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While Covid-19 vaccines were developed and deployed with unprecedented speed, their widespread introduction could have been accelerated--saving millions of lives and trillions of dollars--had more vaccine capacity been available prior to the pandemic. Combining estimates of the frequency and intensity of pandemics with estimates of mortality, economic-output, and human-capital losses from pandemics of varying severities, we calculate that the present value of global social losses from the stream of future pandemics can be expected to be nearly $18 trillion--over $700 billion each year going forward. According to our model, a program spending $60 billion up front to expand production capacity and supply-chain inputs for vaccines and $5 billion annually thereafter would be sufficient to ensure production capacity to vaccinate 70% of the global population against a new virus within six months. The program would generate an expected net present value (NPV) gain of more than $500 billion over the status quo of delaying investment until a pandemic arrives. A program undertaken by the USA alone would generate an expected NPV gain of over $60 billion. JEL Classification 115 * 118 ? L65 * H44, 1 Introduction By 2024, it is estimated that the Covid-19 pandemic will have reduced economic output by $13.8 trillion relative to pre-pandemic forecasts (International Monetary Fund 2022). The pandemic resulted [...]

To link to full-text access for this article, visit this link: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.ijindorg.2005.11.006 Byline: David A. Malueg (a), Christopher M. Snyder (b) Keywords: Third-degree price discrimination; Uniform pricing; Profit bounds Abstract: We derive bounds on the ratio of a monopolist's profit from third-degree price discrimination to that from uniform pricing. If the monopolist serves N independent markets, demand is continuous, and the cost function is superadditive, then the profit ratio is bounded by N. A linear-demand example is provided coming arbitrarily close to this bound. We provide examples showing the profit ratio can be unboundedly large when marginal cost is decreasing, demand is discontinuous, or fixed cost is positive. If the monopolist has access to certain demand-rationing strategies under uniform pricing, we can bound the profit ratio even for discontinuous demand functions and multiproduct cost functions. Author Affiliation: (a) Department of Economics and the A. B. Freeman School of Business, Tulane University, 206 Tilton Hall, New Orleans, LA 70118, United States (b) Department of Economics, Dartmouth College, 301 Rockefeller Hall, Hanover, NH 03755, United States Article History: Received 16 December 2004; Revised 3 November 2005; Accepted 14 November 2005

In the following article, Christopher Snyder puts national loan growth increase for 1988 at $43 billion with acceleration of $62 billion expected for 1989 and $75 billion in 1990. Lenders with a disciplined pricing strategy will obtain widening spreads and rising fees during the 1988-89 period. (Reprinted by permission of the publisher.)

A new application of pricing and marketing research tools to the corporate lending market can provide better loan pricing. The tools are databases containing details about the loans made by many banks and valuation software for comparing these loans. A market center price obtained from these data is valuable information to bring to the negotiation table. Analyses of the loan pricing matrix in a database indicate that major differences do not appear in different regions of the country, but a few industries show distinctive pricing patterns. Other components of the matrix that also exhibit pricing patterns are sales size, credit score, and loan purpose. The risk, size, and purpose of a loan determine the size, nature, and probability of a loan fee.

In the following article, Chris Snyder discusses the tools that information technology offers lenders. He cites four management actions that can lead to stable profit growth. This article is based on a speech delivered by the author this past November at RMA's 73rd Annual Fall Conference in Honolulu. This material also formed a portion of the November 1987 issue of the Loan Pricing Report published by the Loan Pricing Corporation. (Reprinted by permission of the publisher.)

Commercial loan demand may improve by 1996 because of global economic expansion and a tightening of the money supply. For example, expanding economies in Asia and Europe will lead to increased lending opportunities. Additionally, an improving US economy may lead to a slowdown in the bond market and a weakening of the stock market. Other factors that could cause a turnaround in the slumping business loan market are also presented., The last few years have witnessed the worst slump in commercial loan demand since World War II. It therefore takes some courage to suggest that, within 48 months, North American [...]

Banks complain that the tightening of credit examination rules by Congress is hurting the industry. Banks claim they are receiving an inordinate number of downgrades on their loan portfolios. Furthermore, inconsistencies in bank examinations have many industry experts worried about a decrease in credit availability to midsize businesses. Sound bank examination policy rests on trying to avoid overexposure to any one borrower; avoid lending to bank insiders such as board members, officers or investors; and avoid overexposure to any one industry, particularly oil, gas or real estate., The malaise dogging the U.S. economy may have more to do with how we are treating our banks than Congress realizes. Job growth depends on expansion by midsize businesses, and [...]

Let's Not Compel Commercial Lenders to Mark to Market The Financial Accounting Standards Board is exploring the costs and benefits of requiring banks to mark their commercial loans to market. [...]

Companies can provide health benefits to their retired employees through the use of a single premium group health insurance contract. The plan can run over the course of the retired employees' lifetimes or can end at a specified age. The use of such a contract will divest the employer of liability for retiree health care.