Search

Several studies in the mathematical education literature show the effect of students' high school skills in maths on their success at higher levels of education and work. In particular, the importance of maths course taking in US high schools is highlighted to be important for college enrollment and completion. The choice of taking additional maths courses or, as in Italy, of choosing a high-school curriculum with more maths, is not random: it depends on several substantial factors such as gender and socio-economic status. This selection bias implies that the differences in the academic outcomes might be traceable not only to mathematics ability and knowledge. In this paper, the aim is to estimate the treatment effect of attending a relatively new high school curriculum in Italy with more maths, with respect to the traditional track of the scientific "liceo", on two academic outcomes: university enrollment and first-year university performance. After having reduced the selection bias using a caliper multi-level propensity score matching procedure, a multi-state Markov model is used to study the treatment effect on the joint educational outcomes. • The influence of studying more mathematics in high school on academic outcomes. • Multi-level propensity score application on higher education data. • Application of multi-state Markov models. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The cost of medical treatments may undermine timely and effective access to healthcare. We believe it is useful to examine innovative business models recently introduced in European countries, borrowing from less developed economies. This paper aims to analyze new business models of healthcare service provision that have recently been introduced in Italy, and its social component. In particular, we analyze the low cost business model in Italian healthcare. We carried out a comparative case study of three Italian low-cost organizations. The cases were selected using four social criteria: start-up capital; social value proposition; social value equation; and social profit equation. From the comparative case study, six main themes emerged: 1. Social relationships; 2. recruiting and engagement of medical and nursing personnel; 3. economies of scale; 4. cross subsidization; 5. management of financial surpluses; 6. patient involvement and participation. The cases reveal new ways of healthcare service provision and unravel innovative organizational dimensions falling into the low cost business model. The organizations both maximize profit and respond to the social need for healthcare at relatively low costs. The low cost business model is therefore able to respond to the demand for affordable healthcare, while providing social innovation. • The cases reveal different ways of healthcare service provision. • The cases unravel innovative organizational dimensions falling into the low cost model. • Low cost organizations respond to the social need for healthcare. • The low cost business model respond to the demand for affordable healthcare. • The low cost business model provides social innovation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]