An empirical analysis of aftermarket transactions by hospitals

Almost all U.S. hospitals procure their equipment through group purchasing organizations ("GPOs"). Some hospitals subject the prices secured by GPOs to a second round of competition in an "aftermarket," in which vendors both on and off the GPO contract compete for the hospital's business. To measure the extent of the potential benefit to hospitals from another round of competition, we analyzed a database of approximately 8,100 aftermarket transactions for hospital capital equipment. The transactions data suggest that hospitals were able to achieve average savings of approximately 10 to 14 percent across the entire database (2001 through 2010) and a savings of 15 percent on average for 2010 data. These savings may be attributable to many factors, including the compensation structure of GPOs.     

A ‘Talent for Bureaucracy’: A.F. Davies and the Analysis of Government in Australia*

In an address in 2003, Senator Kim Carr cited A.F. Davies' much‐quoted observation that Australians have ‘a characteristic talent for bureaucracy’ (Carr 2003: 3). He referred to the achievements of bureaucrats like Nugget Coombs, then went on to discuss questions of accountability, values and political control in the Australian public service. How could the public service be responsive and responsible, and contribute to the maintenance of a democratic society, in today's world? Certainly, these were core concerns of Davies, as Walter argues in an insightful article (1999). Davies, Walter argues, ‘was concerned, throughout his career, with the links between bureaucracy and democracy’ (1999, 25), fearful that the life‐world is increasingly being structured by expertise, and in the domain of the experts, there is little room for individual voice, for passion, or for democratic control. Davies' concerns, and those of Carr and Walter, raise important questions about the way in which we understand the structure of government, the significance of our changing understanding for the democratic ideal, and the implications of these changes for social scientists.     

Managing Diversity in U.S. Federal Agencies: Effects of Diversity and Diversity Management on Employee Perceptions of Organizational Performance

Diversity in the workplace is a central issue for contemporary organizational management. Concomitantly, managing increased diversity deserves greater concern in public, private, and nonprofit organizations. The authors address the effects of diversity and diversity management on employee perceptions of organizational performance in U.S. federal agencies by developing measures of three variables: diversity, diversity management, and perceived organizational performance. Drawing from the Central Personnel Data File and the 2004 Federal Human Capital Survey, their findings suggest that racial diversity relates negatively to organizational performance. When moderated by diversity management policies and practices and team processes, however, racial diversity correlates positively with organizational performance. Gender and age diversity and their interactions with contextual variables produce mixed results, suggesting that gender and age diversity reflect more complicated relationships. This article provides evidence for several benefits derived from effectively managing diversity.     

THE COMPETITIVE EFFECTS OF A CABLE TELEVISION OPERATOR'S REFUSAL TO CARRY DSL ADVERTISING

Many cable television operators routinely refuse to run localDSL advertising on their cable systems. Given that such conductreduces the advertising profits of cable companies, a plausiblepurpose for such discriminatory refusals to deal is to limittheir cable customers' information about competitive alternativesto their cable modem services. By banning local DSL advertisementsplaced on cable television, a cable television operator foreclosesequally efficient rivals (DSL providers) in the broadband Internetaccess market from the most efficient form of advertising abroadband product (television advertising), as I prove here,and thereby impairs rivals' efficiency. To the extent that DSLproviders cannot compete as effectively as they would in theabsence of the ban, the ban allows cable television operatorsto raise the price of cable modem service and thereby reduceconsumer welfare. Using a traditional antitrust analysis, Ipresent evidence that local television advertising can be aseparate product market (when it comes to marketing DSL), andthat cable television providers have market power in that advertisingmarket. I also present evidence that local television advertisingon cable networks is the most efficient form of advertisingfor DSL providers. The potential anticompetitive effect of cable'sban on DSL advertising is to relegate DSL advertising to lessefficient marketing channels, thereby allowing cable operatorsto charge higher prices for cable modem service. Such conductthus raises obvious antitrust issues.     

Saddam and Israel: What Do the New Iraqi Records Reveal?

This article uses newly available Iraqi records to examine Saddam Hussein's strategic view of Israel, from the time of his political ascendancy in the late 1970s to the Persian Gulf War of 1990–1991. It sheds light on a variety of issues: the sources and motives of Saddam's bitter hostility to Israel, his desire for a bloody war of attrition against the “Zionist entity,” the role of Israel in motivating the Iraqi nuclear programme, Iraq–Israel relations during the Iran–Iraq War, Saddam's fears of an Israeli strike in the run-up to the invasion of Kuwait in 1990, and his motives for attacking Israel with SCUD missiles in 1991.     

CONSUMERS AND PRODUCT SAFETY: MARKET PROCESSES AND IMPERFECTIONS*

This paper reexamines the competitive market solution to the determination of product safety. The concept of an optimizing social level of product safety-defined at the point at which the costs of increasing safety are equated to consumers willingness to pay for it-is developed and discussed. Various potential market failures are outlined. These failures give reasons to expect that the competitive solution will not be achieved in practice and provide a rationale for certain types of governmental intervention. Various empirical studies of implicit markets for various types of risks are reviewed as a basis for evaluating market efficiency and regulatory efficiency.     

50 Years of a Complex but Positive Relationship: Cuba–Canada Relations 1959–2009

The government of Fidel Castro has over this long period maintained correct if not always warm relations with a country which could have been considered one of the least likely to have been in such a position. In 1959 Canada was in a political situation of seemingly exceptional dominance by the United States of its foreign policy and economy. That dependence, in the view of many, has grown even firmer over the last half-century. Yet the relationship between Cuba and Canada, far from flagging, has prospered even though not without headaches as well as ups and downs. This connection is rightly considered extraordinary, but the basic elements of it have remained constant over the years and explain why it has at times flourished and rarely been put in question. The key factor here is that the maintenance of the relationship has always been at least to some degree of mutual advantage for both the states and, in the case of Canada, for the governing party of the time. Other elements come to light as one makes an overview of the fifty years of the relationship but the bedrock of mutual advantage remains present throughout.