On equity with public goods

Existence theorems for envy-free and efficient allocations are derived for economies with public goods. For economies with an arbitrary but finite number of private and public goods, an adaptation of the existence proof of Svensson for private good economies is used. For economies with one private and one public good, a case often studied in theory and applications, two more direct proofs are given, using different conditions and taking advantage of the particularly simple structure of the set of envy-free allocations in this case. These proofs are also shown to apply to the case of excludable public goods with congestion.I am grateful to William Thomson, Marcus Berliant, Robert Gilles, Hervé Moulin, Thomas Palfrey, Tomoichi Shinotsuka, Simon Wilkie, and two anonymous referees for their comments. This paper is a revised version of Chap. 1 of my doctoral dissertation submitted to the University of Rochester in July 1988. The financial support of the University of Rochester in the form of the Raymond N. Ball Dissertation Year Fellowship is gratefully acknowledged. All shortcomings of this paper are solely of my own creation.     

Competition and The Operational Performance of Hospitals: The Role of Hospital Objectives

We examine the effect of a hospital's objective (i.e., non‐profit vs. for‐profit) in hospital markets for elective care. Using game‐theoretic analysis and queueing models to capture the operational performance of hospitals, we compare the equilibrium behavior of three market settings in terms of such criteria as waiting times and patient costs from waiting and hospital payments. In the first setting, a monopoly, patients are served exclusively by a single non‐profit hospital; in the second, a homogeneous duopoly, patients are served by two competing non‐profit hospitals. In our third setting, a heterogeneous duopoly, the market is served by one non‐profit hospital and one for‐profit hospital. A non‐profit hospital provides free care to patients, although they may have to wait; for‐profit hospitals charge a fee to provide care with minimal waiting. A comparison between the monopolistic and each of the duopolistic settings reveals that the introduction of competition can hamper a hospital's ability to attain economies of scale and can also increase waiting times. Moreover, the presence of a for‐profit sector may be desirable only when the hospital market is sufficiently competitive. A comparison across the duopolistic settings indicates that the choice between homogeneous and heterogeneous competition depends on the patients' willingness to wait before receiving care and the reimbursement level of the non‐profit sector. When the public funder is not financially constrained, the presence of a for‐profit sector may allow the funder to lower both the financial costs of providing coverage and the total costs to patients. Finally, our analysis suggests that the public funder should exercise caution when using policy tools that support the for‐profit sector—for example, patient subsidies—because such tools may increase patient costs in the long run; it might be preferable to raise the non‐profit sector's level of reimbursement.     

In Search of Executive Impairment in Pathological Gambling: A Neuropsychological Study on Non-treatment Seeking Gamblers

Pathological gambling is characterized by a persisting maladaptive and recurrent behavior with severe social and psychological consequences. There is evidence of strong comorbidity with psychiatric manifestations as well as cognitive mainly involving executive functions. This study aimed to investigate impairment in executive functions and working memory, and personality traits in a sample of Greek gamblers. Twenty-four men involved in various gambling activities were recruited from ecological settings as probable pathological gamblers. They were assessed with a comprehensive neuropsychological battery involving several executive tasks, the Zuckerman–Kuhlman Personality Questionnaire, the Hospital Anxiety Depression Scale, and the Difficulties in Emotion Regulation Scale. An age- and education-level matched group of 21 men without history of habitual gambling served as controls. As a group, gamblers displayed significantly lower scores on indices of inhibition, decision making and self-reported emotional awareness, and scored higher on impulsivity/sensation seeking personality traits. Notably, gamblers scored similarly or significantly higher on measures of verbal and visuospatial working memory, cognitive flexibility, processing speed, verbal fluency, and sustained attention. Overall, we argue that gamblers do present with specific cognitive deficits, but there is no evidence for a generalized executive impairment, and further stress the importance of investigating cognitive, personality, and psychiatric aspects of gambling on the basis of an ecologically valid sampling.     

REGIONAL AND SECTORAL EVIDENCE OF THE MACROECONOMIC EFFECTS OF LABOR REALLOCATION: A PANEL DATA ANALYSIS

This article revisits the sectoral shifts hypothesis by examining unemployment fluctuations for 48 U.S. states over the period 1990:M01–2011:M12. We develop a panel approach that incorporates dynamics, parameter heterogeneity, aggregate factors, and cross‐sectional dependence (CSD). Our findings provide support for a positive and significant effect of the employment dispersion index on unemployment. This outcome is robust under alternative specifications and measures of employment dispersion. The empirical evidence corroborates the presence and relevance of CSD and heterogeneity among states. The results show that, once unobserved common factors and cross‐state heterogeneity are taken into account, labor reallocation has a significant effect on unemployment that is half the size of the estimate when cross‐sectional dependence is not taken into account. (JEL E24, E32, J21, R23, C23)     

The use of affective interaction design in car user interfaces

Recent developments in the car industry have put Human Machine Interfaces under the spotlight. Developing gratifying human-car interactions has become one of the more prominent areas that car manufacturers want to invest in. However, concepts like emotional design remain foreign to the industry. In this study 12 experts on the field of automobile HMI design were interviewed in order to investigate their needs and opinions of emotional design. Results show that emotional design has yet to be introduced for this context of use. Designers need a tool customized for the intricacies of the car HMI field that can provide them with support and guidance so that they can create emotionally attractive experiences for drivers and passengers alike.     

A Translation and Validation Study of the Life Orientation Test Revised in the Greek Speaking Population of Nurses among Three Hospitals in Athens and Ioannina

The life orientation test-revised (LOT-R) (Scheier et al. in Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 67:1063–1078, 1994) is a brief measure for assessing dispositional optimism. The aim of this study was to develop a Greek language version of the LOT-R and to assess the instrument’s psychometric properties. The LOT-R was translated and culturally adopted in Greek language, and the final version was administered, along with a questionnaire consisting socioeconomic characteristics and a single item measuring optimism, to 276 Greek speaking, hospital nurses (222 female, 54 male), aged 22–65 years (mean 37.8, SD 8.3). Results showed that the LOT-R has good internal consistency (Cronbach’s α = .71 and item total correlation coefficients from .27 to .73, a unitary structure, and stability over a 3-months period (r = .66). Moreover, the Greek version of the scale exhibited good convergent validity with single-item optimism scale (r = .73). Principal components analysis revealed a two-factor structure representing the constructs of optimism and pessimism. The Greek life orientation test revised appears to be a valid tool in assessing dispositional optimism in Greek speaking people and is expected to facilitate the examination of optimism in Greek speaking populations.     

Variable Bandwidths for Nonparametric Hazard Rate Estimation

A smoothing parameter inversely proportional to the square root of the true density is known to produce kernel estimates of the density having faster bias rate of convergence. We show that in the case of kernel-based nonparametric hazard rate estimation, a smoothing parameter inversely proportional to the square root of the true hazard rate leads to a mean square error rate of order n ^?8/9, an improvement over the standard second order kernel. An adaptive version of such a procedure is considered and analyzed.     

Reflections on grounding firm innovation and viability

Entrepreneurial activity unfolds in a dynamic environment that challenges business viability. We utilize grounded theory as a novel type of reflection to explain and interpret whether and how innovation can afford survival benefits to firms. The premise is the application of a methodological approach with reflexive properties to advance scientific rigor in “reflections.” The idea underlying our reflection was to use innovation as the point of departure, review the literature, conceptualize ideas, and finally link the concepts that emerged as components of a framework. Our view of the firm resembles a viable entity that changes, constantly striving to meet and balance internal potentials and external complexities, while innovation per se involves change that is made possible by entrepreneurship. We bring together our personal and professional backgrounds and implement the European scholarly tradition on innovation and Viable Systems approach to scrutinize innovation’s interactions and relations. We linked boundary conditions, opportunities, and complementary assets to innovation. Effectively, our analysis conceptualizes innovation as autopoiesis in entrepreneurship and demonstrates its central role as the vehicle to exploit changes that ensure firm viability.     

Book reviews

Sociocybernetics: Complexity, Dynamics and Emergence in Social Science Kybernetes, Vol. 26, No. 6/7 F. Geyer (Ed.) MCB University Press, Bradford, ISSN 0368–492X

Foundations of Futures Studies Wendell Bell New Brunswick, London, Transaction Publishers, 1997