The Impact of Intergenerational Farm Asset Transfer Mechanisms: An Application of a Life Cycle Model with Borrowing Constraints and Adjustment Costs

ObjectiveTo evaluate whether hospital re-accreditation improves quality, patient safety and reliability over three accreditation cycles by testing the accreditation life cycle model on quality measures.DesignThe validity of the life cycle model was tested by calibrating interrupted time series (ITS) regression equations for 27 quality measures. The change in the variation of quality over the three accreditation cycles was evaluated using the Levene’s test.SettingA 650-bed tertiary academic hospital in Abu Dhabi, UAE.ParticipantsEach month (over 96 months), a simple random sample of 10% of patient records was selected and audited resulting in a total of 388 800 observations from 14 500 records.Intervention(s)The impact of hospital accreditation on the 27 quality measures was observed for 96 months, 1-year preaccreditation (2007) and 3 years postaccreditation for each of the three accreditation cycles (2008, 2011 and 2014).Main outcome measure(s)The life cycle model was evaluated by aggregating the data for 27 quality measures to produce a composite score (YC) and to fit an ITS regression equation to the unweighted monthly mean of the series.ResultsThe results provide some evidence for the validity of the four phases of the life cycle namely, the initiation phase, the presurvey phase, the postaccreditation slump and the stagnation phase. Furthermore, the life cycle model explains 87% of the variation in quality compliance measures (R2=0.87). The best-fit ITS model contains two significant variables (β1 and β3) (p≤0.001). The Levene’s test (p≤0.05) demonstrated a significant reduction in variation of the quality measures (YC) with subsequent accreditation cycles.ConclusionThe study demonstrates that accreditation has the capacity to sustain improvements over the accreditation cycle. The significant reduction in the variation of the quality measures (YC) with subsequent accreditation cycles indicates that accreditation supports the goal of high reliability.

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A state–space multistage life cycle model to evaluate population impacts in the presence of density dependence: illustrated with application to delta smelt (Hyposmesus transpacificus)

Canadian Journal of Fisheries and Aquatic Sciences ◽

10.1139/f2011-071 ◽

2011 ◽

Vol 68 (7) ◽

pp. 1285-1306 ◽

Cited By ~ 31

Author(s):

Mark N. Maunder ◽

Richard B. Deriso

Keyword(s):

Life Cycle ◽

Density Dependence ◽

State Space ◽

San Francisco ◽

Anthropogenic Factors ◽

Life Stages ◽

Life Cycle Model ◽

Cycle Model ◽

Delta Smelt ◽

The Impact

Multiple factors acting on different life stages influence population dynamics and complicate the assessment and management of populations. To provide appropriate management advice, the data should be used to determine which factors are important and what life stages they impact. It is also important to consider density dependence because it can modify the impact of some factors. We develop a state–space multistage life cycle model that allows for density dependence and environmental factors to impact different life stages. Models are ranked using a two-covariates-at-a-time stepwise procedure based on AICc model averaging to reduce the possibility of excluding factors that are detectable in combination, but not alone. Impact analysis is used to evaluate the impact of factors on the population. The framework is illustrated by application to delta smelt ( Hyposmesus transpacificus ), a threatened species that is potentially impacted by multiple anthropogenic factors. Our results indicate that density dependence and a few key factors impact the delta smelt population. Temperature, prey, and predators dominated the factors supported by the data and operated on different life stages. The included factors explain the recent declines in delta smelt abundance and may provide insight into the cause of the pelagic species decline in the San Francisco Estuary.

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Optimal onset and exhaustion of retirement savings in a life-cycle model

Journal of Pension Economics and Finance ◽

10.1017/s1474747210000284 ◽

2010 ◽

Vol 11 (1) ◽

pp. 21-52 ◽

Cited By ~ 11

Author(s):

MARIE-EVE LACHANCE

Keyword(s):

Life Cycle ◽

Initial Period ◽

Borrowing Constraints ◽

Opportunity Costs ◽

Retirement Savings ◽

Life Cycle Model ◽

Cycle Model ◽

Single Model ◽

Power Utility ◽

Wide Range

AbstractThis paper facilitates the exploration of optimal individual retirement savings strategies within a life-cycle framework by providing a convenient tool to implement a model suggested by Yaari (1965) with an uncertain lifetime and borrowing constraints. The solution is given both for the general case and for cases leading to closed-form equations such as power utility and Gompertz mortality. Illustrations for a wide range of parameters indicate that starting to save for retirement in the first phase of one's career is rarely optimal. Of course, this is not to say that young workers should not save for other motives – a limitation of this model is that risks besides mortality are not considered. The conclusion should also be interpreted cautiously as it is difficult to represent every possible individual circumstance and saving incentive in a single model. The intuition behind the result is that an efficient strategy allocates the burden of financing retirement first to periods with higher income (i.e. lower opportunity costs), creating the potential for an initial period without savings when income grows.

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