要使用人力资本理论计算生命价值，反映了其他人事后对死者生命价值的评价。事前预防和控制灾害时，需要考虑死者事前对自己生命价值的评价。本文应用享乐价格理论，根据对四个煤矿调查得到的5875个井下工人样本，从工资决定模型中分解出死亡风险减少与愿意支付工资的定量关系，计算出井下工人事前为了减少一人死亡愿意支付的金额，即“统计”的生命价值。“统计”的生命价值可以作为评价预防和控制灾害技术经济合理性的重要依据。     

Reduced-Form Versus Structural Models of Water Demand Under Nonlinear Prices

Increasing-block prices are common in markets for water, cellular phone service, and retail electricity. This study estimates demand models under block prices and conducts a Monte Carlo experiment to test the small-sample bias of structural and instrumental variables (IV) estimators. We estimate the price and income elasticity of water demand under increasing-block prices using a structural discrete/continuous choice (DCC) model, as well as random effects and IV. Elasticity estimates are sensitive to the modeling framework. The Monte Carlo experiment suggests that IV and DCC models estimate both price and income elasticity with bias, with no clear best choice among estimators.