INTRODUCTION The Association of Surgeons of South Africa (ASSA), because of a concern about the decline in the number of applicants for registrar posts, undertook this study into the various factors that may influence the choice of surgery as career option. METHODS The study involved a combination of desk research and structured interviews with heads of departments, specialists, and registrar...

This paper asks whether uninsurable idiosyncratic income risk affects aggregate consumption over the business cycle. I explore this question using an incomplete markets business cycle model in which the extent of idiosyncratic risk varies over the business cycle in line with recent empirical findings. I present a method for estimating general equilibrium incomplete markets models with rich hous...

Using unique data spanning the universe of individuals in 37 Swedish parishes throughout the 19 th century this paper examine the effect of the economic conditions at birth on the intergenerational transmission of health. In addition, we also study whether and to what extent gender-specific earnings shocks affect this transmission differently. We find that higher relative male earnings led to m...

I propose a model where agents optimally choose to conduct their business using two payment instruments, money and bilateral credit. A friction in the timing of transactions rationalizes the use of both instruments and makes it optimal for agents to use money as a means of settlement for credit. Money and credit complement each other. With anticipated in‡ation, complementarity implies that the ...

We model the joint distribution of choice probabilities and decision times in binary choice tasks as the solution to a problem of optimal sequential sampling, where the agent is uncertain of the utility of each action and pays a constant cost per unit time for gathering information. In the resulting optimal policy, the agent’s choices are more likely to be correct when the agent chooses to deci...

Samarcandin 1, a natural sesquiterpene-coumarin, was isolated as well as elucidated from F. assa-foetida which has significant effect in Iranian traditional medicine because of its medicinal attitudes. The crystal structure of samarcandin was determined by single-crystal X-ray structure analysis. It is orthorhombic, with unit cell parameters a=10.8204 (5)Å, b=12.9894 (7)Å, c=15.2467 (9)Å, V=214...

P leural tuberculosis is often difficult to diagnose because it is a paucibacillar disease. Mycobacteria are rarely seen on direct examination of pleural fluid and pleural biopsy specimens and cultures are positive in less than 50 percent. The diagnosis is assessed by histologic examination ofpleural biopsy samples which reveals gran’ As in other limited tuberculous involvements, serum antimyco...

Farmers’ decisions about how much crop insurance to buy are not generally consistent with either expected profit or utility maximization. They do not pick coverage levels that maximize expected subsidy nor do they demand full insurance coverage. In addition, the absolute size ...

Targeting public spending on difficult-to-observe characteristics often relies on self selection, which may be sensitive to the mechanism used for allocation. This paper directly compares two incentive compatible allocation mechanisms for tree cultivation subsidies in Malawi: a sealed bid, uniform price procurement auction and a take it or leave it price offer. At the contract price, the price ...

Marriages in traditional societies often include a transfer between the involved parties. In some societies, a transfer is made from the groom to the family of the bride (a brideprice), while in others it goes from the bride to the groom (a dowry). This paper investigates whether differences in the type of marriages that are allowed can account for these observations. I present an overlapping g...