BACKGROUND The success in learning of emergency depends on many factors that can be summarized as: student, instructors and course. OBJECTIVE To evaluate the influence of financial subsidy and venue of course in learning cardiovascular emergency. METHODS Data were analyzed regarding the courses of Advanced Cardiac Life Support (ACLS) in the period from December 2005 to December 2006. In agr...

The concern over population decline has led Taiwan government to examine how and to what extent pronatalist policies could reverse the trend. The exclusive provision of the education subsidy to government employees allows us to examine whether the availability of the education subsidy explains differences in fertility behavior between public-sector and private-sector households. In 1996, the go...

We evaluated several variants of a variable biofuel subsidy and compared them with the fixed subsidy and Renewable Fuel Standard. We used two different modeling approaches. First we used a partial equilibrium model encompassing crude oil, gasoline, ethanol, corn, and ethanol by-products. Second, we used a stochastic simulation model of a prototypical ethanol plant. From the partial equilibrium ...

We empirically examine how governance structure affects the design of executive compensation contracts and, in particular, the implicit weights of firm performance measures in CEO compensation. We find that compensation contracts in firms with higher takeover protection and where the CEO has more influence on governance decisions put more weight on accounting-based measures of performance (retu...

The low-income housing tax credit (LIHTC) is the largest project-based housing subsidy in the United States. Within the program, private developers receive a subsidy in exchange for constructing apartment units that rent for a predetermined affordable rate. Because the subsidy requires apartment buildings to charge a lower rental rate, the opportunity cost of developing subsidized housing in a ...

The uniform-price auction is used in many regional electricity procurement auctions and its “collusive-seeming equilibria” have been linked to potential exercise of market power. Such equilibria do not exist, however, if a small amount of cash is split among rationed bidders. To shed light on what drives this result, I also examine variations in which the auctioneer is able to increase and/or d...

This paper empirically examines whether additional future fixed capital and R&D investment expenditures induce firms to accumulate cash reserves while considering the role of market imperfections. Implementing a dynamic framework on a panel of US, UK and German companies, we find that firms make larger additions to cash holdings when they plan additional future R&D rather than fixed capital inv...

The environment is the source of many discussions in America’s board rooms. Most of the conversations probably center around cost containment, dealing with new regulations or reacting to unexpected problems. Some conversations may even revolve around how to “cash in” on the public’s concern for the environment. All of these discussions are normal, but also are increasingly becoming outdated. Co...

Some favor maintaining constraints on bank powers and organizational form because they believe banks receive a significant net subsidy from access to the federal safety net. They argue that this net subsidy will be successfully transferred to subsidiaries or affiliates engaged in non-traditional activities, giving these units a significant competitive advantage vis a vis rivals not affiliated w...