The German unī cation process imposed a signī cant price-cost squeeze on eastern ̄rms. Important technology di®erences between the East and the West generated high pressures on the competitive position of eastern manufacturing ̄rms when product and factor markets integration took place. In order to avoid mayor employment and output costs, the government subsidized eastern ̄rms. A similar proces...

Food high in energy but low in nutritional value is an important contributor to several serious illnesses, and one type of food that is particularly high in energy but low in nutrition is food consumed away from home. In this paper, we examine the demand and willingness to pay for healthy, Keyhole-labelled meals. A Keyhole-labelled meal is particularly low in energy, fat, sugar and salt, but pa...

PURPOSE To test the effects of employer subsidies on employee enrollment, attendance, and weight loss in a nationally available weight management program. DESIGN A randomized trial tested the impact of employer subsidy: 100%; 80%, 50%, and a hybrid 50% subsidy that could become a 100% subsidy by attaining attendance targets. TRIAL REGISTRATION NCT01756066. SETTING AND PARTICIPANTS Twenty ...

Ageing typically leads to various memory deficits which results in older adults' tendency to remember more general information and rely on gist memory. The current study examined if younger and older adults could remember which of two comparable grocery items (e.g., two similar but different jams) was paired with a lower price (the "better buy"). Participants studied lists of grocery items and ...

This paper analyzes the welfare effects of subsidies to attract multinational corporations when firms are heterogeneous in their productivity levels. I show that the use of a small subsidy raises welfare in the FDI host country, with the consumption gains from attracting more multinationals exceeding the direct cost of funding the subsidy program through a tax on labor income. This welfare gain...

In recent years, China has gradually cancelled agricultural tax which has been imposed for more than two thousand years. Reviewing and reflecting on the history, target, pattern, scope of the Chinese new agricultural subsidy system, this paper discusses the dilemma of subsidy target, irrational subsidy structure and environmental pollution. Finally the bottleneck of Chinese new agricultural sub...

The increasing public attention on green products prompted firms and government to focus on the design and manufacturing of these products. This study focuses on a supply chain system that consists of three members, namely, supplier, manufacturer, and government, and then investigates the effects of government subsidies on social welfare and the profits of supply chain members. We utilize game ...

Despite some empirical evidence to the contrary, government subsidy to higher education is usually presumed to be inequitable because college-educated workers earn more than less educated workers. Using a simple model of educational choice with endogenous wages and two worker types, I obtain strong results concerning this conßict between efficiency and equity — namely that equity and efficiency...

BACKGROUND Poor medical care and high fees are two major problems in the world health care system. As a result, health care insurance system reform is a major issue in developing countries, such as China. Governments should take the effect of health care insurance system reform on the competition of hospitals into account when they practice a reform. This article aims to capture the influences ...

BACKGROUND Cost-sharing schemes incorporating modest targeted subsidies have promoted insecticide-treated nets (ITNs) for malaria prevention in the Kilombero Valley, southern Tanzania, since 1996. Here we evaluate resulting changes in bednet coverage and malaria transmission. METHODS Bednets were sold through local agents at fixed prices representing a 34% subsidy relative to full delivery co...