When Should There Be Vertical Choice in Health Insurance Markets?

We study the welfare effects of offering choice over coverage levels—“vertical choice”—in regulated health insurance markets. We emphasize that heterogeneity in efficient coverage level is not sufficient to motivate choice. When premiums cannot reflect individuals’ costs, it may not be in consumers’ best interest to select their efficient coverage level. We show that vertical choice is efficient only if consumers with higher willingness to pay have a higher efficient level of coverage. We investigate this condition empirically and find that as long as a minimum coverage level can be enforced, the welfare gains from vertical choice are either zero or economically small. (JEL D82, G22, H75, I13, I21)

Information on Resource Utilisation for Operational Planning in Port Hinterland Transport

To meet increased freight flows through maritime ports, a high level of resource utilisation in hinterland transport is of crucial importance. However, various perspectives on resource utilisation create issues with use of information for operational decisions in port hinterland. The purpose of this paper is to explore the use of information related to resource utilisation for operational planning in port hinterland freight transport to facilitate its improvement. The study is case-based, and the data is collected through semi-structured interviews, visual observations, and company documents. The findings are analysed with a framework built from literature emphasising different resource utilisation perspectives and the use of information in road freight transport chain decisions. The findings show that the use of information on resource utilisation in operational freight transport decisions in the port hinterland transport system is limited and lacks a complete system overview. Instead of the information on measured parameters, different types of estimates of efficiency parameters (including resource utilisation) are commonly used for operational planning decisions. The information about the measured indicators has to be combined with other information to obtain an efficient level of resource utilisation; otherwise, it could generate incorrect assumptions regarding utilisation. The paper contributes to the topic of operational freight transport planning by describing the use of information on resource utilisation.

Lobbying for size and slice of the quota

The formation and allocation of an emission quota are analyzed in a common agency framework with two stages. First, the principals lobby for the size of the aggregate quota. Second, the principals lobby for the individual slices of the quota. It is shown that the slices are allocated such that the marginal profits of the principals are equalized and that the size of the aggregate quota is either set at the efficient level characterized by the Samuelson’s rule for public goods or distorted from that level. When the quota is distorted from the efficient level it is set such that the aggregate marginal profit is less than the marginal damage, resulting in an overallocation of individual and aggregate quotas. However, efficient level of the quota is obtained in a reasonable special case in which countries take the role of the principals. The results are extended to cover tradable emission permits.

Impact of Competition on Efficiency of Microfinance Institutions: Cross Country Comparison of India and Bangladesh

Increased competition coupled with commercialisation in the Indian microfinance sector has brought about many major transformations. From an impact-driven development programme, microfinance institutions (MFIs) today emerged as commercially oriented profit-making entities. In addition to bringing their commercial and social objectives into balance, MFIs today are striving for efficient level of operation. Efficiency in the level of operation of MFIs allows them to remain competitive and attain financial sustainability. However, it is also imperative for MFIs to remain socially committed towards the ultimate mission of reaching the poorest at the bottom of the pyramid. Hence, it is of research interest to see the trade-off between MFIs’ social objective of spreading outreach and at the same time remaining financially sustainable. Against this backdrop, this article is devoted to study the potential impact of competition and commercialisation on efficiency of MFIs in India and Bangladesh. The study is carried over 75 MFIs altogether over the period of 8 years from 2009 to 2016. The data have been collected from microfinance information exchange database. Efficiency is measured through technical efficiency (TE) scores as estimated under data envelopment analysis. In order to establish the association between competitions, which is estimated by the Herfindahl–Hirschman index (HHI), tobit regression is used. The study evidenced increasing level of competition in the sector over the years, but it is more pronounced in India as against Bangladesh. In order to analyse the trade-off, TE scores are separately estimated under both financial and social measures. TE score is found to be higher in case of social measures of efficiency as against financial efficiency. Further, under both the measures, competition is found to be having a significant impact on both financial and social efficiency.

Analisis Saluran dan Efisiensi Pemasaran Sayuran Hidroponik di KUTP Hidrotani Sejahtera Desa Suka Maju Kecamatan Sunggal Kabupaten Deli Serdang

The purposes of this study are to determine the hydroponic vegetable marketing channels and efficiency level of hydroponic vegetables’ marketing channels in KUTP Hidrotani Sejahtera Suka Maju Village, Sunggal District, Deli Serdang Regency. The research method used in this study was purposive sampling method. The sample of this research were 28 samples. Based on the survey conducted there were 2 modern markets as retailer, Brastagi Supermarket and Transmart Carrefour which sell hydroponic vegetables. Twenty-five customers were taken as samples. The method used was snowball sampling and Microsoft Excel calculation methods. Data used were primary and secondary data. The study was conducted in May 2019. The results showed that the marketing channel for hydroponic vegetable in KUTP Hidrotani Sejahtera began from producers to retailers then last to consumers. The hydroponic vegetable marketing channel at the level of the marketing agency was an efficient with efficient level of 0.15%.

Efisiensi Belanja Pemerintah Terhadap Indeks Pembangunan Manusia Secara Regional di Indonesia

This study analyzed the efficient level for Government expenditure on the regional Human Development Index (HDI) in Indonesia in 2014-2018. This study used panel data with the number of DMUs in 34 provinces in Indonesia, while the input variable was government spending in the health, education, economy, social protection sectors, and the output variable was the human development index for 2014-2018. This study used Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) testing and focused on input (input-oriented) by using the assumption of Variable Return to Scale (VRS). The results showed that only 14 provinces were efficient in using Government Expenditures to increase HDI, but 20 provinces were inefficient in using Government Expenditures to increase HDI. Thus it is hoped that all provinces, especially those who were inefficient, can improve their performance in the use of government expenditure budgets that have been used in increasing the HDI value and the government can make decisions or policies in the problem of achieving the HDI value for each province in Indonesia.

BIM Interoperability Analyses in Structure Design

The building information modelling (BIM) methodology supports collaborative works, based on the centralization of all information in a federated BIM model and on an efficient level of interoperability between BIM-based platforms. Concerning the structure design, the interoperability capacity of the most used software presents limitations that must be identified and alternative solutions must be proposed. This study analyzes the process of transfer of structure models between modeling and structure analysis tools. Distinct building cases were performed in order to recognize the type of limitations verified in the transfer processes concerning two-way data flow between several software. The study involves the modeling software ArchiCAD 2020, Revit 2020, and AECOsim 2019 and the structure analyzes tools SAP 2020, Robot 2020, and ETABS 22020. The transfer processes are realized in two ways: using the native data format; using a universal standard data transfer, the Industry Foundation Classes (IFC) format. The level of maturity of BIM in structure design is still relatively low, caused essentially by interoperability problems, but despite the limitations detected, this study shows throughout the development of several building case, that the methodology has clear advantages in the development of the structure project.