The implicit assumption in online marketplaces is that reputation, registered as the average of previous ratings, represents a market opinion of the trustworthiness of a business party and that this predicts eventual satisfaction with the expected outcome of the transaction. Extensive research indeed shows that such reputation does result in a higher probability of the seller being chosen in bo...

The issue of investigator compensation in clinical trials is a contentious one, with opinions varying widely between academic researchers, clinical trialists and pharmaceutical companies. Many academic researchers maintain that clinical trial budgets are excessive. Clinical trialists are usually of the opinion that the study budgets are inadequate considering the many potential safety issues, t...

In many countries, payment services in banking have shifted from paper-based giro and check payments to electronic giro and debit card payments. This paper analyses the effect of this change in payment technology within a multiple-output framework using Norwegian banklevel panel data. The dual approach with four variable inputs is applied, and the general model includes random coefficients to c...

We find direct evidence that institutions increase round-trip stock trades, increase average commissions per share, and pay unusually high commissions on some trades in order to send abnormally high commissions to the lead underwriters of profitable initial public offerings (IPOs). These excess commission payments are a particularly effective way for transient investors to receive lucrative IPO...

Background Provincial Health Accounts (PHA) as a subset of National Health Accounts (NHA) present financial information for health sectors. It leads to a logical decision making for policy-makers in order to achieve health system goals, especially Fair Financial Contribution (FFC). This study aimed to examine Health Accounts in Kerman Province.   Methods The present analytical study was carried...

Streaming music services have exploded in popularity in the past few years, variously raising optimism and concern about their impacts on recorded music revenue. Even if streaming displace sales, it may still raise overall revenue if the streaming payment is large enough in relation to the extent of sales displacement. We make use of the growth streaming during the years 2013-2015 to measure th...

BACKGROUND Optometric practices offer contact lenses as cash sale items or as part of monthly payment plans. With the contact lens market becoming increasingly competitive, patients are opting to purchase lenses from supermarkets and Internet suppliers. Monthly payment plans are often implemented to improve loyalty. This study aimed to compare behavioural loyalty between monthly payment plan me...

Key Findings. (1) Based on analysis of 2009 Medicare claims data, more than 70% of rural primary care physicians (PCP) and non-physician practitioners (NPP) qualify for payments under the Primary Care Incentive Payment Program (PCIP) threshold (i.e., meet the > 60% of allowable Medicare charges). (2) The average incentive payment for qualifying rural PCPs would result in an additional $8,000 in...

Concern over rapidly rising Medicare expenditures prompted Congress to pass the 1997 Balanced Budget Act (BBA) that included provisions reducing graduate medical education (GME) payments and capped the growth in residents for payment purposes. Using Medicare cost reports through 2001, we find that both actual and capped residents continued to grow post-BBA. While teaching hospital total margins...

Effective in 2000, Medicare's Outpatient Prospective Payment System (OPPS) sets pre-determined reimbursement rates for hospital outpatient services, replacing the prior cost-based methods of reimbursement. Using Florida outpatient discharge data, we study the effect of OPPS on hospital outpatient volume. We find that on average Medicare rate cuts either decreased or had no significant effect on...