In this paper we investigate reporting heterogeneity in the Visual Analogue Scale (VAS) when it is used to measure current health status in cardiovascular patients. We provide a new framework to identify reporting heterogeneity using quantile regressions. EQ-5D responses are used as a proxy to...

Aggregate shocks in demand such as the burst of the 2001 dot-com bubble affect firms’ behavior and, therefore, the market structure. This paper proposes a fully dynamic oligopoly model to evaluate the impact of aggregate demand shocks on entry and exit costs as well as on investment and labor...

In this paper graphical modelling is used to select a sparse structure for a multivariate time series model of New Zealand interest rates. In particular, we consider a recursive structural vector autoregressions that can subsequently be described parsimoniously by a directed acyclic graph, which...

This paper applies graphical modelling to the S&P 500, Nikkei 225 and FTSE 100 stock market indices to trace the spillover of returns and volatility between these three major world stock market indices before, during and after the 2008 financial crisis. We find that the depth of market...

This study employs spatial analysis to examine the impact of smallholder fertilizer subsidies on national and household food security in Malawi. It illustrates that at national level, food security is positively linked to fertilizer subsidies. However, at household level, maize production is...

The impact of HIV/AIDS on fertility in sub-Saharan Africa has received attention recently, since changes in population structure can impact on future economic development. We analyze the effect of AIDS on actual and desired fertility in rural Malawi, using data from Malawi 2004 Demographic and...

We develop and explore an economic model in which cigarette consumption enhances utility but reduces the probability of survival through the period. Social capital is produced by time spent developing and maintaining social relationships. By requiring time inputs, social capital has an...

This paper provides an analysis on whether 15D and EQ-5D can be used interchangeably as health outcome measures in cost-effectiveness studies. The empirical performance of the two multi attribute utility instruments is tested in terms of feasibility, utility score, linear relationship and...

This paper examines the determinants of very low birth weight infant (or neonatal) mortality using the Taiwan National Health Insurance Research database from 1997 to 2009. After infants are discharged from hospital, it is not possible to track their mortality, so the Cox proportional hazard...

Providing health insurance involves a trade-off between the benefits from risk spreading and the costs due to moral hazard. Focusing on pharmaceuticals consumption, this paper examines theoretically whether reference pricing, requiring individuals to pay the price difference if, in this case,...