Search

Consumers on the Canadian home front did not suffer extreme deprivation as a consequence of the Second World War. Price controls effectively combatted inflation and rationing was neither widespread nor unpopular where it did apply. Consequently, black markets were not a major feature of life in wartime Canada. However, at war's end limited black markets, especially in meat, emerged as consumer expectations outstripped supply. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The extensive black market for meat in Occupied France shows the breadth of popular opposition to Vichy's system for food allocation and its links to collaboration. The black market gained support from farmers, butchers, consumers, and traffickers improvising to evade state regulation. This article explains the importance of the black market for meat in Vichy France as fostered by two logics for illicit traffic. The first was the obvious opportunity to profit from the shortages and state controls; the second, its influence more widespread, served the needs of family, friends, and communities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Developing country inflation is in the headlines again. Mainstream macroeconomics typically ignores the role of conflict while non‐mainstream work tends to ignore macroeconomic constraints. This paper revisits the issue employing a dependent economy framework with eclectic characteristics. Specifically, I explore the mechanisms that propagate both real and monetary sources of inflation in the presence of real wage resistance and distributional conflict. The analysis shows that the inability to pay for subsidies with taxes or bond issuance in a stylized developing economy could create a situation where a relatively small shock leads to sustained and accelerating inflation and a wage‐price spiral, thanks to conflicting claims on income. Subsidies to protect consumers from external price shocks could, similarly, leave a country vulnerable to accelerating wage‐price spirals as the stabilizing relative price effects of a declining foreign asset position are dampened. Distributional conflict thus plays the role of sustainer rather than the primum mobile. Price controls could, in theory, better enable inflation management if these do not result in redistribution toward spenders. Such controls, however, create other trade‐offs for countries facing balance‐of‐payments fragility. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

It is well known that a consumer price-neutral reform of consumption taxes and import tariffs is welfare-improving. This paper shows that such price controls are inferior to quantity controls in terms of welfare improvement. The paper next turns to a comparison of different abatement strategies. Whether or not policy changes should fix private abatement or public abatement relates to the level of earmarking, and depends on the relationship between private production and public abatement. There are cases in which increased public abatement only improves welfare by more than both increased private and public abatement together. The paper recommends that environmental earmarking in the form of public abatement should be delivered to cushion price hikes and sustain private energy consumption. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Israel was founded in 1948, and immediately afterwards, numerous immigrants came to the country. The Israeli government decided to provide provisions to these immigrants, along with trying to develop the country and investing in the military. This fiscal expansion was funded by seigniorage, and the government attempted to restrain inflation by imposing price controls and rationing food and other consumer goods. This policy failed to stop inflation, and there were persistent shortages of many goods in the country, except for bread which was not rationed. There were even shortages of eggs, which were all produced domestically and whose output increased on a per capita basis by more than 250% in comparison to the number of eggs produced prior to the founding of the state. This indicates that the shortages in the stores were due to the rationing. The shortages led to a flourishing black market, and a reduction in consumer welfare. The rationing made a difficult situation worse and the government began to end the rationing in 1952. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

It is widely believed that China's socialist economy had relatively high rates of extreme poverty while the capitalist reforms of the 1980s and 1990s delivered rapid progress. This narrative relies on World Bank estimates of the share of people living on less than $1.90 a day (2011 PPP), which show a sharp decline from 88 per cent in 1981 to zero by 2018. However, the World Bank's poverty line has been critiqued for ignoring variations in the actual cost of meeting basic needs. In this paper we review data published by the OECD on the share of people unable to afford a subsistence basket. These estimates indicate that from 1981 to 1990, when most of China's socialist provisioning systems were still in place, the country's extreme poverty rate was on average only 5.6 per cent, substantially lower than in capitalist economies of comparable size and income at the time: 51 per cent in India, 36.5 per cent in Indonesia, and 29.5 per cent in Brazil. China's comparatively strong performance is corroborated by data on other social indicators. Moreover, extreme poverty in China increased during the capitalist reforms of the 1990s, reaching a peak of 68 per cent, as privatisation inflated the prices of essential goods and thus deflated the incomes of the working classes. These results indicate that socialist provisioning policies can be effective at preventing extreme poverty, while market reforms may threaten people's ability to meet basic needs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Historia 396 is the property of Pontificia Universidad Catolica de Valparaiso, Instituto de Historia and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

The return of persistent inflation in OECD countries has been the most significant macroeconomic phenomenon in recent years. This article analyses different explanations for the current inflationary dynamics, from which various policy recommendations arise. Specifically, by using a Multi-Regional Input-Output (MRIO) model, the article investigates whether the rise in profits and profit share is the result of changes in the behaviour of firms or just the natural outcome of rising energy costs, in the case of France, Italy and Spain. Our results indicate that companies raised prices more than necessary in order to maintain their levels of profitability in each of the European economies analysed, confirming that inflation hikes were led by surging profits. This implies that the introduction or strengthening of price controls would help to rapidly bring inflation under control, protecting the purchasing power of households.

Immediately after the establishment of the Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia, the government of the Protectorate began to enact legislation for the transition to a controlled economy, following the Reich model. Its nature varied, but at least two basic groups can be distinguished: legislation regulating the market and legislation regulating the rationing system. One of the main features controlled economy of the Protectorate was the freezing and control of prices, for which the Supreme Price Office was created. In practice, restrictions on the free sale of food, fuel and other commodities played a crucial role. At the same time, Czech-Moravian associations were created - they managed and controlled the production and distribution of food and other commodities, and some state functions were delegated to them. In course of the implementation of the controlled economy, essential management and control tasks were also delegated to the provincial and district authorities, which also prosecuted offences against maintenance economy and controlled economy. In the course of time, repression took hold, and the German special courts punished with all the vigour and severity they could, even in the case of Protectorate citizens, acts against economic regulations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Revista Catalana de Dret Públic is the property of Revista Catalana de Dret Public and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Concerns about cost containment and price volatility have led regulators to include price controls in many cap-and-trade markets. We study how these controls affect firms' incentives to invest in the adoption of abatement technologies in a model with abatement cost uncertainty. Price floors increase investment incentives because they raise the expected benefits from lowering abatement costs. We also report a market experiment that features abatement cost uncertainty and the opportunity for cost-reducing investment, with and without a price floor. Consistent with the theoretical model, investment is significantly greater with the price floor in place. Emissions permit prices also respond as predicted to abatement investments and emissions shocks. In particular, prices are only responsive to investment and shocks when the price floor is not implemented. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As a platform to improve the efficiency of matching supply and demand, parking applications once blossomed in many cities. However, some have achieved success while others quickly withered. By comparing the development of parking applications between Beijing and London, it is found that price controls are a key factor. Price controls include price limits and hourly limits. Flexible price or controlled duration facilitate platform sustainability, as these increase the supply side's digital investment and willingness to access the platform, and also increase demanders' willingness to use the platform. Meanwhile, flat and low pricing or no time limit will make the platform less attractive, since these reduce the supply and its mobility, and also discourage demanders from using the platform. This paper enriches the literature on the digital platform ecosystem and information systems (IS) and provides practical inspiration for urban parking management. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We use rich microdata from the 1951 Survey of Consumer Finances to study inflation expectations and consumption during the Korean War, in an episode when monetary policy was constrained. We provide the first detailed analysis of consumer inflation expectations from that era. Using survey measures of actual and expected spending on durables, cars, and homes at extensive and intensive margins, we show that the difference between consumption in 1950 and expected consumption in 1951 increases with expected inflation. Effect sizes are modest, even though household balance sheets were healthy and inflation was salient. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Theory suggests anticipation of shortages stemming from price regulation can motivate households to stock up more and thereby aggravate the regulation-induced shortage. We test this theory on online shopping searches for two typically store-bought staples: hand sanitizer and toilet paper. Combining (i) interstate variation in type of price-gouging regulation—preexisting versus surprise versus none, (ii) their temporally staggered implementation, and (iii) the demand surges for hand sanitizer and toilet paper during the COVID-19 pandemic facilitates identifying the impacts of different price-gouging regulation on consumer searches. Our results are consistent with price-gouging regulation–driven anticipatory hoarding. Difference-in-differences estimates reveal that states with preexisting-regulation experience the largest increases in post-implementation search proportions for both products. Accounting for potential endogeneity of implementation using a nearest-neighbor matching strategy reveals states that make surprise announcements of new regulation during the pandemic also experience larger increases in post-activation hand sanitizer search proportions than states without any such policy, but smaller increases than what preexisting-law states experience. These results corroborate the theoretical predictions about consequences of regulation-induced anticipation of shortages and inform the current policy debate surrounding impacts of price-gouging laws. Fundamentally, our results indicate behavioural responses to policy evolve as experience reveals the effects of the policy, and this evolution might influence the welfare consequences of the policy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Rapid socioeconomic development has produced a widening gap between economic theory and reality. As a result, it has become increasingly difficult to objectively assess whether financial regulatory policies adopted by nations worldwide are aligned with the fundamental objectives of stimulating financial market growth and promoting competition, and whether these policies are based on a realistic market picture. Such policy assessments have become particularly challenging for the payments industry and in regards to the regulation governing emergent financial market players from other industries (e.g. Big Tech). Coupled with the radical shift in the role of regulators themselves, this phenomenon raises a variety of scientific questions. Over the past few years, participants in the financial industry, primarily in the payment segment around the world, have, in practice, faced changes in the approaches of central (national) banks to market regulation. In our opinion, the key change lies in the new role that regulation is acquiring: now it not only reacts to market changes by setting a regulatory framework for them, but also becomes the central source and determining instrument of market changes. In this article, we substantiate an approach to the study of the directions of changes in the functions of macroregulation as a single mechanism in relation to a single object, in contrast to the studies available in the scientific literature within the framework of individual segments or infrastructures as well as the practice of regulation. The payment market used as an example is due to the fact that, by now, it is on this market that the changes studied manifest themselves to the greatest extent.

In times of pandemics or natural catastrophes, prices of commodities, such as water, food and medicines, tend to shoot up, in response to a surge in demand and depleting supplies. The government, in its misguided efforts to maintain “price affordability”, imposes price controls and anti-price-gouging legislation and bans the reselling of food and medical supplies. These interventions in the free market are the exact opposite of what the government should do, if it wants to ensure that enough commodities go to people who need them, that people do not hoard all available goods on grocery shelves, and most importantly, that suppliers have the incentive to produce more goods to meet current and future demand at market prices.

To show how inclusionary zoning alters development, the author finds the most profitable housing design to build on vacant lots at each location in a monocentric city under different regulatory regimes. Section 1 sets up the model by specifying renter's preferences, geography and building parameters. Section 2 solves the developer's profit-maximization problem at each location under each regime. Finally, in Section 3, a numerical simulation confirms the effects predicted by theory and gives a picture of their magnitude.

The literature on access prices and investment has suggested that firms under-invest when subject to an access provision obligation combined with a fixed access price per consumer. In this paper, I study an access price per consumer for an innovative service such as superfast broadband provided by a regulated firm that is a function of its geographical coverage (indexation approach). The indexation approach can enhance economic efficiency beyond what is achieved with a fixed access price under a set of standard assumptions. In particular, it can simultaneously induce the firms to set lower retail prices, lead to wider geographical coverage of innovative services and higher social welfare level compared with a fixed access price. Moreover, in the model, the indexation may be used to achieve approximately the Ramsey outcome, or the first-best coverage level. I address how a regulator can set the access price indexation optimally, based on the coverage cost plus an incentive. I highlight the potential role of indexation as a tool to reduce the need for public subsidies and the associated tax distortions when compared with a fixed access price. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Existing anti-gouging laws in several US states prohibit large price increases in the wake of emergencies. Statewide emergency declarations following the COVID-19 pandemic's rapid onset activated these laws, creating a natural experiment that we exploit. We compare the changes in search behavior before and after activation across states with and without these laws using data from Google Shopping Trends during the early stages of the pandemic. We focus on hand sanitizer and toilet paper, two staples predominantly bought in stores in regular times that experienced substantial in-store shortages during the pandemic. We find robust evidence that antigouging laws increased searches for hand sanitizer, and some evidence of similar impacts on toilet paper. These results corroborate predictions regarding the shortage-inducing or -aggravating tendencies of anti-gouging laws, and they inform the ongoing public debate on anti-gouging laws and their potential effects during public health emergencies like COVID-19. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Over the last decade, the number of Americans who took a single prescription drug increased by ten percent while the use of multiple prescription drugs increased by twenty percent.1 According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), almost half of the U.S. population uses prescription drugs. The most commonly prescribed drugs are those used to manage high blood pressure and heart disease for patients 60 years of age and older.2 Additionally, the most commonly prescribed drugs for people ages 20 to 59 were antidepressants.3 This increase in prescription drug usage comes at a high price. In the past decade, the national pharmaceutical bill has more than doubled to a hefty $234 billion.4 This cost is expected to increase with the rise in population, the increase in acute and chronic medical conditions, and the growing cost of new pharmaceuticals. As these numbers continue to rise, it is important for healthcare providers (HCPs) and patients to seriously reconsider the value of pharmaceutical intervention. Current U.S. healthcare models emphasize the role of HCPs in fixing rather than foreseeing problems. A new, forward-looking preventive model could be effective in improving the public’s health outlook and would also reduce the need for bandaging health concerns by averting them altogether. Health comprises dynamic and complex processes which encompass various mental and physical states. Similarly, preventive care relies on the dynamic and complex mechanisms at work within the purview of healthcare systems, as well as outside of them. Agencies both inside and outside this system have the ability to offer preventive care measures and have good reason to do so. In this essay, I will focus on the obligation that healthcare systems, HCPs, and governments are tasked with to provide and implement preventive care measures. Moreover, I will offer possible solutions to current barriers in this type of care, which will provide insight into future directions. Encouraging Preventive Care in the Clinical Setting Organizations such as hospitals, health systems, and accreditation programs have the ability to create an atmosphere that encourages a preventive model. Unfortunately, doctors-in-training spend less time with patients now than they have in the past. A recent study in 2013 conducted by researchers from the University of Maryland and Johns Hopkins University observed two different internal medicine training programs for a total of 900 hours.5 The researchers found that most of the doctors’ time was spent on indirect patient care such as writing notes, entering orders, and talking with other providers. More shockingly, researchers found that interns allocated only twelve percent of their time – the equivalent of eight minutes each day – to each patient. Preventive care begins with a didactic conversation – talking to a patient about lifestyle, beliefs, and aspirations. This approach enables HCPs to care more appropriately for the patient as a whole and to provide interventions, which can result in substantial long-term effects. However, a new provider’s experiences can strongly influence her method of practicing.6 The new providers trained in U.S. programs and schools have the potential to reform our methods of practicing medicine. However, current institutional demands can shape what a future provider perceives as acceptable and unacceptable. A provider who hardly has time to converse with a single patient will be hard-pressed to recognize the signs and symptoms of disease before it manifests. Moreover, if a new provider is taught that spending eight minutes or less with a patient is standard, little room is left for the much needed conversations that may encourage behavioral change. If more time is devoted to patient-doctor interactions, specific behavioral interventions could significantly increase a patient’s quality of life. Health systems must also promote preventive prescriptions. Instead of utilizing the prescription pad for pharmaceutical interventions when treating an illness, HCPs should have the ability to write prescriptions that promote complete physical, mental, and social well-being. Organizations such as Health Leads work to connect low-income patients with basic health-related resources.7 A patient may continually return to a physician’s office with complaints of respiratory problems; however, the etiology of this condition may be due to poor ventilation – a problem that medication neither addresses nor can resolve. Health systems partnering with Health Leads can prescribe food, fuel, housing, and, in the example of the patient with respiratory issues, proper ventilation. Preventive prescriptions can decrease costs and preclude less chronic and reoccurring diseases that are due to environmental factors.8 Taking Time to Talk Proper preventive care would rely on a strong fiduciary relationship between the patient and HCP. However, this certainly would require time, which is lacking in many clinical settings. Even if healthcare systems change their teaching methods and encourage physicians to spend more time with each patient, the HCPs must also ensure an appropriate amount of time is spent with the patient. Not only does a limited amount of time result in inadequate observations and diagnoses, but it also can lead to lower patient satisfaction, negative outcomes, and inappropriate prescribing.9 HCPs require time to talk with the patient, address hopes, discuss fears, and inspire long-lasting changes in regimens. The responsibility to be present with the patient requires the HCP to exercise proper self-care. Primary care physicians are just one of many groups of providers who are reporting less time with their patients, which consequently results in greater stress and burnout.10 Moreover, patients of more satisfied HCPs are more likely to show up for appointments and adhere to treatment.11, 12 Encouraging self-care not only improves the metrics over which hospital advisory boards debate, but also encourages a trusting and caring relationship between HCPs and patients. More time allows for an extended conversation about smoking cessation or the risks of over-eating, and may encourage preventative behavioral change before it may be too late. If given adequate time, HCPs can focus on instilling long-lasting change through behavioral treatment rather than solely relying on pharmacological intervention. For example, in psychiatric treatment, the combined effects of psychotherapy and medications indicate faster recovery rates, decreased rate of relapse, improved compliance and satisfaction, and lower long-term health costs.13 In bariatric medicine, HCPs who provide nutritional counseling have been shown to increase cost-effectiveness and are estimated to extend the life-span of patients.14 Patients also show a two-fold increase in smoking cessation when HCPs intervene and speak directly to their patients about smoking, agree upon a quit date, and schedule follow-up visits.15 Behavioral interventions, when implemented prudentially, have the potential to save money and lives. Educating patients on the value of proper nutrition and exercise could help to lessen the impact of chronic conditions such as cardiovascular disease or diabetes. Instead of prescribing a beta- blocker, HCPs could act earlier in the patient’s life by writing prescriptions for daily cardiovascular exercise or for complete servings of fruits and vegetables with every meal. Whether the intervention is aimed at fostering personal meaning or developing a personal diet, behavioral intervention offers specialized care without immediately prescribing pharmaceuticals that appear to work for the average patient. Constructing for Health The duty to provide preventive care does not rest solely in the hands of HCPs or the health system – the surrounding community should also be responsible and held accountable. Governments can encourage preventive care and thereby improve community health by structuring environments towards healthy choices. For instance, rates of daily walking have declined drastically in the United States in recent decades, contributing to increased respiratory problems and childhood obesity.16 Promoting urban design of communities to maximize ease of walking, rather than driving, is one simple way for governments to encourage this change. Moreover, communities that provide shared pedestrian-friendly public spaces are likely to see increased social interaction and a feeling of belonging in the community. On a city-wide level, localities can work to create biophilic cities that encourage a healthy rapport between human beings and other living organisms. Human interaction with nature has shown to reduce stress, aid in recovery from illness, enhance academic performance, and moderate the effects of childhood illness.17 Urbanists and city planners can advance this design rather than view such healing effects as an afterthought. Implementing biophilic design can also help to eliminate food scarcity and encourage proper nutrition by supporting community gardens. Initiatives such as biophilic cities, guerrilla gardening, and pedestrian-friendly communities can encourage a more equitable distribution of environmental preventive healthcare resources across communities. A Lifetime of Difference With the rise in chronic conditions and prescription drug usage, it is imperative for health systems, HCPs, and governments to consider more effective and less costly alternatives. Spending more time with the patient, considering behavioral interventions, and constructing environments to promote healthy behavior will contribute to this process. Preventive models have the ability to extend access to healthcare by reshaping environments while reducing patient costs and stressors. Incentivizing increased time with the patient and the use of prescriptions for basic utilities and goods can start now within our health systems. We should be having these necessary conversations and encouraging preventive care throughout society. The decision to handle health conditions solely as curative rather than integrating preventive care is a moral decision and there is good reason to integrate both into modern healthcare. Health is a state of complete physical, mental, and social well-being and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity.18 By encouraging preventive measures, we not only aid in healing, but also foster well-being connectedness, and human flourishing. Similar to health, prevention is multi-faceted and depends on many agents and parties to produce meaningful change. Changes such as spending additional time with patients, encouraging behavioral interventions, and changing our very landscapes have the potential to make a difference for a lifetime. References: 1 Gu, Qiuping, Charles F. Dillon, and Vicki L. Burt. "Prescription drug use continues to increase: US prescription drug data for 2007-2008." NCHS data brief 42 (2010): 1-8. 2 Ibid. 3 Ibid. 4 Almashat, Sammy, Charles Preston, Timothy Waterman, and Sidney Wolfe. "Rapidly increasing criminal and civil monetary penalties against the pharmaceutical industry: 1991 to 2010." Washington DC: Public Citizen's Health Research Group (2010). 5 Block, Lauren, Robert Habicht, Albert W. Wu, Sanjay V. Desai, Kevin Wang, Kathryn Novello Silva, Timothy Niessen, Nora Oliver, and Leonard Feldman. "In the wake of the 2003 and 2011 duty hours regulations, how do internal medicine interns spend their time?." Journal of general internal medicine 28, no. 8 (2013): 1042-1047. 6 Hafferty, Frederic W. "Beyond curriculum reform: confronting medicine's hidden curriculum." Academic Medicine 73, no. 4 (1998): 403-7. 7 "Health Leads." Health Leads. Accessed January 14, 2015. 8 Sayer, Caroline, and Thomas H. Lee. "Time after Time—Health Policy Implications of a Three-Generation Case Study." New England Journal of Medicine 371, no. 14 (2014): 1273-1276. 9 Dugdale, David C., Ronald Epstein, and Steven Z. Pantilat. "Time and the patient–physician relationship." Journal of General Internal Medicine 14, no. S1 (1999): 34-40. 10 Friedberg, Mark William, Peggy G. Chen, Kristin R. Van Busum, Frances Aunon, Chau Pham, John Caloyeras, Soeren Mattke et al. Factors Affecting Physician Professional Satisfaction and Their Implications for Patient Care, Health Systems, and Health Policy. Rand Corporation, 2013. 11 Linn, Lawrence S., Robert H. Brook, Virginia A. Clark, Allyson Ross Davies, Arlene Fink, and Jacqueline Kosecoff. "Physician and patient satisfaction as factors related to the organization of internal medicine group practices." Medical Care (1985): 1171-1178. 12 DiMatteo, M. Robin, Cathy Donald Sherbourne, Ron D. Hays, Lynn Ordway, Richard L. Kravitz, Elizabeth A. McGlynn, Sherrie Kaplan, and William H. Rogers. "Physicians' characteristics influence patients' adherence to medical treatment: results from the Medical Outcomes Study." Health psychology 12, no. 2 (1993): 93. 13 Teasdale, John D., Zindel V. Segal, J. Mark G. Williams, Valerie A. Ridgeway, Judith M. Soulsby, and Mark A. Lau. "Prevention of relapse/recurrence in major depression by mindfulness-based cognitive therapy." Journal of consulting and clinical psychology 68, no. 4 (2000): 615. 14 Olsen, Jens, Ingrid Willaing, Steen Ladelund, Torben Jørgensen, Jens Gundgaard, and Jan Sørensen. "Cost-effectiveness of nutritional counseling for obese patients and patients at risk of ischemic heart disease." International Journal of Technology Assessment in Health Care 21, no. 02 (2005): 194-202. 15 Wilson, Douglas M., D. Wayne Taylor, J. Raymond Gilbert, J. Allan Best, Elizabeth A. Lindsay, Dennis G. Willms, and Joel Singer. "A randomized trial of a family physician intervention for smoking cessation." JAMA 260, no. 11 (1988): 1570-1574. 16 Ewing, Reid, Tom Schmid, Richard Killingsworth, Amy Zlot, and Stephen Raudenbush. "Relationship between urban sprawl and physical activity, obesity, and morbidity." American Journal of Health Promotion 18, no. 1 (2003): 47-57. 17 Beatley, Timothy, Biophilic Cities: Integrating Nature Into Urban Design and Planning, Washington, DC: Island Press, 2010. 18 Constitution of the World Health Organization as adopted by the International Health Conference, New York, 19-22 June, 1946.

As U.S. policymakers consider strategies to control pharmaceutical spending, they can learn from France, which has stopped drug spending growth without slowing access to innovative medicines. France determines the comparative therapeutic value of new drugs. Insurance pays more for drugs superior to their comparator and the same or less for drugs offering modest or no improvement. Contracts require discounts for high sales volume and prohibit price increases. In addition, payers reduce prices of older drugs. Furthermore, Parliament sets an insurance pharmaceutical spending budget, and manufacturers pay clawbacks when spending exceeds the budget. France offers these lessons: setting prices based on added therapeutic value is a principled means to cap new drug prices and provides incentives for manufacturers to negotiate prices. Restricting formularies can help lower prices. Insurers can link prices and quantity to control spending and improper uses. Insurers can use global budgets to control spending and negotiate prices. Contracts can prevent manufacturers from raising prices after launch. External reference pricing can reduce price discrimination but is difficult to implement. Nations can ensure rapid access to new drugs while controlling prices. Regulation and competition are complementary strategies to control drug spending. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

When China entered the World Trade Organization (WTO) in December 2001, it also accepted some trade commitments in the area of state regulation, which have influence on the liberal free trade. The object of the paper is to highlight the changes that occurred in the selected areas of state regulation in the period 2001-2015, and to find out if China fulfilled its WTO commitments in the selected areas of state regulation. The aim of the qualitative research carried out in the area of state trading, price controls and state enterprises was to show the fact that although China liberalised its market in compliance with its trade commitments in the WTO, some strategic sectors of economy have remained under the influence of the Chinese state all the time.

An argument advanced in favor of single payer health care is the alleged ability of a single payer to contain costs from increasing. This is known as cost containment. Austrian economic theory explains why price controls fail to contain costs, and an Austrian analysis of price controls is presented in this review. The history of thoracentesis since the 1980s is provided as an empiric example of Austrian analysis. This history illustrates how a price control to limit the Medicare reimbursement for outpatient thoracentesis to under $100 has led to the contemporary situation of thoracentesis performed in hospital at costs exceeding $50,000.

There are two efficiency effects of price controls: an "output effect" measured by the standard welfare loss triangles, and an "imperfect selection effect" that arises when controls prevent price from excluding high-cost sellers or low-value buyers. Although not discussed in most textbooks, the imperfect selection effect can be as large as the standard Harberger triangle welfare loss in symmetric designs, as confirmed by a class experiment described in this paper. The experiment also permits an analysis of the ways random non-price allocations shift the relevant supply function, and the related effects of rent-seeking competition that can arise with price controls. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We investigate the optimal regulation of a pollutant given its abatement interaction with another pollutant under asymmetric information about firms' abatement costs. We take a policy-relevant, second-best approach by assuming that the co-pollutant is regulated exogenously, but perhaps not efficiently. Our focus is on optimal policy choice in this setting, and we derive rules for determining whether a pollutant should be regulated with an emissions tax, an emissions market, or a market with price controls, given the regulation of its co-pollutant. We find that the policy choice for a pollutant is unaffected by its interaction with a co-pollutant that is controlled with a fixed number of tradable permits, because changes in emissions of the primary pollutant do not affect aggregate emissions of the co-pollutant. However, when a co-pollutant is controlled with a tax, the policy choice for the primary pollutant must account for its effect on expected co-pollutant damage through changes in the variance of co-pollutant emissions. Consequently, standard conclusions about the environmental policy choice problem must be modified in this case. Our results have important implications for designing policies for greenhouse gases under uncertainty. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Railway seat inventory control aims to maximize ticket sale profits by determining a selling policy on the reservation horizon. This paper introduces a dynamic bid price approach in railway seat inventory control problem. Multi-dimensional demand is taken into consideration in modeling the problem, in which passenger transfer is our main focus. A new approximate approach is designed to this problem. Numerical examples are presented to evaluate the efficiency of this approach. Simulation experiments are conducted to verify the impact of transfer under different scenarios. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A system dynamics model is developed to describe the dynamic structure of and decision‐making processes occurring along the Malaysian rice value chain; then, the impacts of removing price controls and an import monopoly on rice prices and self‐sufficiency levels (SSLs) in Malaysia are examined. The simulation results show that removing price controls would lead to sharp increases in rice prices but that Malaysia could, in turn, achieve 100% self‐sufficiency. Terminating the import monopoly would stabilize rice prices, but Malaysia cannot achieve self‐sufficiency. There are two alternative policies that Malaysia could pursue to reduce the trade‐off between rice prices and SSL. Although irrigation development would stabilize rice prices, it would place heavy financial burdens on Malaysia. Therefore, Malaysia should explore the feasibility of paddy importation strategies, which could not only increase rice outputs, stabilize prices and achieve 100% SSL but also create more business opportunities and jobs in Malaysia's rural areas. Copyright © 2017 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article considers recent literature on contemporary urbanization in Africa that is united in its 'post-normative' orientation toward its subject, firmly discarding the 'expectations' of modernization that so deeply shaped twentieth-century research on African cities. Best typified by the work of urban anthropologists such as Abdoumaliq Simone, this scholarship instead focuses on the 'vernacularization' of urban structures and strategies in Africa. While such work has developed a host of new insights into the idiosyncratic nature of African urbanization, it has largely eschewed any comparative analysis of enduring economic strategies that lie at the heart of the massive growth of African cities. By focusing on the longer-term historical role of such processes - namely urban rents and urban price regulations - this article suggests that a more comparative framework can be generated for the study of urban Africa that still accounts for and partially explains the otherwise seemingly hyper-local and idiosyncratic forms of urban livelihoods and strategies. It also briefly reflects on notable trends in the five years since its original publication in 2013. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

During the 1970s, the US federal government enacted an evolving set of detailed price controls on crude oil. Yet by early 1981, almost all vestiges of the command-and-control regime had been removed, with a return to a normal market for the resource. This paper explores the factors leading to such a rapid deregulation, distilling lessons that may be useful for other areas of free-market reform. I conclude that absurd unintended consequences, academic unity, public choice considerations, and luck all played a role. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Price controls for prescription drugs are once again at the forefront of policy discussions in the United States. Much of the focus has been on the potential short-term savings - in terms of lower spending - although evidence suggests price controls can dampen innovation and adversely affect long-term population health. This paper applies the Health Economics Medical Innovation Simulation, a microsimulation of older Americans, to estimate the long-term impacts of government price setting in Medicare Part D, using pricing in the Federal Veterans Health Administration program as a proxy. We find that VA-style pricing policies would save between $0.1 trillion and $0.3 trillion (US$2015) in lifetime drug spending for people born in 1949-2005. However, such savings come with social costs. After accounting for innovation spillovers, we find that price setting in Part D reduces the number of new drug introductions by as much as 25% relative to the status quo. As a result, life expectancy for the cohort born in 1991-1995 is reduced by almost 2 years relative to the status quo. Overall, we find that price controls would reduce lifetime welfare by $5.7 to $13.3 trillion (US$2015) for the US population born in 1949-2005. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]