We compare healthcare spending in public and private Medicare using newly available claims data from Medicare Advantage (MA) insurers. MA insurer revenues are 30 percent higher than their healthcare spending. Healthcare spending is 25 percent lower for MA enrollees than for enrollees in traditional Medicare (TM) in the same county with the same risk score. Spending differences between MA and TM...

The incidence of cancer is constantly increasing. Chemo/radiotherapy is one of major methods of treating cancer. Although adverse chemo/radiotherapy events, such as anemia and neutropenia, can be successfully cured, thrombocytopenia is still problematic. We constructed the Hyper-IL11 (H11) cytokine by linking soluble interleukin 11 receptor alpha (sIL-11Ralpha) with IL-11. In vivo H11 activity ...

Not-for-profit firms are greatly over-represented in the childcare, medical care, education and care for the aged sectors where service providing workers, as well as purchasers, seem to care about the level or quality of service being provided. Since all individuals who care about service levels receive nonexcludable benefits, these services have a public good element. Such care can be used to ...

Organization and Information in the Fight against Crime: An Evaluation of the Integration of Police Forces in the State of Minas Gerais, Brazil This paper explores the experience of information sharing, coordination, and integration of actions of the Civil and Military Polices in the state of Minas Gerais, Brazil, in the context of the IGESP program. The IGESP is based on the introduction of in...

We characterize Markov-perfect equilibria in a setting where the absence of government commitment affects the financing of productive public capital. We show that at any date, a government in office only considers intertemporal distortions over two consecutive periods in choosing taxes. We then use our framework to quantify the value of commitment, which we define as that obtained from binding ...

This Working Paper should not be reported as representing the views of the IMF. The views expressed in this Working Paper are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily represent those of the IMF or IMF policy. Working Papers describe research in progress by the author(s) and are published to elicit comments and to further debate. A well-functioning public expenditure management (PEM) system...

We study the effect of decentralization on corruption in a political agency model from the perspective of a region. In a model where corruption opportunities are lower under centralization at each period of time, decentralization makes easier for citizens to detect corrupt incumbents. As a consequence, the relationship between fiscal decentralization and corruption is conditional on political c...

We study the relative performance of disclosure and auditing in decentralized institutions. We consider the information transmission problem between two decision makers who take actions in sequence at two decision dates. The first decision maker has private information about a state of nature that is relevant for both decisions, and sends a message to the second. The second decision maker can c...

This paper analyzes the economic foundations of a one-party political regime, where the ruling bureaucracy captures rents through collective control over state property and job assignment. Stability of such a regime and the potential for endogenous institutional change are key issues in the transition to market economy and democracy in former socialist and many developing countries. Our model o...

Volatility and Growth: Governments are Key There exists a persistent disagreement in the literature over the effect of business cycles on economic growth. This paper offers a solution to this disagreement, suggesting that volatility carries a positive direct effect, but also a negative indirect effect, operating through the insurance mechanism of government size. Theoretically, the net growth e...