Search results for "incentive"
showing 10 items of 297 documents
Market empowerment of the patient: the French experience.
2011
Through analysis of the French experience, this article explores the way economic policy has sought to encourage active, well-informed patients by giving them market power. The new status of the patient as consumer is based on two foundations: the endeavour to build a healthcare market and the activation of demand-based policies. The keystone of this new system is a conception of the market as a process constructed by economic policy. Recent measures such as the standardization of care and the introduction of incentives to respect a treatment pathway then constitute effective levers to establish a free-market rationale.
Trade Associations: Why Not Cartels?
2021
First published: 30 September 2020 The relevance of special interests lobbying in modern democracies can hardly be questioned. But if large trade associations can overcome the free riding problem and form effective lobbies, why do they not also threaten market competition by forming equally effective cartels? We argue that the key to understanding the difference lies in supply elasticity. The group discipline which works in the case of lobbying can be effective in sustaining a cartel only if increasing output is sufficiently costly ‐ otherwise the incentive to deviate is too great. The theory helps organizing a number of stylized facts within a common framework. This article has been accept…
Mediating International Conflicts: The European Union as an Effective Peacemaker?
2015
This article examines how the EU's effectiveness as a mediator in peace negotiations can be appropriately conceptualized and analysed. Mediator effectiveness is analysed along two dimensions: goal-attainment and conflict settlement. Investigation of the conditions of mediator effectiveness is structured around four key sets of variables: mediator leverage, mediation strategy, coherence and the conflict's context. In our empirical analysis of EU mediation between Serbia and Kosovo (Belgrade–Pristina dialogue) we find that the medium degree of EU effectiveness (both in terms of goal-attainment and conflict settlement) can be explained by its great leverage vis-a-vis the conflict parties due t…
Anti-Malthus: Conflict and the Evolution of Societies
2013
The Malthusian theory of evolution disregards a pervasive fact about human societies: they expand through conflict. When this is taken account of the long-run favors not a large population at the level of subsistence, nor yet institutions that maximize welfare or per capita output, but rather institutions that generate large amount of free resources and direct these towards state power. Free resources are the output available to society after deducting the payments necessary for subsistence and for the incentives needed to induce production, and the other claims to production such as transfer payments and resources absorbed by elites. We develop the evolutionary underpinnings of this model,…
Universal Breadwinner Versus Universal Caregiver Model : Fathers’ Involvement in Caregiving and Well-Being of Mothers of Offspring with Intellectual …
2015
Background The universal breadwinner model means both parents are employed; while the universal caregiver model implies that the father's hours of caregiving are equal or higher to those of the mother. This study aims to examine the hypothesis that the universal caregiver model is more related to the overall well-being of mothers of children with intellectual disabilities than the universal breadwinner model. Methods Face-to-face interview surveys were conducted in 2011 in Taiwan with 876 working-age mothers who had an offspring with intellectual disabilities. The survey included 574 mothers living with their husbands who became our participants. Results Both anova and regression analyses i…
Glass Surfaces for Benefits of Daylight in Social Housing
2017
Internal environment and appropriate natural lighting of the building interior largely affects the health status and course of treatment of patients with psychiatric diagnoses such as depression, Alzheimer and disorder of functions. In particolar, this paper aims to show how smart glass surfaces, allowing the entry of natural lighting, can better support therapeutic process. It is important to elaborate knowledge for optimized lighting conditions in different healthy populations as well as in patients suffering from visual impairments and circadian rhythm disorders. To contribute to the development of new technologies about smart glass surfaces related to various aspects of light conditions…
Economic evaluation on the use of reconfiguration systems for increase of energy production in PV plants
2016
This paper presents an economic analysis of the effectiveness of Dynamic Reconfiguration Systems (DRS) for PV plants in dependence of the incentive policies offered by several countries of the European Community. This evaluation has been achieved by means of the NPV (Net Present Value) and through the comparison between Bulgaria, Romania, Greece and Croatia. From the obtained results, it can be stated that the adoption of reconfiguration systems, in certain cases, can be a convenient solution.
Development of analysis tools for social, economic and ecological effects of water reuse
2008
Abstract The full implementation of the Urban Waste Water Treatment Directive (91/271/EEC) in Europe will contribute to obtain treated wastewaters of quite high quality that could be reused for certain applications or improved by polishing steps for uses with higher quality requirements. Even though reclaimed water reuse is currently implemented in many European countries, mainly for irrigation, its potential has not yet been exploited in many areas. In fact, a decisive factor to achieve a higher percentage of water reuse is the establishment of effective incentives, which in many instances will be of either an economic or a regulatory nature. The limiting factor for water reuse can in many…
Coordinated energy management using agents in neighborhood areas with RES and storage
2016
This study proposes a novel coordination mechanism for smart homes in a small-scale neighborhood. This mechanism deploys a price and incentive-based energy management algorithm that considers renewable energy sources and battery storage. The objective of the proposed coordination algorithm is to decrease the electricity bills of the smart homes by increasing renewable energy usage inside the neighborhood, and enabling electricity trading among smart homes. The neighborhood is modeled using multi-agent systems, and heuristic problem solving is used by deploying a genetic optimization and rolling-horizon technique for day-ahead scheduling of the electricity appliances. Simulation results show…
Italian incentive strategy and regulations on small wind power turbines: A critical overview
2016
Small wind power industry in Italy had its kick-start in 2009, after the Government implemented two measures introducing both the simplified regime and incentive rates for small wind power plants. In the last six years, a lot of plants and small wind turbines have been installed in Italy, especially in the South. Aim of this paper is to examine how local standards, incentive policy and regulations have affected the spread of small wind turbines in Italy. After examining national and regional legislation, an analysis of the data on the penetration of wind systems in Italy has been carried out, with particular attention to six Southern regions (Basilicata, Calabria, Campania, Apulia, Sardinia…