Consumers, public officials, and even managers of health care and insurance are unhappy about care quality, access, and costs. This book shows that is because efforts to do something about these problems often rely on hope or conjecture, not rigorous evidence of effectiveness. In this book, experts in the field separate the speculative from the proven with regard to how care is rendered, how patients can be in control, how providers should be paid, and how disparities can be reduced – and ...

The majority of Americans receive their health insurance for themselves and their families through their job. The employee pays a portion of the premium but the employer chooses the type and amount of coverage offered as well as administers the plan. This book addresses the question: Who really pays for employer-arranged health insurance? Are premiums paid from company profits or do employees bear the cost through lower wages? Pauly suggests that this confusion has complicated the debate o...

Geometry processing, or mesh processing, is a fast-growing area of research that uses concepts from applied mathematics, computer science, and engineering to design efficient algorithms for the acquisition, reconstruction, analysis, manipulation, simulation, and transmission of complex 3D models. Applications of geometry processing algorithms alrea

This book examines the behavior of individuals at risk and insurance industry decision makers involved in selling, buying and regulation. It compares their actions to those predicted by benchmark models of choice derived from classical economic theory. Where actual choices stray from predictions, the behavior is considered to be anomalous. Howard C. Kunreuther, Mark Pauly and Stacey McMorrow attempt to understand why these anomalies occur, in many cases using insights from behavioral econo...

In this book, distinguished scholars Philip A. Rea, Mark V. Pauly, and Lawton R. Burns explore the science and management behind marketable biomedical innovations. They look at how the science actually played out through the interplay of personalities, the cultures within and between academic and corporate entities, and the significance of serendipity not as a mysterious phenomenon but one intrinsic to the successes and failures of the experimental approach. With newly aggregated data and ...

A wide range of managerial challenges in healthcare, from decisions on what reimbursement levels to accept to how to deal with social determinants of health, could benefit from economic insights. This book for professionals in medical services, insurance and public healthcare emphasises intuition and common sense, making the concepts of health economics more relatable and actionable. It also challenges conventional wisdom, debunking myths and suggesting innovative solutions to industry cha...

L.E. Modesitt, Jr.'s The Chaos Balance continues his bestselling fantasy series the Saga of Recluce, which is one of the most popular in contemporary epic fantasy.Nylan, the only man among the matriarchal band of “angels” marooned on the high plateau of Candar. Forced to seek a life elsewhere, Nylan descends into a world of warring kingdoms and strange magics in search of a peaceful life with his wife and infant son. His talents, however, make him a valuable weapon—and so the war b...

A troubled economy calls for answers. Forget complicated, abstract philosophy—people need sound financial advice that's easy to follow and can be implemented immediately. For the first time, a leading financial adviser has developed a remarkable set of guidelines to give individuals the same kind of objective insight into their personal finances that successful businesses have. Your Money Ratios will help readers effectively manage debt, invest prudently, and develop a realistic a...

“Mr. Minsky long argued markets were crisis prone. His 'moment' has arrived.” -The Wall Street Journal In his seminal work, Minsky presents his groundbreaking financial theory of investment, one that is startlingly relevant today. He explains why the American economy has experienced periods of debilitating inflation, rising unemployment, and marked slowdowns-and why the economy is now undergoing a credit crisis that he foresaw. Stabilizing an Unstable Economy covers:

The financial crisis that began in 2007 in the United States swept the world, producing substantial bank failures and forcing unprecedented state aid for the crippled global financial system. Bringing together three leading financial economists to provide an international perspective, Balancing the Banks draws critical lessons from the causes of the crisis and proposes important regulatory reforms, including sound guidelines for the ways in which distressed banks might be dealt wi...

Expert contributors examine the recent actions of the Federal Reserve and suggest directions for the Fed going forward by drawing on past political, historical, and market principles. They explain how the Fed arrived at its current position, offer ideas on how to exit the situation, and propose new market-based reforms that can help keep the Fed on the road to good monetary policy in the future.

Most commonly used in economic and public policy decisions, benefit-cost analysis traditionally attempts to calculate a bottom line by assigning monetary values to all factors associated with a proposed project or action. By contrast, multiple account benefit-cost analysis recognizes that all values are complex and that not all consequences can be expressed in monetary terms or incorporated into one summary measure of net benefit.In this textbook, designed for practitioners as well...