INTERNATIONAL HEALTH CARE REFORM: THE NEED FOR COMPREHENSIVE MICRO-COMPARATIVE ANALYSIS

Microcomparison, or single‐component analysis, of health care systems offers a potentially better basis for reform than traditional macrocomparison analysis of aggregate elements. Using macroanalysis, available evidence shows that Germany provides cheaper but more effective hospital care than the United States. To find the causes for this outcome, we developed a microanalytic model of hospital administrators’ perceptions, financial ratios, medical outcomes, and pharmaceutical costs. However, only data on pharmaceutical costs were available and similar in both countries. Our significant outcome was development of a microcomparative model that gives world medical care providers new criteria for analyzing and improving cost to care rafios.     

Monitoring Single-Source Revenue Funds throughout the Budgeting Process

Unexpected revenue shortfalls that occur during budget execution create serious problems for public agencies and programs. This is especially true for agencies and programs that rely upon a single source of revenue. This article implements a revenue monitoring process that combines ideas from statistical process control and exploratory data analysis into a spreadsheet environment. The methodology builds on principles used to monitor manufacturing processes. This simple application helps public managers detect revenue surpluses and deficits early enough in the budget execution process to take corrective action. The methodology also adapts to the data problems and avoids many of the pitfalls that arise when using "real world" budget data. An example of the benefits of this methodology is offered using an example of a state agency funded by a single revenue source.     

Soviet venality: A rent-seeking model of the communist state

While the recent Fall of Communism has focused the interest of economists on the admittedly fascinating problems associated with the ongoing economic reform process, the study of the functioning of actual communist economies still seems mired in the conventional model of central planning. This model is predicated on the assumption that communist rulers are unselfish drones who single-mindedly maximize the public interest. Our article proposes an alternative, public choice model. We suggest that the Soviet-style system represents a modern incarnation of the mercantilist economies of sixteenth- and seventeenth-century Europe, and that venality, not ideology, drives these economies in practice.     

The impact of gun control and gun ownership levels on violence rates

What effects do gun control restrictions and gun prevalence have on rates of violence and crime? Data were gathered for all 170 U.S. cities with a 1980 population of at least 100,000. The cities were coded for the presence of 19 major categories of firearms restriction, including both state- and city-level restrictions. Multiple indirect indicators of gun prevalence levels were measured and models of city violence rates were estimated using two-stage least-squares methods. The models covered all major categories of intentional violence and crime which frequently involve guns: homicide, suicide, fatal gun accidents, robbery, and aggravated assaults, as well as rape. Findings indicate that (1) gun prevalence levels generally have no net positive effect on total violence rates, (2) homicide, gun assault, and rape rates increase gun prevalence, (3) gun control restrictions have no net effect on gun prevalence levels, and (4) most gun control restrictions generally have no net effect on violence rates. There were, however, some possible exceptions to this last conclusion—of 108 assessments of effects of different gun laws on different types of violence, 7 indicated good support, and another 11 partial support, for the hypothesis of gun control efficacy.     

Bogus Publicity Items and the Contingency Between Awareness and Media-Induced Pretrial Prejudice

Venue surveys can be criticized because they do not attempt to control for response biases, such as the tendency to report having read about any story that seems plausible. Bogus items (fabricated publicity items) are a common way to control for this bias. In two studies we examined whether controlling for this bias changes the relation between exposure to media and prejudice. Based on two actual crimes with quite different media exposure rates, communities were surveyed about their exposure to media surrounding the case and their prejudice toward the defendants. A bogus item was included on each survey. In both studies the correlations between exposure to media and prejudice were significant and remained unchanged when data from respondents who indicated having read about the bogus item were excluded. These findings suggest that, in parallel to the social desirability literature, the response tendency to report awareness of media events does not threaten the validity of venue surveys.     

Search engines and Internet defamation: Of publication and legal responsibility

When the Internet user keys a search term and clicks “enter”, a series of snippets, images and html links will appear typically running into several web pages. In the case of Autocomplete suggestions, the result appearing on the bar changes with each keystroke even before the user clicks “enter”. As a result, in the course of finding search results from the original search term, the user is constantly provided with suggestions of other search terms. The search results and Autocomplete suggestions may be defamatory of individuals and businesses by associating them with dishonest and improper activities or conduct. Should search engines be regarded as a publisher of such defamatory search results and/or Autocomplete suggestions? What is the appropriate legal approach for establishing search engine responsibility in such instances? The paper considers the above questions by reference to case precedents drawn primarily from common law jurisdictions and commentaries on the liability of search engines and other Internet intermediaries as well as policy rationales and considerations.     

Distorting Fundamental Norms of International Law to Resurrect the Soviet Union: The International Law Context of Russia’s Invasion of Ukraine

Netherlands International Law Review - Russia’s invasion of Ukraine which commenced on 24 February 2022 represented just the latest, albeit most devastating, intervention in a neighbouring...     

Plank fence penetration into automobiles-implications for prevention initiatives

The wooden plank fence presents a deadly but unrecognized hazard to motorists. We hypothesize that fence plank injury is prevalent and results in significant morbidity and mortality. Databases of the University of Kentucky's Level I Trauma Center and the Fayette County Coroner were retrospectively analyzed over a 12-year period (1995-2006). One hundred and twenty-eight subjects were involved in vehicle contact with wooden plank fences. One hundred and twenty-three subjects were evaluated at the Emergency Department of our trauma center; 35 (27%) had a patient-plank interaction (PPI). Men (30/35) were more frequently involved (86%), and average age was 32.8 years. Thirty-two (91%) were drivers; 14/35 (40%) died from PPI-related injuries. The most common cause of death was blunt head trauma in 13 of these 14 fatally injured subjects (93%). This study provides new data underscoring the frequency, lethality, and economic consequences of this injury mechanism. Further research is needed to quantify the national prevalence of this problem and develop injury-mitigating strategies pertaining to roadway or fence design.