Political Order and Poverty Eradication

Introducing the concept of viability, this study clarifies that the key to solving the poverty problem is to provide external assistance to nonviable residents. The study then proposes a simple model and explains that 1) although private market mechanisms are efficient for economic growth, public market mechanisms mobilizing societal resources are necessary and effective for poverty eradication; and 2) strong state capacity, competent leadership, and high social trust and support will benefit poverty eradication. The concept of viability and the model was further applied to compare the war on poverty in the US and the poverty alleviation plan in China in the following aspects: background and top design, public versus private market mechanism, leadership, social trust, and achievement. In addition, a cross-country investigation was conducted to obtain preliminary empirical evidence. The findings in this study support the concept and the model, which inspired us to provide some discussions.

Private or Public Equity? The Evolving Entrepreneurial Finance Landscape

The U.S. entrepreneurial finance market has changed dramatically over the last two decades. Entrepreneurs raising their first round of venture capital retain 30% more equity in their firm and are more likely to control their board of directors. Late-stage startups are raising larger amounts of capital in the private markets from a growing pool of traditional and new investors. These private market changes have coincided with a sharp decline in the number of firms going public--and when firms do go public, they are older and have raised more private capital. To understand these facts, we provide a systematic description of the differences between private and public firms. Next, we review several regulatory, technological, and competitive changes affecting both startups and investors that reveal how the trade-offs between going public and staying private have changed. We conclude by listing several open research questions.

Long-term effects of increased adoption of artemisinin combination therapies in Burkina Faso

Artemisinin combination therapies (ACTs) are the WHO-recommended first-line therapies for uncomplicated Plasmodium falciparum malaria. The emergence and spread of artemisinin-resistant genotypes is a major global public health concern. To explore how the increased adoption of ACTs may affect the high-burden high-impact malaria setting of Burkina Faso, we added spatial structure to a validated individual-based stochastic model of P. falciparum transmission and evaluated long-term effects of increased ACT use. We explored how de novo emergence of artemisinin-resistant genotypes may occur under scenarios in which private-market drugs are eliminated or multiple first-line therapies (MFT) are deployed. We found that elimination of private market drugs would reduce the long-run treatment failures. An MFT policy with equal deployment of artemether-lumefantrine (AL) and dihydroartemisinin-piperaquine (DHA-PPQ) may accelerate near-term drug resistance and treatment failure rates, due to early failure and substantially reduced treatment efficacy resulting from piperaquine-resistant genotypes. A rebalanced MFT approach (90% AL, 10% DHA-PPQ) results in better long-term outcomes than using AL alone but may be difficult to implement in practice.

National and provincial impact and cost-effectiveness of Haemophilus influenzae type b conjugate vaccine in China: a modeling analysis

Background Globally, Haemophilus influenzae type b (Hib) vaccine has substantially reduced the burden of Hib invasive disease. However, China remains the only country not to include Hib vaccine into its national immunization program (NIP), although it accounts for 11% of global Hib deaths. We aimed to assess the cost-effectiveness of including Hib vaccine in China’s NIP at the national and provincial levels. Methods Using a decision-tree Markov state transition model, we estimated the cost-effectiveness of Hib vaccine in the NIP compared to the status quo of Hib vaccine in the private market for the 2017 birth cohort. Treatment costs and vaccine program costs were calculated from Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and national insurance databases. Epidemiological data and other model parameters were obtained from published literature. Cases and deaths averted, quality-adjusted life years (QALYs) gained, and incremental cost-effectiveness ratios (ICER) were predicted by province. Deterministic and probabilistic sensitivity analyses were performed to explore model uncertainty. Results Including Hib vaccine in the NIP was projected to prevent approximately 2700 deaths (93% reduction) and 235,700 cases of Hib disease (92% reduction) for the 2017 birth cohort at the national level. Hib vaccine was cost-effective nationally (US$ 8001 per QALY gained) compared to the GDP per capita and cost-effective in 15 of 31 provinces. One-way and scenario sensitivity analyses indicated results were robust when varying model parameters, and in probabilistic sensitivity analysis, Hib vaccine had a 64% probability of being cost-effective nationally. Conclusion Introducing Hib vaccine in China’s NIP is cost-effective nationally and in many provinces. Less socioeconomically developed provinces with high Hib disease burden and low access to Hib vaccine in the current private market, such as those in the west region, would benefit the most from adding Hib vaccine to the NIP. In the absence of a national policy decision on Hib vaccine, this analysis provides evidence for provincial governments to include Hib vaccine into local immunization programs to substantially reduce disease burden and treatment costs.

Prevention of erosion in mountain basins: A spatial-based tool to support payments for forest ecosystem services

This paper presents a spatial-based decision support system (DSS) to assist public and private forest managers in the analysis of potential feasibility in payments for forest ecosystem services (PES) for the prevention of soil erosion. The model quantifies the maximum willingness to pay (WTP) of managers of a reservoir to prevent soil loss. The minimum willingness to accept (WTA) of forest owners for the activation of a private market is also computed. The comparison of WTP and WTA identifies the forest area where PES are ideally feasible with additional potential for compensation to enable the schemes. The DSS highlights forest idiosyncrasies as well as local socio-economic and geomorphological characteristics influencing PES suitability at a geographic level. The potential applications and future improvements of the model are also discussed.

Hiding in the bushes: the social and political dynamics in near-campus communities and the case of student housing in Hamilton, Ontario

From the St. Scholastica Day Riots of 1355 to contemporary conflicts between residents and students, near-campus communities have been the sites of sustained and notable tension. A key factor in the cause of this tension is the short-term tenure of students in private-market rentals created from the conversion of single-detached residences. Using the case of student housing surrounding McMaster University in Hamilton, Ontario, an analysis of the location of private- market rentals and the perceptions of the established community of a ‘creeping studentification’ are tied to conflicts that effective planning strategies and municipal regulation can address.

Hiding in the bushes: the social and political dynamics in near-campus communities and the case of student housing in Hamilton, Ontario

From the St. Scholastica Day Riots of 1355 to contemporary conflicts between residents and students, near-campus communities have been the sites of sustained and notable tension. A key factor in the cause of this tension is the short-term tenure of students in private-market rentals created from the conversion of single-detached residences. Using the case of student housing surrounding McMaster University in Hamilton, Ontario, an analysis of the location of private- market rentals and the perceptions of the established community of a ‘creeping studentification’ are tied to conflicts that effective planning strategies and municipal regulation can address.

Optimal Taxation with Private Insurance

We derive a fully nonlinear optimal income tax schedule in the presence of private insurance. We fill the gap in the literature by studying the optimal tax formula with a comprehensive structure of the private markets—including incomplete markets models— both theoretically and quantitatively. As in the standard taxation literature without private insurance (e.g., Saez (2001)), the optimal tax formula can still be expressed in terms of standard sufficient statistics. With private insurance, however, the formula involves additional terms that reflect how the private market interacts with public insurance. For example, the optimal tax formula should also consider asset distribution and pecuniary externalities as well as the welfare effects of borrowing constraints.