The decline of substitute pathways into retirement: Empirical evidence from the Dutch health care sector

Early retirement schemes and disability insurance in the Netherlands have undergone several reforms in recent decades. The reforms have increased incentives for older workers to continue working and have decreased the roles of “substitute pathways” into retirement. This article gives an overview of the reforms and, using administrative data for workers in the health care sector, tests a number of hypotheses about the labour market participation of older workers. The results offer two main findings: i) that the Dutch reforms have indeed been effective, as the labour force participation rate of older workers has increased; and ii) the concept of “substitute pathways” has become less relevant as the use of disability insurance has been closed off as an exit route to early retirement. Nevertheless, caution is required before generalizing the implications of these Dutch findings to other OECD countries.     

Is cash allowance a way to ease child care burden? Views of carers in Hong Kong

Caring for the carers is not only a policy challenge for the government but also a global concern to achieve gender equality by restructuring welfare for care. Paying informal carers is one of the measures that address their needs, which is being practiced in Western countries for more than 10 years now. Financial support for care does not only value the contribution of carers but also compensate for the loss of carers caused by unpaid care duties. However, cash for care is a complex issue because it is located within a number of different policy domains that may be considered controversial. This study discusses the views of carers on cash allowance and identifies issues affecting the support provided to the informal care system in Hong Kong. The discussion is based on the findings from the focus group interviews with 11 groups of carers with different socioeconomic backgrounds.     

我国农村土地间接流转供应链联盟的利益分配机制研究——基于“对称互惠共生”视角

利益分配是供应链联盟的一个共同而关键的问题,制订公平合理的利益分配方案对供应链联盟的成功运作无疑是重要的。本文从“对称互惠共生”的视角,按照生产要素贡献分配利益的原则,首先采用柯布-道格拉斯生产函数确定各生产要素（劳动、土地和资本）贡献率,然后,对人力资本要素（劳动）建立相应的博弈模型并给出了在利益相关者之间的最优分配解,而对于非人力资本要素则按其投入比例进行分配,最后,通过算例求解得到了农户、中介组织和种植企业在土地流转中获得的最优综合分配额。本文研究结果不仅对农村土地间接流转,而且对其他生产商与供应商之间的供应链合作利益分配机制的建立也具有指导意义。     

高耗能行业电力消费长期波动效应研究

为研究电力消费与影响因素之间的互动关系与因素波动冲击产生的响应持续效果,本文以高耗能行业电力消费为研究对象,从宏观经济层面与行业微观层面出发,以我国1985年-2009年为分析区间,应用SVAR模型对高耗能行业电力消费与宏微观影响变量的动态关系进行分析,并通过GIRF分析了宏微观变量与电力消费冲击产生的双向动态响应,利用VD技术分析了变量波动对电力消费的贡献率。结果表明：我国高耗能用电与GDP、行业产值、行业投资存在长期波动效应,外生变量城市化水平、投资结构与电力消费的相关程度不高;电力消费与GDP存在明显的长期效应,高耗能行业电力消费对产值冲击的响应大于行业投资额的冲击。行业微观变量对电力消费波动贡献相对突出。     

How much do OECD countries spend on social protection and how redistributive are their tax/benefit systems?

The global economic crisis has reignited interest in social policy and public spending on different types of social benefits. Public social spending‐to‐GDP ratios are often used to consider the magnitude of welfare systems in international perspective, but such comparisons alone give an incomplete picture of social effort across countries. This article looks at these different factors, before briefly considering the redistributive nature of tax/benefit systems in different member countries of the Organisation for Economic Co‐operation and Development (OECD). The article also considers trends in social spending and compares spending in the late 2000s with the early 1990s when the previous economic crisis played out. The article ends by illustrating the profound effect the recent global economic crisis had on social spending trends across OECD countries.     

农村成人教育经济效益透析

农村成人教育的经济效益不仅强调投入与产出之比,更强调教育产出的社会需要程度,即培养的人才只有在数量、质量、结构等方面适应了地方社会经济发展需要,适销对路,农村成人教育的经济效益才能真正得以实现。农村成人教育经济效益具有间接性、迟效性、无形性、长效性、递增性等特点。当前制约农村成人教育经济效益发挥的因素很多,既有外部因素,也有内部因素。提高农村成人教育经济效益的对策和途径应从统一认识、创造条件、结构调整、体制改革等方面着手。     

出口管制理论研究

出口管制是针对特定商品或技术出口施加特殊许可证要求的一系列法律法规的集合。当前学术界对出口管制中出口的范围、概念、立法目的、利益平衡等研究还有明显不足,运用比较分析法,横向对比美国、欧盟、俄罗斯、中国、印度的出口管制立法,探讨出口的范围,厘清出口管制的概念,明确出口管制的立法目的,论证出口管制的利益冲突和平衡。研究认为,出口管制是为了实现特定目的,利用法律手段,对特定出口贸易设置条件并进行审查的法律制度,这里的出口概念包括贸易性出口、视同出口、再出口、经纪等行为;出口管制适用对象是出口活动,实施手段是管制行为,出口和管制构成了出口管制立法的两大核心要素,二者既是立法的出发点,又是利益冲突的本质原因;国家安全和经济利益是出口管制立法的基本目的,在不同利用集团产生不同利益需求时,应当以国家安全为优先,兼顾经济利益,通过加紧或放松出口管制达到调节目的。     

Practitioners preferences of care coordination for older people: A discrete choice experiment

These findings demonstrate the importance of organisations providing care coordination for older people receiving long-term funding. Further research is required to investigate the influence of service setting on practitioner preferences.

This study explored practitioner preferences about the relative value of attributes of care coordination services for older people. A Discrete Choice Experiment (DCE) survey was used to identify the views of 120 practitioners from 17 services in England in 2015. The survey design was informed by an analysis of standards of care coordination, a postal survey and a consultation with carers of older people. Results of the DCE survey were supplemented by a content analysis of qualitative comments and fieldwork notes. Most respondents were over 30 years of age, female and almost half worked part-time. Continuity of care (care provided by the same care coordinator) and the ability to access the range of services outlined in the care plan were the most important service attributes. Service setting influenced practitioner preferences. Those in specialist services for people with dementia identified the length of time a service was provided as another important attribute. The DCE methodology has provided the opportunity to systematically canvas practitioner preferences.     

Decision‐making in drug development using a composite definition of success

Evidence‐based quantitative methodologies have been proposed to inform decision‐making in drug development, such as metrics to make go/no‐go decisions or predictions of success, identified with statistical significance of future clinical trials. While these methodologies appropriately address some critical questions on the potential of a drug, they either consider the past evidence without predicting the outcome of the future trials or focus only on efficacy, failing to account for the multifaceted aspects of a successful drug development. As quantitative benefit‐risk assessments could enhance decision‐making, we propose a more comprehensive approach using a composite definition of success based not only on the statistical significance of the treatment effect on the primary endpoint but also on its clinical relevance and on a favorable benefit‐risk balance in the next pivotal studies. For one drug, we can thus study several development strategies before starting the pivotal trials by comparing their predictive probability of success. The predictions are based on the available evidence from the previous trials, to which new hypotheses on the future development could be added. The resulting predictive probability of composite success provides a useful summary to support the discussions of the decision‐makers. We present a fictive, but realistic, example in major depressive disorder inspired by a real decision‐making case.