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El objetivo de este estudio es intentar una refutacion de los argumentos que ultimamente ha esgrimido parte de la doctrina nacional para sustentar la integracion de la aestimatio rei en la indemnizacion de perjuicios. Ademas de revisar el estado de la discusion y explicar el rol decidor que al respecto desempena el articulo 1521 del Codigo Civil, se ponen en cuestion la pretendida funcion resarcitoria del cumplimiento por equivalencia, la afirmacion de que la destruccion de la especie o cuerpo cierto por causa imputable al deudor comporta un dano intrinseco y la supuesta inconveniencia de la existencia de un regimen diferenciado. The objective in this paper is to tent to refute the arguments that have been said lately by part of the national doctrine to support the integration of the aestimatio rei in the damages compensation. Also, in addition to reviewing the state of the discussion and explaining the decision-making role that article 1521 of the Civil Code plays in this regard, it is questioned the compensatory function of monetary amount in lieu of specific performance, the claim that the destruction of the item by cause attributable to the debtor entails intrinsic damage and the so-called inconvenience of the existence of a differentiated regime.

Introduction Studies demonstrate that financial incentive programs increase smoking cessation. However, there is little guidance on which incentive magnitudes will ensure optimal enrollment and motivation levels. This study investigates current smokers’ perceptions of varying incentive magnitudes to identify whether there is evidence for optimal amount(s) and whether perceptions differ by income group. Methods Studies 1 (N = 56) and 2 (N = 147) were conducted online via Prolific.co. Current smokers were randomly shown multiple hypothetical incentive programs that differed only in the incentive amount offered. For each program, smokers rated its appeal and their likelihood of enrolling and predicted their motivation to quit if enrolled. Growth models were used to investigate the relationship between perspectives and the incentive amount. Results An increasing quadratic trend in smokers’ perceptions of programs as the incentive amount increased was identified. Incentive amounts beyond approximately £50–75 per week (£500–£750 total) did not significantly alter perceptions of programs. In Study 2, high-income smokers found programs significantly less appealing and motivating than low-income smokers, although no significant between-group differences were observed in the likelihood of enrollment. No significant differences were observed between low- and middle-income smokers. Conclusions Increasing the incentive amount increased smoker’s perceptions of programs. This relationship was curvilinear, meaning there may be a point beyond which further increasing the amount will not improve enrollment or motivation levels. Incentives appear equally appealing to low- and middle-income smokers; the population among whom smoking is most prevalent. Future research could explore other elements of program design and whether findings hold under real-world conditions. Implications While acknowledging that they work, policymakers frequently request information about the monetary amount needed for incentive programs to be effective, and if this differs by income level. We investigated these questions using smokers’ perceptions of hypothetical cessation programs that differed in the amount offered. An increasing quadratic trend in perceptions of programs by the amount and potential cut points was observed, suggesting a point may exist beyond which increasing the incentive will not improve perceptions of programs or enrollment levels. High-income smokers may not perceive incentives to be as appealing as other income groups, but appear equally willing to enroll.

In comparison to other health economists' methods for benefit calculation, Contingent valuation (CV) was argued to theoretical benefits. However, in practice, as applicable to healthcare concerns, it seems that methodology has not analyzed benefits, as its impact on national decision making in medical sector has still not been exercised. This is not due to continued thriving methodological lack study in this field. It is product, somewhat unorganized and non-systematic, of such operations. To encourage analysts to reach beyond assessment of cost-effectiveness of offering a given degree of environmental products, there needs to be few ways of estimating benefit of supplying various degree of services compared to their costs. While other measures are feasible, such units are expressed more naturally in money terms. The major goal of pharmaceuticals is to enhance the economic value of pharmacy services. The contingent valuation (CV) provides a way to value importance of pharma services. The Contingent Valuation method provides benefit in terms of individual monetary amount provided by both product and services. The present paper provides a brief review about CV method, importance in raising economic value of pharmacy along with its implications. The review also provides some guidelines i.e. National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) that should be followed in order to raise the economic value.

We study how the diffusion of being pivotal affects immoral outcomes. In a first set of experiments, subjects decide about agreeing to kill mice and receiving money versus objecting to kill mice and foregoing the monetary amount. In a baseline condition, subjects decide individually about the life of one mouse. In the main treatment, subjects are organized into groups of eight and decide simultaneously. Eight mice are killed if at least one subject supports the killing. The fraction of subjects agreeing to kill is significantly higher in the main condition compared to the baseline condition. In the second set of experiments, we run the same baseline and main conditions but use a charity context and additionally study sequential decisions. We replicate our main finding from the mouse paradigm and additionally show that in the sequential treatment, prosocial behavior is even less pronounced. We further show that the observed effects increase with experience, i.e., when we repeat the experiment for a second time. Finally, we report evidence on beliefs, elicited in our main experiments but also from a treatment of noninvolved observers, and show that beliefs about being pivotal are a main driver of our results.

This article is a review of formula funding. It addresses two basic questions: 1) What formula funding schemes for schools exist and how they are used; and 2) How formula funding methods for schools meet the standards. Formula funding for schools, as opposed to administrative funding – relies on a mathematical formula, contains a number of variables (e.g., number of students), each of which has a monetary amount tied to it to determine school budgets. There are two main groups of variables in such formulas: 1) based on number of students and grade level success; and 2) based on need. The effectiveness of formula funding compared to alternative funding regimes depends on the details of the formula and on educational policy. Formula funding systems typically promote transparency and accountability at low administrative costs, and when combined with appropriate additional policy tools, they can also promote equity and efficiency. There are several debates going on right now: first, there is a tradeoff between transparency/ease and local sensitivity/complexity. Second, determining how much it costs to teach to a certain standard is problematic and controversial. The main reason for this is that the relationship between education costs and student achievement is largely unknown, and the impact identified is relatively small. Because of the proliferation of formula funding, an extensive academic literature has developed over the past two decades. While much of the literature is specific to national contexts and contributes to the domestic issues of specific countries, there are a small number of studies for general application. The latter, however, remain largely descriptive and only cover evaluation issues very briefly or address specific issues such as corruption. As a consequence, there is very little comparative work on how formula financing methods are evaluated according to different standards. For the most part, the issue has been studied only in EU member states. Much attention is given to countries with extensive experience in evaluating formula finance regimes, such as the US, the UK, Australia, and New Zealand. But unfortunately, developing countries do not take up the issue of the study, which provides difficulties in their educational development.

BackgroundThere is a high prevalence of financial conflicts of interest (COI) between physicians and industry.ObjectivesTo conduct a systematic review with meta-analysis examining the completeness of self-reported financial COI disclosures by physicians, and identify factors associated with non-disclosure.Data sourcesMEDLINE, Embase and PsycINFO were searched for eligible studies up to April 2020 and supplemented with material identified in the references and citing articles.Data extraction and synthesisData were independently abstracted by two authors. Data synthesis was performed via systematic review of eligible studies and random-effects meta-analysis.Main outcomes and measuresThe proportion of discrepancies between physician self-reported disclosures and objective payment data was the main outcome. The proportion of discrepant funds and factors associated with non-disclosure were also examined.Results40 studies were included. The pooled proportion of COI discrepancies at the article level was 81% (range: 54%–98%; 95% CI 72% to 89%), 79% at the payment level (range: 71%–89%; 95% CI 67% to 89%), 93% at the authorship level (range: 71%–100%; 95% CI 79% to 100%) and 66% at the author level (range: 8%–99%; 95% CI 48% to 78%). The proportion of funds discrepant was 33% (range: 2%–77%; 95% CI 12% to 58%). There was high heterogeneity between studies across all five analyses (I2=94%–99%). Most undisclosed COI were related to food and beverage, or travel and lodging. While the most common explanation for failure to disclose was perceived irrelevance, a median of 45% of non-disclosed payments were directly or indirectly related to the work. A smaller monetary amount was the most common factor associated with nondisclosure.ConclusionsPhysician self-reports of financial COI are highly discrepant with objective data sources reporting payments from industry. Stronger policies are required to reduce reliance on physician self-reporting of financial COI and address non-compliance.

This paper reports the results of an experiment designed to compare two mechanisms that provide solutions to King Solomon's Dilemma. One of them is proposed by Moore (1992) and the other by Perry and Reny (1999). The objective of each mechanism is to allocate a single unit of an indivisible private good to the player with the highest reservation value at zero cost to her. Implemented in an environment with complete information Moore's mechanism, compared with Perry and Reny's mechanism, shows a lower rate of wasteful use of resources, but we could not find evidence that this mechanism has a better rate in allocating the object to the right player. The use of either the ascending clock or the slow ascending clock improves the performance of Perry and Reny's mechanism in allocating the object to the right player at zero cost in both informational environments. Finally, we find evidence of a higher likelihood of low value players staying with the object when their valuation for the object increases and when they know the valuation of their opponents; however, the monetary amount they have to pay for staying with the object plays a relevant role in this decision.

Given the many interconnections between socio-economic and ecological systems, for Ecosystem-Based Management (EBM) to be effective, decision makers must consider metrics for both. Supply side tools and assessments characterize ecosystem condition, functioning, and potential to provide ecosystem goods and services (EGS). Demand side tools, including economic valuation, assess people’s preferences for EGS and sometimes estimate the monetary amount people are willing to pay for a good or service. However, economic valuation is often omitted from assessments, due to lack of data or expertise; and economic valuation alone may not sufficiently capture all important aspects of some decisions. Benefit-relevant indicators have evolved as a way to measure the connection between goods or services that may be provided by an ecosystem, and people who may benefit from those services, while stopping short of valuation (Olander et al., Ecol Indic 85:1262–1272, 2018). Like economic valuation, benefit-relevant indicators can help assess trade-offs and compare alternative outcomes (National Ecosystem Services Partnership, Federal resource management and ecosystem services guidebook. National Ecosystem Services Partnership, Duke University, Durham, 2016). The Rapid Benefit Indicators (RBI) approach is an easy-to-use process for choosing a structured set of non-monetary benefit-relevant indicators for assessment (Mazzotta et al., Integr Environ Assess Manag 15:148–159, 2019). The RBI approach indicators are intended to be applied in conjunction with existing ecosystem service assessment approaches and tools, to connect changes in the availability of EGS to the locations where, and how, people benefit from those goods and services. Though developed for use with urban freshwater wetland restoration, the general RBI approach and indicator framework may be adapted and applied to other environmental changes or ecological systems. This chapter will detail the RBI approach and highlight how RBI tools can inform resource management decisions.

The present research included two field studies investigating, firstly, the effects of round and angular typefaces on taste expectations and, secondly, how such expectations may have downstream effects on naturalistic consumer choice. A taste experiment conducted at a science festival asked participants (N = 125) to rate the expected and actual sweetness and sourness of beer served from plastic cups labelled with either angular or round typeface. Effects of typeface were found on both taste expectations and perceived taste, but in opposite directions; participants rated the expected sourness of a beer as higher in the round (vs. angular) typeface condition, whereas they rated perceived sourness as lower in the round compared to the angular typeface condition. A follow-up field study conducted at a beer bar tested whether different typefaces on a beer board would affect actual beer choices. Data consisted of beer transactions (N = 1,952) and included the monetary amount, and the specific style, and size of beer purchased. The results showed that average transaction amount was lower in the round (vs. angular) typeface condition, and that customers purchased more sour beer options in this condition. These findings support a crossmodal compensation account, and suggest that round typefaces could increase choices of contrasting sour products. Hence, marketers may want to consider how typefaces can either enhance or diminish certain tastes.

espanolEn el presente articulo, se analiza si la comision del delito de peculado puede generar responsabilidad penal por el cobro y no devolucion de “gastos de representacion” realizados por los congresistas de la Republica del Peru cuando estos no realizan correctamente la labor de representacion, puesto que este monto dinerario constituye un caudal de naturaleza publica que ha sido encomendado al funcionario publico para su administracion en razon de su cargo. En este sentido, se analizara tambien la naturaleza juridica de los “gastos de representacion”, a fin de sostener que se tratan, en puridad, de “viaticos” que deben ser debidamente justificados. EnglishThis article discusses whether the collection and non-return of “representation expenses” by Congressmen of the Republic of Peru may result in criminal liability for the crime of embezzlement of public funds when they do not do correctly the representation activity, since it would be a monetary amount that constitutes a public funds that has been entrusted to the public official for his administration by reason of his office. In this regard, the legal nature of “representation expenses” will also be analyzed in order to argue that they are in fact “travel expenses” who must be duly regularized.

In this research, we explore supporter lapse behavior after making first-year donations to a nonprofit organization. We argue that two observable variables — the monetary amount of first gift at sign-up and the number of gifts given in the first year of the support relationship — can be used to approximate the level of commitment to supporting the organization and to predict likelihood of lapse in subsequent years. The reasoning is that the two variables are indications of the psychological resources as well as the financial resources expended in reaching donation decisions. The research hypotheses were tested using fundraising data extracted from the databases of two leading US-based nonprofit organizations. Results indicate that both variables had significant effects. Interestingly, the number of gifts given in the first year of the support relationship had a much bigger effect than the dollar amount of the gift at sign-up: In one organization, supporters who donated more than one gift in the first year were 39% less likely to lapse in subsequent years compared with their one-gift counterparts, while a tenfold increase in the dollar amount of the first gift at sign-up (e.g., from $10 to $100) predicted only 4% decrease in the lapse likelihood in subsequent years. Insights from this research may help to build better practices of supporter base management in “low-touch” fundraising programs for attracting, building relationships with, and sending appeals to supporters. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

International audience; This paper reports an experimental test of the relative efficiency of a whistleblowing-based audit scheme compared to a random-based audit scheme. We design a between-subjects laboratory experiment with two treatments: a benchmark with a random-based audit scheme and an alternative treatment in which taxpayers can blow the whistle. Compared to the benchmark, the whistleblowing-based audit scheme (i) improves the targeting of evaders, (ii) decreases the monetary amount of tax evasion, and (iii) raises the tax levy.

Substantial discrepancies exist between industry-reported and self-reported conflicts of interest (COI). Although authors with relevant, self-reported financial COI are more likely to write studies favorable to industry sponsors, it is unknown whether undisclosed COI have the same effect. We hypothesized that surgeons who fail to disclose COI are more likely to publish findings that are favorable to industry than surgeons with no COI. PubMed was searched for articles in multiple surgical specialties. Financial COI reported by surgeons and industry were compared. COI were considered to be relevant if they were associated with the product(s) mentioned by an article. Primary outcome was favorability, which was defined as an impression favorable to the product(s) discussed by an article and was determined by 3 independent, blinded clinicians for each article. Primary analysis compared incomplete self-disclosure to no COI. Ordered logistic multivariable regression modeling was used to assess factors associated with favorability. Overall, 337 articles were reviewed. There was a high rate of discordance in the reporting of COI (70.3%). When surgeons failed to disclose COI, their conclusions were significantly more likely to favor industry than surgeons without COI (RR 1.2, 95% CI 1.1–1.4, p

This paper analyzes the recent cooperation of Spanish territories (mainly the Canary Islands and Deputation of Barcelona) with Canelones in Uruguay from 2005 to 2010. The study uses information from in depth interviews, a survey to key actors, as well as bibliographical sources. The aim is to contribute to understand the motivations and foundations of cooperation between these territories, in order to analyze the advantages and opportunities of territorial cooperation to support processes of local and regional development. The paper argues that the most important contribution of territorial cooperation is not the support in physical infrastructure or the monetary amount of aid itself (funds), but refers to the generation of intangible assets for development. For instance, the joint learning resulting from the exchange of experience and the transfer of know-how and specific knowledge about dealing with similar challenges.

The provision of reliable and adequate drinking water services in rural communities is important. Here, the researchers reported on a study that evaluated the respondents' willingness to pay for water services in the two communities in Mutale Local Municipality, South Africa. The study was accomplished through open-ended questionnaire interviews with selected respondents. The study showed that respondents were dissatisfied with the unreliable water services (89.9%) but were willing to pay for water services to secure reliable water services (95.5%). The respondents with tertiary level education were willing to pay R 150 per month per 6 kilolitres. The maximum 6 kilolitres is the free basic water services that the municipality can provide without collecting water revenues. The following variables: literacy levels; household size of 3 to 6 members; the age of 40; and monthly incomes, had a significant effect (p = 0.005) on the monetary amount and the willingness to pay.

This paper deals with theoretical and practical aspects regarding the topic of a monetary amount intended for the state to provide financial assistance to victims of crime within the meaning of § 179g par. 2 letter b), § 307 par. 2 letter b) and § 309 par. 1 letter d) cr. procedure code. The theoretical part of this paper offers a detailed criminal law and criminological insight into this issue, the subsequent practical part concerns how often and in what cases the prosecution offices or the courts make use in practice of these types of diversion in criminal proceedings as a common practice and where they are used on the contrary only exceptionally, and how high the monetary amount for these purposes approximately is; all is based on the statistics related to the monetary amount intended for the state to provide financial assistance to victims of crime. The paper is concluded by a summary of the current situation and conclusions of the author arising from it.

Delay and probability discounting occur when the subjective value of an outcome changes because its delivery is either delayed or uncertain, respectively. Although theorists have argued whether these processes are one in the same or distinct, few studies have investigated if and how they interact. Experiment 1 had 191 university students complete a discounting task in which both the delay to and the probability of the outcome were varied across questions about a hypothetical romantic relationship. Experiment 2 replicated this procedure with 153 participants completing a discounting task with a hypothetical monetary amount as the outcome. Experiment 3 had 181 participants complete the discounting task about a hypothetical romantic relationship and measured discounting over an increased number of delays or probabilities. Results across all three experiments showed that rates of delay discounting changed as a function of probability; greater impulsive responding was observed as the likelihood of obtaining the outcome decreased. Rates of probability discounting were largely unaltered by the delay to receiving the outcome. The present results support the idea that delay and probability discounting are at least somewhat distinct. Furthermore, they suggest that the processes may differentially interact with one another.

There is a nuanced interplay between the provision of monetary incentives and behavioral performance. Individuals' performance typically increases with increasing incentives only up to a point, after which larger incentives may result in decreases in performance, a phenomenon known as “choking.” We investigated the influence of incentive framing on choking effects in humans: in one condition, participants performed a skilled motor task to obtain potential monetary gains; in another, participants performed the same task to avoid losing a monetary amount. In both the gain and loss frame, the degree of participants' behavioral loss aversion was correlated with their susceptibility to choking effects. However, the effects were markedly different in the gain and loss frames: individuals with higher loss aversion were susceptible to choking for large prospective gains and not susceptible to choking for large prospective losses, whereas individuals with low loss aversion choked for large prospective losses but not for large prospective gains. Activity in the ventral striatum was predictive of performance decrements in both the gain and loss frames. Moreover, a mediation analysis revealed that behavioral loss aversion hindered performance via the influence of ventral striatal activity on motor performance. Our findings indicate that the framing of an incentive has a profound effect on an individual's susceptibility to choking effects, which is contingent on their loss aversion. Furthermore, we demonstrate that the ventral striatum serves as an interface between incentive-driven motivation and instrumental action, regardless of whether incentives are framed in terms of potential losses or gains.

This study attempted to identify how regional integration and spatial enlargement would affect firms’ strategic decisions from the outside of an integrated region. By analyzing data sets between 2000 and 2007 utilizing the gravity model, this study examined the specific properties of Korean trade and FDI flows to the participating 5 CEECs and 5 western European states before and after the enlargement of the EU. The initial findings show that the number of new investments increased significantly after the enlargement while the monetary amount of total investment appeared to be negligibly affected. Further examinations by firm size revealed that SMEs were responsible for increased Korea FDI after the enlargement while large companies did not make any contributions. Having different attitudes toward risk aversion and anticipating opportunities for exploitation were suggested as a possible explanation.

Different evaluators typically disagree how to rank different candidates due to their idiosyncratic concerns for the various qualities of the candidates. Our ranking mechanism asks all evaluators to submit individual bids assigning a monetary amount for each possible rank order. The rules specify for all possible vectors of such individual bids the collectively binding rank order of candidates and the payments, due to the different evaluators. Three requirements uniquely determine procedurally fair ranking rules as a game form. Only when additionally assuming exogenously given true evaluations of collective rankings, which may be commonly or only privately known, and—in case of private information—beliefs concerning the evaluations by others, this game form determines proper games and allows for (game theoretic) equilibrium analysis. After an illustration, the approach is adjusted to situations where one wants to rank only acceptable sets of candidates thus rendering the mechanism even more attractive.

This paper considers the problem of facilitating coalition formation in self-interested multi-agent environments. To successfully form a coalition, agents must collectively agree on the monetary amount to charge for completion of a task as well as the distribution of subtasks within the coalition. The problem is accentuated as different subtasks have various degrees of difficulty and the agents do not possess perfect information. That is, an agent is uncertain of the true monetary requirement of other agents for completing subtasks. These complexities, coupled with the self-interested nature of agents, can inhibit or even prevent the formation of coalitions in such a real-world setting. As a solution we present an auction-based protocol called ACCORD. ACCORD facilitates coalition formation by promoting the adoption of cooperative behaviour amongst agents as a means of overcoming the complexities outlined above. Through extensive empirical analysis we analyse two variations of the ACCORD protocol and demonstrate that cooperative and fair behaviour is dominant and any agents deviating from this behaviour suffer a degradation in performance.

Centralized reputation systems use stars and reviews and thus require algorithm secrecy to avoid manipulation. In autonomous open source decentralized systems this luxury is not available. We create a reputation network for decentralized marketplaces where the trust each user gives to the other users is quantifiable and expressed in monetary terms. We introduce a new model for bitcoin wallets in which user coins are split among trusted associates. Direct trust is defined using shared bitcoin accounts via bitcoin’s 1-of-2 multisig. Indirect trust is subsequently defined transitively. This enables formal game theoretic arguments pertaining to risk analysis. We prove that risk and maximum flows are equivalent in our model and that our system is Sybil-resilient. Our system allows for concrete financial decisions on the subjective monetary amount a pseudonymous party can be trusted with. Risk remains invariant under a direct trust redistribution operation followed by a purchase.

Objective To estimate the funds required to support a MyPlate diet and to estimate the additional costs needed for Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program recipients to adhere to the MyPlate diet. Design Using the US Department of Agriculture's (USDA's) MyPlate dietary guidelines that specify recommendations for individuals based on age and gender and retail price data from the USDA, the cost of following USDA's MyPlate guidelines for consuming 3 meals daily was estimated for the following individuals: children, adolescents, female adults, male adults, female seniors, male seniors, and a 4-person family. Main Outcome Measures Cost of consuming a MyPlate diet, including canned, frozen, and fresh produce as part of the diet. Analysis Descriptive analysis of the cost of consuming a MyPlate diet. Results Consuming a MyPlate diet consisting of only fresh fruits and vegetables is the most expensive diet. The monthly additional costs on an individual basis is the largest for boys aged 12–17 years ($75/mo) because they have the largest quantity of food consumed compared with all other gender and age groups. The monthly cost for a family of 4 ranged from $1,109 to $1,249/mo. Conclusions and Implications The monetary amount of Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program benefits may be insufficient to support a healthy diet recommended by federal nutrition guidelines.

The study examined detection of deception in unsanctioned, consequential lies between either friends or strangers using an ultimatum game. The sender was given an amount of money to divide with the receiver. The receiver did not know the precise amount the sender had to divide, and the sender had the ability to deceive the receiver about the monetary amount. Not surprisingly, senders were more likely to deceive strangers than friends, and receivers were more suspicious of strangers than friends. When senders lied, they stated their offer more times and gave more supporting statements for their offer. Receivers had a strong truth bias, although the majority of senders were truthful, and friends had more of a truth bias than strangers. Receivers were not able to detect deception at a rate above chance. Friends were not better at detecting deception than strangers. However, because most participants were truthful and there was a strong truth bias, a high percentage of participants were able to detect when their partner was truthful, in confirmation of the veracity effect.

Road Traffic Accidents in developing countries are a serious concern in terms of safety and economy. RTAs share a considerable amount of overall life, resource, and productivity losses. It has become essential to monetize RTAs to aid the policymakers, economists, and the state government to efficiently select the cost-effective countermeasure for the safety of road users. The costs can be utilized in framing cost-effective safety measures and policies. This paper focuses on estimating the overall costs of Road Traffic Accidents in the city of Rawalpindi/Islamabad, Pakistan, by using the Human Capital Approach to estimate the monetary amount that the Road Traffic Accidents have cost to the cities in the year 2016. The research has categorized the costs into 5 main components, namely: medical costs, property damage costs, loss output, human loss, and administrative costs. A total of 10187 incidents have been recorded in the cities involving 12573 victims and 18136 vehicles. Results suggested that a total of pkr 2.183 billion has been incurred by the State of Pakistan with a loss of about 0.0074% to the GDP. The breakdown of the costs was as follows: Medical costs (pkr 93,898,640), and it comprises 4.26% of the total cost; Property damage costs include vehicular and property damage repair (pkr 214,840,463), and it comprises 9.84% of the total cost; Loss output (pkr 1,316,000,000), and it comprises 60.27% of the total cost; Human costs (pkr 473,584,345), and it comprise 21.69% of the total cost; Administrative costs (pkr 85,730,725), and it comprises 3.92% of the total cost.

We examined the reliability of a large set of paired comparison value judgments involving public goods, private goods, and sums of money. As respondents progressed through a random sequence of paired choices they were each given, their response time decreased and they became more consistent, apparently fine-tuning their responses, suggesting that respondents tend to begin a hypothetical value exercise with relatively imprecise preferences and that experience in expressing preference helps reduce that imprecision. Reliability was greater for private than for public good choices, and greater for choices between a good and a monetary amount than for choices between two goods. However, the reliability for public good choices was only slightly lower than for the private goods. Published by Elsevier B.V.

Companies commonly use philanthropic campaigns to attract and retain customers. Such campaigns often take the form of charity-linked promotions, where a company donates money to a cause when a customer makes a purchase. However, customer-related effects of such promotions remain under-studied, an issue this study investigates using field experiments in an online taxi booking company.Customers were randomly assigned to receive either a charity-linked or discount-based promotion. Take-up rates for charity-linked promotions were smaller than for discount-based promotions, and also less sensitive to the monetary amount. This is consistent with customer decisions being driven by a “warm glow” of giving and not just their extent of social impact.Although promotion take-up did represent new bookings rather than substitution of non-promotional bookings, there is little evidence of an increase in subsequent purchase frequency.This result raises questions regarding the common practice of online platforms devoting significant investor funds for short-term promotions.

Based on the high-reward tagging method, we determined that reporting rates by recreational anglers for tagged common snook Centropomus undecimalis along the Atlantic coast of Florida were approximately 60–70%. Additionally, we found that angler reporting rates were influenced by the use of high-reward tags. To estimate reporting rates, we tagged 989 common snook (range = 600–1,132 mm total length) with internal anchor tags that bore one of eight variable-reward messages (the word “Reward” with or without a specified monetary amount from US$5 to $200) during the summer closed-harvest season of 1995. Approximately equal numbers and sizes of fish were tagged in each reward group. The $200 reward was assumed to be sufficient to elicit a reporting rate of 100%. Return rates during the first year were quite variable and ranged from 13.7% for $5 tags to 25.0% for $25 tags, while the $200 tags had a return rate of 18.7%. Return rates generally increased with increasing reward amount, reaching an asympto...

This paper presents a new calculating methodology for estimating the quantitative monetary managerial effects as a result of total productive maintenance (TPM) activities. The suggested methodology is to calculate the total saving monetary amount composed of contribution profit and saving costs that are obtained by improving the overall equipment efficiency (OEE) of processing type equipment. The managerial effect that is the total saved monetary effect in keeping the OEE at the 1 percent upraised condition during a given period can be calculated by the sum of additive contribution profit and saved manufacturing cost. The proposed computation methodology is demonstrated by applying to a real industrial processing type of manufacturing equipment. This newly presented model is expected to contribute to raise the maturity of TPM activities by grasping the monetary quantitative managerial effects periodically.

ARE OFFICE POOLS LEGAL? In most instances, they are illegal. Ironically enough, however, office pools are “probably the most respectable form of illegal gambling . . . .”1 If you are like many Americans, events like the Super Bowl and the NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament are opportunities not only to down a few snacks and alcoholic refreshments, but to gamble a few dollars in the good ol’ office pool. In a typical office pool, participants are asked to ante-up a dollar and make their best guesses as to which team(s) will win, with the entire monetary amount invested in the pool going to the individual who guesses the majority of winners in the bracket.2 Every year, in offices nationwide, some enterprising individual is sending out “March Madness” e-mails soliciting others to “join in on the fun” or standing by the water fountain encouraging coworkers to “join in, it’s only a few bucks.” Sports events in America are a massive business; some estimate that sports comprise a $212 billion a year industry.3 Adding to that amount, sports wagering in America is estimated to be in the billions of dollars each year.4 Furthermore, sports wagering is quite popular from the nation’s factories to its boardrooms.5 The NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament is the nation’s largest betting event of the year, with estimates of $2.5 billion being wagered on office pools.6 However, as we all enjoy the camaraderie and challenge involved in filling out our brackets, we should not lose sight of the fact that the games we are watching could be fixed.7 Throughout history, sports wagering in America has witnessed professional sports personalities such as “Shoeless Joe” Jackson, Denny McLain, and Pete Rose suspended for gambling.8 While professional and collegiate

The issue of collaboration amongst agents in a multi-agent system (MAS) represents a challenging research problem. In this paper we focus on a form of cooperation known as coalition formation. The problem we consider is how to facilitate the formation of a coalition in a competitive marketplace, where self-interested agents must cooperate by forming a coalition in order to complete a task. Agents must reach a consensus on both the monetary amount to charge for completion of a task as well as the distribution of the required workload. The problem is further complicated because different subtasks have various degrees of difficulty and each agent is uncertain of the payment another agent requires for performing specific subtasks. These complexities, coupled with the self-interested nature of agents, can inhibit or even prevent the formation of coalitions in such a real-world setting. As a solution, a novel auction-based protocol called ACCORD is proposed here. ACCORD manages real-world complexities by promoting the adoption of cooperative behaviour amongst agents. Through extensive empirical analysis we analyse the ACCORD protocol and demonstrate that cooperative and fair behaviour is dominant and any agents deviating from this behaviour perform less well over time.

In ultimatum offer games with incomplete information a chance move determines a monetary amount which has to be distributed. In the games studied here the proposer always learns the outcome of the chance move whereas the responder only knows the priors. The proposer has to send an offer to the responder and the responder has to accept or reject the offer. In case of acceptance the monetary amount which has been determined by chance is allocated according to the proposal. In case of rejection various rules are possible depending on the veto power of the responder. Unlike most studies of ultimatum bargaining which focus on proposer behavior, the present study restricts itself to responder decisions and studies the importance of social motivations such as equality, self-esteem, absolute and relative payoffs, malevolence, fairness, and revenge. PsycINFO classification: 2360; 3000

Background: Stopping a trial incurs significant cost and thus this is not a decision that should be taken lightly. Data Monitoring Committee (DMC) is recommended to understand all options and their respective implications. Since this is a complicated decision, people often adopt some “rule of the thumb” guidelines rather than a comprehensive framework to assess the pros and cons. This article is a first step toward a unified approach to trial. It should be noted that the use of monetary amount is for illustration only-it is just a medium of a collective value and this is not unlike the use of Qualityadjusted Life Year (QALY). The framework is still valid if other measures such as utility are used instead. This article will review some major elements in making early stopping decision and then it will explain how a real option framework can be used to quantity the cost and the benefit of being able to make such decision. Method: This article proposes an analytical framework based on real option concept to estimate the cost and the benefit of being able to stop a trial early. Results: Flexibility usually is associated with some implicit and explicit additional cost. This method allows one to quantity the benefit of being able to stop early and thus one can make a more informed decision on whether to acquire that early stopping possibility intrial design. The information contained in an early-stopped AIDS trial is used to illustrate this. Conclusion: The challenges of stopping rules are discussed and then a real option approach to evaluate the value of being able to stop a trial early is proposed. This approach allows us to put the value of this choice into a boarder perspective and thus we are able to quantify the cost of early stoppage. This novel technique allows the trial designers to decide if they should incorporate the early stopping flexibility in their clinical trials.

Portuguese Abstract: O contrato de engineering resulta de um ato criativo e tecnico cada vez mais complexo e especializado. Esta associado, mormente, a grandes investimentos tecnologicos e cientificos que exigem a cooperacao de diversas areas do conhecimento. E um contrato de longa duracao, enquadrado na categoria de contratos para producao de bens e servicos, atraves do qual profissionais qualificados, geralmente integrados numa empresa de engenharia, concebem e concluem um projeto para um determinado cliente, que se compromete a disponibilizar certas informacoes e a pagar certa quantia monetaria, por forma direta, o pagamento do preco, ou indireta, por meio de royalties.A complexidade contratual e as vicissitudes decorrentes de todo o processo negocial, execucao e pos execucao, destacam o quao indispensavel e a auto-regulacao como mecanismo estabilizador das perspetivas das partes e de terceiros interessados na relacao juridica constituida.English Abstract; The engineering contract is the result of a creative and technical act increasingly complex and specialized. Is associated, mainly, the major technological and scientific investments that require the cooperation of several fields of knowledge. It is a long-term contract, framed within the category of contracts for the production of goods and services, through which skilled professionals, usually integrated in an engineering firm, conceive and complete a project for a client, which undertakes to make available certain information and to pay a certain monetary amount, either directly, payment of the price, or indirectly, through royalties.The contractual complexity and events borned of negotiation process, execution and post execution, highlight how essential is self-regulatory mechanism for stabilizing of the parties prospects and third parties interested in the legal relationship constituted.

Low vaccination rates with pneumococcal vaccine in elderly persons in Japan are thought to be related to low levels of public subsidy. To identify strategies to increase future pneumococcal vaccination rates, we examined the relationship between public subsidies and vaccination rates. We also investigated the influence of free vaccinations after the 2011 Great East Japan Earthquake on vaccination rates in the three Tohoku prefectures of Japan. We surveyed a total of 1742 municipalities in Japan about whether public subsidies were available and their monetary amount. Vaccination rates with the 23-valent pneumococcal vaccine were calculated as the "cumulative amount shipped to each municipality divided by the population aged ≥65 years." There were no subsidies in 773 municipalities (44.4%). In those municipalities with public subsidies, larger subsidies were significantly associated with elevated vaccination rates (p < 0.0001). Compared to a mean vaccination rate of 25.4% throughout Japan, the vaccination rate was 52.1% in municipalities where the full cost was subsidized. The three prefectures (Iwate, Miyagi, and Fukushima) most affected by the Great East Japan Earthquake ranked as the top three prefectures for vaccination rates in Japan, presumably as a result of the free vaccination campaign for disaster victims. Our findings show that public subsidies play an important role in increasing the vaccination rate. The free vaccinations given to disaster victims after the Great East Japan Earthquake helped to achieve extremely high vaccination rates in the three Tohoku prefectures. We suggest that such public subsidies should be promoted throughout Japan.

Importance With the changing academic medical environment, nontraditional methods may need to be considered to foster research and scholarly activity during the otolaryngology residency experience. Objective To evaluate the results of a reward system on resident research activity. Design, Setting, and Participants Retrospective review of publications and approved institutional review board (IRB) projects between July 1, 1997, and June 30, 2011, among otolaryngology residents at a single otolaryngology residency program at the University of Missouri. Intervention A resident reward system, which awards points for research efforts for each progressive step along the research path from project design to acceptance for publication, was implemented on July 1, 2004. Residents can convert points to a monetary amount to be used for academic enrichment. Main Outcomes and Measures Publication rate and IRB approval rate were compared before and after institution of the reward system. Study design types that were published and study design types that received IRB approval were evaluated as well. We hypothesized that the reward system would increase research quantity and quality. Results The mean publication output per resident per year increased from 0.13 (95% CI, 0.03-0.23) before commencement of the reward system to 0.43 (95% CI, 0.26-0.60) after implementation of the reward system ( P = .004). Significantly more case reports were published compared with other study design types. The number of approved IRB projects before institution of the reward system was 0.47 (95% CI, 0.18-0.75) per resident per year. After instituting the reward system, this increased significantly to 1.29 (95% CI, 0.96-1.63) per resident per year ( P = .007). Significant increases in IRB-approved case reports and retrospective clinical studies were noted. Conclusions and Relevance After implementation of a point-based reward system, resident research activity increased. The data suggest that this system may encourage resident research, although further refinement may be required to promote higher-quality research endeavors.

Humans and animals value the opportunity to choose by preferring alternatives that offer more rather than fewer choices. This preference for choice may arise not only from an increased probability of obtaining preferred outcomes but also from the freedom it provides. We used human neuroimaging to investigate the neural basis of the preference for choice as well as for the items that could be chosen. In each trial, participants chose between two options, a monetary amount option and a “choice option.” The latter consisted of a number that corresponded to the number of everyday items participants would subsequently be able to choose from. We found that the opportunity to choose from a larger number of items was equivalent to greater amounts of money, indicating that participants valued having more choice; moreover, participants varied in the degree to which they valued having the opportunity to choose, with some valuing it more than the increased probability of obtaining preferred items. Neural activations in the mid striatum increased with the value of the opportunity to choose. The same region also coded the value of the items. Conversely, activation in the dorsolateral striatum was not related to the value of the items but was elevated when participants were offered more choices, particularly in those participants who overvalued the opportunity to choose. These data suggest a functional dissociation of value representations within the striatum, with general representations in mid striatum and specific representations of the value of freedom provided by the opportunity to choose in dorsolateral striatum.

Most of the choices we make have uncertain consequences. In some cases the probabilities for different possible outcomes are precisely known, a condition termed "risky". In other cases when probabilities cannot be estimated, this is a condition described as "ambiguous". While most people are averse to both risk and ambiguity(1,2), the degree of those aversions vary substantially across individuals, such that the subjective value of the same risky or ambiguous option can be very different for different individuals. We combine functional MRI (fMRI) with an experimental economics-based method(3 )to assess the neural representation of the subjective values of risky and ambiguous options(4). This technique can be now used to study these neural representations in different populations, such as different age groups and different patient populations. In our experiment, subjects make consequential choices between two alternatives while their neural activation is tracked using fMRI. On each trial subjects choose between lotteries that vary in their monetary amount and in either the probability of winning that amount or the ambiguity level associated with winning. Our parametric design allows us to use each individual's choice behavior to estimate their attitudes towards risk and ambiguity, and thus to estimate the subjective values that each option held for them. Another important feature of the design is that the outcome of the chosen lottery is not revealed during the experiment, so that no learning can take place, and thus the ambiguous options remain ambiguous and risk attitudes are stable. Instead, at the end of the scanning session one or few trials are randomly selected and played for real money. Since subjects do not know beforehand which trials will be selected, they must treat each and every trial as if it and it alone was the one trial on which they will be paid. This design ensures that we can estimate the true subjective value of each option to each subject. We then look for areas in the brain whose activation is correlated with the subjective value of risky options and for areas whose activation is correlated with the subjective value of ambiguous options.

The Value of Information relates to making better decisions under uncertainty and to the values and costs of acquiring data. The VOI is very useful in petroleum applications where one considers buying more data before making a decision. we present the definition of the VOI, and then we present two petroleum examples which use VOI for decision making. In the first application we want to decide about the optimal time for using gyroscopic measurements in drilling operations to reduce risk and minimize drilling costs. The second example deals with detecting hidden pockets of oil (gas). In this case we predict the expected value of potential revenues and decide to drill or not based on AVO seismic and CSEM resistivity. Both these examples are situations where it is relevant to perform a monitoring survey. The VOI gives the expected monetary amount of making the informed decisions based on these monitoring data. If the VOI is smaller than the price of data acquisition, the monitoring survey is not worth the cost. In the small examples, we calculate the VOI result before buying new data. Based on calculations we can decide about the optimal time for purchasing monitoring data, if it is useful.

A number of established and novel business models are based on fine grained billing, including pay-per-view, mobile messaging, voice calls, pay-as-you-drive insurance, smart metering for utility provision, private computing clouds and hosted services. These models apply fine-grained tariffs dependent on time-of-use or place of-use to readings to compute a bill.We extend previously proposed billing protocols to strengthen their privacy in two key ways. First, we study the monetary amount a customer should add to their bill in order to provably hide their activities, within the differential privacy framework. Second, we propose a cryptographic protocol for oblivious billing that ensures any additional expenditure, aimed at protecting privacy, can be tracked and reclaimed in the future, thus minimising its cost. Our proposals can be used together or separately and are backed by provable guarantees of security.

In four experiments, we compared the effects of delay, probability, and monetary amount on the subjective value of gains and losses. For delayed gains, smaller amounts were discounted more steeply than larger amounts, whereas the opposite pattern was observed with probabilistic gains. For both delayed and probabilistic losses, however, amount had much smaller and less reliable effects on discounting. Taken together, the pattern of differential magnitude effects leads to delayed gains’ being discounted significantly more steeply than delayed losses, but only at smaller amounts, whereas probabilistic gains are discounted significantly more steeply than probabilistic losses, but only at larger amounts. Even though the same hyperbola-like function described both individual and group discounting of delayed and probabilistic gains and losses, the present findings suggest that different processes are involved in discounting positive and negative outcomes. Raw data may be downloaded from www.psychonomic.org/archive.

In Experiments 1 and 2, 25 and 48 college students made binary choices between hypothetical money amounts. In Part A, choices were between small amounts available with certainty and larger amounts ($10 to $10,000) available with risk. Choices in Part B were between immediate small amounts and delayed larger amounts. As money amount grew, risk aversion and delay aversion both changed but in opposite ways: Risk aversion grew but delay aversion shrank. Part C of Experiment 1 pitted risky amounts against delayed amounts, and its results were consistent with those of Parts A and B. Equivalences of particular risks and delays depended on the particular monetary amounts to which they attached. In Experiment 3, 20 college students made binary choices between money amounts, knowing that they would actually receive some of the selections they made. In Part A, choices were between certain small amounts and risky larger amounts ($1 and $10). Choice problems in Part B were between immediate small amounts and delayed receipt of $1 or $10. The results were like those of Experiment 1, though weaker. These results argue against models of choice that posit an equivalence of risk and delay that is independent of monetary amount.

Досліджуються основні напрямки розвитку монетарних процесів в Україні в останні роки. Автор зазначає, що відбувається випереджання темпів зростання грошової маси відносно динаміки попиту на гроші. Розглядаються причини цього явища. The author investigates the main trends in the development of monetary processes in Ukraine in the recent years and points out that there is more growth of money supply in comparison to the dynamics of demand for money. The causes of this phenomena are studied.

The Sulzman Award for Excellence in Education and Mentoring (Biogeosciences section) recognizes AGU members who have sustained an active research career in a field related to biogeosciences while excelling as teachers and serving as role models for the next generation of female scientists. This new award acknowledges the importance of female mentors in enhancing gender balance in physical science career paths. The award is being endowed to honor Elizabeth Sulzman, an isotope biogeochemist and soil scientist, whose enthusiasm for teaching awed many undergraduates at Oregon State University. Current plans are to present the first Sulzman award at the 2013 Fall Meeting. Applicants must be women who are within 15 years of receiving their Ph.D., and nomination packages should include a cover letter, resume, and three letters of recommendation. As they become available, more details will be posted on the Biogeosciences section Web site (http://www.agu.org/sections/biogeo/). The award will provide up to $1000 to one successful nominee each year, although the exact monetary amount is yet to be determined. AGU is currently accepting donations to endow this award; contact Victoria Thompson (vthompson@agu.org) to get involved.

Many states respond to deteriorating economic conditions in their inner cities and rural communities by establishing geographically targeted tax incentives. In this paper, we examine the impact of several of these Enterprise Zone (EZ) programs on local employment. The results show that the EZ programs do not have a significant impact on local employment. Program impact does not depend on the monetary amount of the incentives and or on specific features of program design. These conclusions are constant across two econometric approaches to controlling for the non-random placement of zones and stand up to a wide variety of sensitivity analyses.

In a world that is increasingly dominated by ubiquitous, wireless and mobile communication applications, consumers and businesses need continuous protection from fraud and unfair competition. Since 2007, budgeted expenditures incurred by the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) aimed at protecting the public have been categorised into objectives which are disclosed on the web. This study examined the annual expenditures patterns of those budgeted categories and found that the monetary amount and priority rankings of the respective categories were quite predictable. In other words the two goals and their related objectives appear to have received consistent priority and levels of funding. Within the nine categories, the cost per Full–Time Equivalent (FTE) can be quite different. Overall, it can also be said that based on the amounts approved by Congress during the period studied, the FTC is funded well because the changes are significant. Therefore, consumers and businesses can likewise expect the same and probably more effective protection from future fraud that can be perpetrated using mobile devices and unfair global competitive practices.

The effect of various large monetary incentives was examined in a mail survey of owners of small construction subcontracting companies. The sample was randomly divided into seven groups, each of which received either a different monetary amount enclosed with the first mailing ($1 cash, $5 cash, $5 check, $10 check, $20 check, or $40 check) or an offer of a $50 check to be sent once the questionnaire was returned. These groups were compared against each other and against a control group that did not receive an incentive. Three follow-up mailings were sent to the nonrespondents in each group. The results indicate that $1 significantly increased the response rate over the no incentive control condition regardless of the number of mailings. The response rate also increased significantly as the incentive amount increased from $1 to $5 and from $5 to $20. There was a nonsignificant difference in response rate between the $5 check and $5 cash groups. The promise of $50 did not result in a significantly higher response rate than the control group. Discussion includes a cost-benefit analysis of the incentives, as well as a section about the increased "favorability" of respondents toward the survey sponsor within the large incentive groups.

The Storebrand Insurance Company has introduced a new bonus—malus system for automobile insurance (passenger cars) into the Norwegian market. The new system differs from traditional bonus—malus systems mainly due to the fact that bonus reduction after a claim is expressed by a fixed monetary amount. This paper describes the practical implementation of the bonus—malus system.

The fundamental approach to the preparation of accounts over many years has been to use the historical cost of each transaction as the monetary amount for recording it in the books and accounts. For many decades this approach worked perfectly well, and whilst it was not correct to say that the accounts gave the “value” of the items shown, the cost recorded for each item was rarely materially different from the contemporary cost at the time the accounts were prepared. Thus the accounts often gave some indication of the current cost of the items shown therein. However, with the development of rapid inflation, especially during the 1970s, this assumption was generally confounded. No longer did the accounts give a reasonable guide to the current cost, let alone the current value of the items shown. This deficiency presented severe problems to companies using accounts for decision making, and also to external users, including banks