Gender, Economies of Scale and Poverty

The Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) was established In 1967 as a loosely structured inter-governmental organization, which provided a framework for discussing problems that required a regional solution. For a long time, the reduction of regional political tensions remained the main concern of ASEAN. Serious efforts towards promoting intra-regional co-operation began in 1976 with emphasis on trade liberalization and industrial co-operation. But apart from a few cases, involving the regional economies and collective external bargaining, the record of economic co-operation has been poor, because of different levels of economic development of the member countries, mutually competitive exports.. inward• looking industrial policies and heavy dependence on the industrialized countries for investment, technology and trade. So far, there have been only three intra-ASEAN agreements to promote market sharing and a pooling of resources: the preferential trade arrangements, the industrial complementation agreement, designed to develop links in certain industries to achieve greater economies of scale, and the industrial joint venture agreement, which provides preferential treatment for products of joint ventures involving the companies of at least two ASEAN member countries. However the joint venture scheme has had only limited success because of delays in implementation, while the scope of the preferential trading arrangements has been limited by the consensus approach in solving outstanding issues and by the concern of higher-tariff member countries to protect domestic production and employment. As a result, tariffs have been reduced only on intra-regional trade of selected non-sensitive items. Most of the items covered in the preferential trade agreements have low trade content and minimal trade potential. The arrangements have also been difficult to manage because of problems of administering the rules of origin.

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Costs, economies of scale and alternative production methods in steer feeding in relation to overall farm resource use

10.31274/rtd-180814-1713 ◽

1963 ◽

Author(s):

James Richard Gibbons

Keyword(s):

Resource Use ◽

Economies Of Scale ◽

Production Methods

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The effect of hospital characteristics on pediatric neuromuscular scoliosis fusion cost

Journal of Neurosurgery Pediatrics ◽

10.3171/2019.7.peds19194 ◽

2019 ◽

Vol 24 (6) ◽

pp. 713-721

Author(s):

Jonathan Dallas ◽

Chevis N. Shannon ◽

Christopher M. Bonfield

Keyword(s):

Spinal Fusion ◽

Economies Of Scale ◽

Hospital Costs ◽

Neuromuscular Scoliosis ◽

Teaching Hospitals ◽

Inclusion Criteria ◽

Cost Information ◽

Nonprofit Hospitals ◽

Disease Etiology ◽

Hospital Characteristics

OBJECTIVESpinal fusion is used in the treatment of pediatric neuromuscular scoliosis (NMS) to improve spine alignment and delay disease progression. However, patients with NMS are often medically complex and require a higher level of care than those with other types of scoliosis, leading to higher treatment costs. The purpose of this study was to 1) characterize the cost of pediatric NMS fusion in the US and 2) determine hospital characteristics associated with changes in overall cost.METHODSPatients were identified from the National Inpatient Sample (2012 to the first 3 quarters of 2015). Inclusion criteria selected for patients with NMS, spinal fusion of at least 4 vertebral levels, and elective hospitalization. Patients with no cost information were excluded. Sociodemographics, treating hospital characteristics, disease etiology/severity, comorbidities, length of stay, and hospital costs were collected. Univariable analysis and multivariable gamma log-link regression were used to determine hospital characteristics associated with changes in cost.RESULTSA total of 1780 weighted patients met inclusion criteria. The median cost was $68,815. Following multivariable regression, both small (+$11,580, p < 0.001) and medium (+$6329, p < 0.001) hospitals had higher costs than large hospitals. Rural hospitals had higher costs than urban teaching hospitals (+$32,438, p < 0.001). Nonprofit hospitals were more expensive than both government (–$4518, p = 0.030) and investor-owned (–$10,240, p = 0.001) hospitals. There was significant variability by US census division; compared with the South Atlantic, all other divisions except for the Middle Atlantic had significantly higher costs, most notably the West North Central (+$15,203, p < 0.001) and the Pacific (+$22,235, p < 0.001). Hospital fusion volume was not associated with total cost.CONCLUSIONSA number of hospital factors were associated with changes in fusion cost. Larger hospitals may be able to achieve decreased costs due to economies of scale. Regional differences could reflect uncontrolled-for variability in underlying patient populations or systems-level and policy differences. Overall, this analysis identified multiple systemic patterns that could be targets of further cost-related interventions.

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Estimacion de Economias de Escala en el Mercado de Tarjetas de Pago

Multidisciplinary Business Review ◽

10.35692/07183992.12.2.8 ◽

2019 ◽

Vol 12 (2) ◽

pp. 86-92

Keyword(s):

Cost Function ◽

Economies Of Scale ◽

Payment Methods ◽

Per Se ◽

Main Banks ◽

Debit Cards

During the last years, the growth of transactions made through credit and debit cards has presented quite signif- icant increases both in number and in amounts. This paper studies the existence of economies of scale in the pro- cessing of such transactions, a situation that would exist if it were compatible with the existence of a single firm destined to the processing of said operations. The existence of a single firm for processing is not in itself a problem per se, which does generate problems for the competition is the structure of said firm, because for the period of time analyzed, its shareholder composition was composed of The main banks that issue these cards, but also have given them the function of being the acquirer of the merchants for these payment methods, which generates a vertically inte- grated structure, which creates competition problems in the market. After estimating the model indirectly from a cost function, this work determines the existence of economies of scale in the industry.

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