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Contractual Arrangements (contractual + arrangement)
Selected AbstractsWage policy in the health care sector: a panel data analysis of nurses' labour supplyHEALTH ECONOMICS, Issue 9 2003Jan Erik Askildsen Abstract Shortage of nurses is a problem in several countries. It is an unsettled question whether increasing wages constitute a viable policy for extracting more labour supply from nurses. In this paper we use a unique matched panel data set of Norwegian nurses covering the period 1993,1998 to estimate wage elasticities. The data set includes detailed information on 19 638 individuals over 6 years totalling 69 122 observations. The estimated wage elasticity after controlling for individual heterogeneity, sample selection and instrumenting for possible endogeneity is 0.21. Individual and institutional features are statistically significant and important for working hours. Contractual arrangements as represented by shift work are also important for hours of work, and omitting information about this common phenomenon will underestimate the wage effect. Copyright © 2003 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [source] Efficient contracting and accountingACCOUNTING & FINANCE, Issue 2 2003David Emanuel This paper examines the role of accounting in an efficient contracting perspective of the firm. The firm is an alternative to the market when the costs of using the market become excessive. When a firm replaces the market, authority substitutes for the price mechanism in determining how decisions are made. This paper examines accounting's role in controlling the firm to ensure resources are put to their highest-value use. Accounting, together with employment contracts, compensation arrangements, debt contracts, internal and external auditors, and the board of directors including its audit and compensation committees comprise a package of mechanisms that have evolved to govern the firm. These institutional devices become the firm's efficient contracting technology. As accounting is part of that contracting technology, the accounting controls and systems that evolve and get implemented are efficient and the accounting methods that are used in calculating the numbers that form part of the firm's contractual arrangements are, likewise, efficient. [source] Optimization of Network Topologies for Service Providers in the Telecommunications MarketINTERNATIONAL TRANSACTIONS IN OPERATIONAL RESEARCH, Issue 6 2001Dieter B. Pressmar Following the deregulation of communications services, a growing number of commercial providers are offering global voice and data communications services via rented infrastructures. These service providers are faced with the challenge to determine cost-effective network-topologies, considering both the variety of contractual arrangements with national and international network providers, and the communication profiles of their customers. This paper introduces a planning model for solving the optimization problem outlined above. The model is evaluated on the basis of mixed-integer optimization. Practical deployment of this approach is discussed with respect to the run-time characteristics of the MIP solvers. Subsequently, a genetic algorithm is applied to the model and the results are compared to those of the mixed-integer optimization. [source] Dependent and Accountable: Evidence from the Modern Theory of Central BankingJOURNAL OF ECONOMIC SURVEYS, Issue 5 2000Gustavo Piga In this paper we take another look at the literature on central bank independence. We show that the representative-agent approach to monetary policy is seriously flawed and does not provide a sound basis for deriving institutional solutions to the inflationary-bias. We then argue that the political approach to monetary policy provides a better account of the inflationary-bias and that this has important implications for the set-up of institutional arrangements, like central-bank independence, and the role of contractual arrangements, like indexation. Central bank independence, if appropriately modeled, can fail to reduce inflationary pressures in plausible circumstances. We then identify some issues in the theory of central banking that have not been clearly resolved and we offer some intuition as to the way they could be studied. We conclude by showing some potentially worrisome implications for the future of the European Monetary Union. [source] Contract Mixing in Franchising as a Mechanism for Public-Good ProvisionJOURNAL OF ECONOMICS & MANAGEMENT STRATEGY, Issue 1 2000Chong-En Bai This paper is concerned with the coexistence of company-owned units and franchised units in business format franchising and their different contractual arrangements. Drawing insights from case studies that indicate both the development and the maintenance of company-wide brand names and unit-specific sales activities are crucial to a franchise company, we construct a multitask model to account for such contract mixing in franchising. Intuitively, low-powered contracts are offered to some managers to induce effort for brand-name development and maintenance, while high-powered contracts are offered to the remaining managers to elicit sales activity and capture the beneficial effect of the company brand name. Franchising can thus be viewed as an organizational agreement for production involving brand-name products and services. [source] Risk Shifting through Nonfinancial Contracts: Effects on Loan Spreads and Capital Structure of Project Finance DealsJOURNAL OF MONEY, CREDIT AND BANKING, Issue 7 2010FRANCESCO CORIELLI project finance; contractual arrangements; long-term contracts; loan pricing; capital structure We study capital structure negotiation and cost of debt financing between sponsors and lenders using a sample of more than 1,000 project finance loans worth around US$195 billion closed between 1998 and 2003. We find that lenders: (i) rely on the network of nonfinancial contracts as a mechanism to control agency costs and project risks, (ii) are reluctant to price credit more cheaply if sponsors are involved as project counterparties in the relevant contracts, and finally (iii) do not appreciate sponsor involvement as a contractual counterparty of the special purpose vehicle when determining the level of leverage. [source] WHAT WORKS BEST WHEN CONTRACTING FOR SERVICES?PUBLIC ADMINISTRATION, Issue 4 2007AN ANALYSIS OF CONTRACTING PERFORMANCE AT THE LOCAL LEVEL IN THE US During the last decade the field of public administration has undergone a period of renewed interest in the topic of performance and effectiveness. Key contributions to the growing stream of research on public sector performance include work focusing on the adoption and implementation of performance measurement in the public sector (see, for example, Julnes and Holzer 2001; Behn 2003); theoretical and empirical research on management's effect on organizational performance (see, for example, O'Toole and Meier 1999; Meier and O'Toole 2002); and efforts to identify the determinants of organizational effectiveness (see, for example, Rainey and Steinbauer 1999; Brewer and Selden 2004). Surprisingly, this literature includes very few studies that explicitly address the issue of performance in contracting for services (exceptions include Domberger and Hensher 1993; Romzek and Johnstone 2002). In the United States alone, hundreds of billions of dollars are contracted out every year, and innumerable policies and programmes are implemented, at least in part, through contractual arrangements between public agencies and private providers (Savas 2000; DeHoog and Salamon 2002; Kelman 2002; Cooper 2003). Moreover, contracting for services appears to be a growing trend in Western Europe and other regions (Kettl 2000; Savas 2000). With the stakes so high, there is a pressing need for research that identifies factors and practices that contribute to success in contracting for services. This paper takes on the challenge by developing a model of contracting performance and testing it using Substantively Weighted Analytic Techniques (SWAT), a new methodology that allows researchers to isolate high performance among a large number of observations in order to identify variables practitioners can manipulate to improve practice (Meier and Gill 2000). [source] Rural Hospitals and the Adoption of Managed Care StrategiesTHE JOURNAL OF RURAL HEALTH, Issue 3 2001Shadi S. Saleh Ph.D ABSTRACT: This research examined the performance of rural hospitals engaged in different levels of managed care activities and identified factors related to performance and competition that affected rural hospitals' likelihood of pursuing managed care as a strategy. The sample studied consisted of 139 rural hospitals in Iowa and Nebraska. Results showed that a relatively high percentage of hospitals were engaged in managed care activities, mainly through contractual arrangements. The study found that high competition in the marketplace increased the likelihood of hospitals pursuing managed care strategies, while high demand markets had a negative association with the likelihood of pursuing a managed care strategy. No significant relationship was detected between poor performance and pursuing a managed care strategy. [source] PPPs in Health: Static or Dynamic?AUSTRALIAN JOURNAL OF PUBLIC ADMINISTRATION, Issue 2010Anneloes Blanken Public-Private Partnerships (PPPs), or in the Private Finance Initiative (PFI) form throughout the Anglo-Saxon world, are gaining in popularity for the provision of hospitals. Increasingly common around the world and seen as a potential solution that will both overcome the bottlenecks associated with more conventional approaches to hospital provision and generate ,value for money'(VfM), these PFI-PPPs represent a major, but so far under-evaluated, concept. This article analyses whether public-private partnerships do deliver the benefits claimed. It endeavors to assess the potential of hospital PFI-PPPs, and their empirical performance on achieving VfM, through addressing the way the contractual arrangements are structured and the extent of flexibility they generate. Initial lessons arising from the current provisioning of English and Australian hospital facilities by PFI-PPPs are identified so they can be taken into consideration in future projects. [source] | |||||||||||||