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Allocation Methods (allocation + methods)

Distribution by Scientific Domains

Medical Sciences	33%
Business, Economics, Finance and Accounting	33%

Selected Abstracts

Reducing avoidable inequalities in health: a new criterion for setting health care capitation payments

HEALTH ECONOMICS, Issue 8 2002
Katharina Hauck
Abstract Traditionally, most health care systems which pretend to any sort of rationality and cost control have sought to allocate their limited funds in order to secure equal opportunity of access for equal need. The UK government is implementing a fundamental change of resource allocation philosophy towards ,contributing to the reduction of avoidable health inequalities'. The purpose of this essay is to explore some of the economic issues that arise when seeking to allocate health care resources according to the new criterion. It indicates that health inequalities might arise because of variations in the quality of health services, variations in access to those services, or variations in the way people produce health, and that the resource allocation consequences differ depending on which source is being addressed. The paper shows that an objective of reducing health inequalities is not necessarily compatible with an objective of equity of access, nor with the objective of maximising health gain. The results have profound consequences for approaches towards economic evaluation, the role of clinical guidelines and performance management, as well as for resource allocation methods. Copyright © 2002 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [source]

Methodologic Implications of Allocating Multiple-Race Data to Single-Race Categories

HEALTH SERVICES RESEARCH, Issue 1 2002
Article first published online: 18 MAR 200
Objective. To illustrate methods for comparing race data collected under the 1977 Federal Office of Management and Budget (OMB) directive, known as OMB-15, with race data collected under the revised 1997 OMB standard. Data Sources/Study Setting.,Secondary data from the 1993,95 National Health Interview Surveys. Multiple-race responses, available on in-house files, were analyzed. Study Design.,Race-specific estimates of employer-sponsored health insurance were calculated using proposed allocation methods from the OMB. Estimates were calculated overall and for three population subgroups: children, those in households below poverty, and Hispanics. Principal Findings.,Although race distributions varied between the different methods, estimates of employer-sponsored health insurance were similar. Health insurance estimates for the American Indian/Alaska Native group varied the most. Conclusions.,Employer-sponsored health insurance estimates for American Indian/Alaska Natives from data collected under the 1977 OMB directive will not be comparable with estimates from data collected under the 1997 standard. The selection of a method to distribute to the race categories used prior to the 1997 revision will likely have little impact on estimates of employer-sponsored health insurance for other groups. Additional research is needed to determine the effects of these methods for other health service measures. [source]

Adopting Lead-Free Electronics: Policy Differences and Knowledge Gaps

JOURNAL OF INDUSTRIAL ECOLOGY, Issue 4 2004
Julie M. Schoenung
For more than a decade, the use of lead (Pb) in electronics has been controversial: Indeed, its toxic effects are well documented, whereas relatively little is known about proposed alternative materials. As the quantity of electronic and electrical waste (e-waste) increases, legislative initiatives and corporate marketing strategies are driving a reduction in the use of some toxic substances in electronics. This article argues that the primacy of legislation over engineering and economics may result in selecting undesirable replacement materials for Pb because of overlooked knowledge gaps. These gaps include the need for: assessments of the effects of changes in policy on the flow of e-waste across state and national boundaries; further reliability testing of alternative solder alloys; further toxicology and environmental impact studies for high environmental loading of the alternative solders (and their metal components); improved risk assessment methodologies that can capture complexities such as changes in waste management practices, in electronic product design, and in rate of product obsolescence; carefully executed allocation methods when evaluating the impact of raw material extraction; and in-depth risk assessment of alternative end-of-life (EOL) options. The resulting environmental and human health consequences may be exacerbated by policy differences across political boundaries. To address this conundrum, legislation and policies dealing with Pb in electronics are first reviewed. A discussion of the current state of knowledge on alternative solder materials relative to product design, environmental performance, and risk assessment follows. Previous studies are reviewed, and consistent with their results, this analysis finds that there is great uncertainty in the trade-offs between Pb-based solders and proposed replacements. Bridging policy and knowledge gaps will require increased international cooperation on materials use, product market coverage, and e-waste EOL management. [source]

Capital Allocation for Insurance Companies,What Good IS IT?

JOURNAL OF RISK AND INSURANCE, Issue 2 2007
Helmut Gründl
In their 2001 Journal of Risk and Insurance article, Stewart C. Myers and James A. Read Jr. propose to use a specific capital allocation method for pricing insurance contracts. We show that in their model framework no capital allocation to lines of business is needed for pricing insurance contracts. In the case of having to cover frictional costs, the suggested allocation method may even lead to inappropriate insurance prices. Beside the purpose of pricing insurance contracts, capital allocation methods proposed in the literature and used in insurance practice are typically intended to help derive capital budgeting decisions in insurance companies, such as expanding or contracting lines of business. We also show that net present value analyses provide better capital budgeting decisions than capital allocation in general. [source]

Design and analysis of an IEEE 802.16e-based OFDMA communication system

BELL LABS TECHNICAL JOURNAL, Issue 4 2007
Krishna Balachandran
IEEE 802.16e has emerged as a strong candidate standard for future wireless systems primarily because it offers the potential for high spectral efficiency, flexible spectrum options (e.g., 2,6 GHz), scalable carrier bandwidth options (e.g., from 1.25 MHz to 20 MHz), multiple duplexing options (time and frequency division duplex), various subchannelization options, and, unlike its IEEE 802.16 predecessors, mobility. Because of the recent emergence of IEEE 802.16e and the complexity it poses in system analysis, there is little published work in the literature regarding the actual system capacity/ throughput performance of IEEE 802.16e for high data rate services. In this paper, we investigate the link and system level performance on the downlink of an IEEE 802.16e-based orthogonal frequency division multiple access (OFDMA) communication system and provide recommendations on high performance IEEE 802.16e system design and deployment configurations. We also propose dynamic resource allocation methods that may be used in OFDMA systems and investigate their performance. @ 2007 Alcatel-Lucent. [source]

Joint Assessment of Optimal Sales Force Sizes and Sales Call Guidelines: A Management-Oriented Tool

CANADIAN JOURNAL OF ADMINISTRATIVE SCIENCES, Issue 3 2005
René Y. Darmon
Abstract Sales force sizing and sales effort allocation methods vary from simplistic rules of thumb to sophisticated analytical procedures. The former methods are easy to understand and implement, but they are typically inaccurate and probably invalid. The latter procedures may provide more accurate and valid results, but they are more difficult to explain to management and require data collection and analysis that are often quite elaborate. This paper proposes a method of optimal estimation of total sales effort level and time allocation that combines the advantages of both approaches. For each customer segment, this method accounts for the so far neglected, but relevant, optimal call effort allocation between number of calls per account during a planning period and length of sales calls. A case study illustrates this method. Résumé Les méthodes de détermination de la taille et de l'allocation des efforts de vente vont des règles empiriques les plus simples aux procédures analytiques les plus complexes. Les premières sont faciles à comprendre et à appliquer, mais elles sont imprècises et souvent non valides. Les autres méthodes peuvent donner des résultats plus exacts, mais elles sont plus difficiles à expliquer aux managers et nécessitent souvent une collecte et une analyse de données fort laborieuses. Le présent article propose une méthode d'estimation optimale de la taille et de l'allocation des efforts de vente qui combine les avantages des deux approches. Pour chaque segment de la clientèle, la méthode rend compte de l'allocation optimale (souvent négligée, mais pertinente), de l'effort de vente entre le nombre de visites à faire à un client pendant une période de planification et la longueur des visites. Un cas concret illustre la méthode. [source]