Access Pricing Research Articles

Patient participation and representativeness in HTA processes

Abstract The final speaker will discuss the participation of patients in deliberative processes and HTA, along with what patients, their carers, but also survivors, envision in terms what constitutes a fair process, equitable access and fair pricing, at a time when out-of-pocket catastrophic payments are on the rise across developed nations, whereas access to innovative treatments is seriously hindered by the forbidding price they carry.

Access Prices Indexed to Geographical Coverage of Innovative Telecom Services

The literature on access prices and investment has suggested that firms under-invest when subject to an access provision obligation combined with a fixed access price per consumer. In this paper, I study an access price per consumer for an innovative service such as superfast broadband provided by a regulated firm that is a function of its geographical coverage (indexation approach). The indexation approach can enhance economic efficiency beyond what is achieved with a fixed access price under a set of standard assumptions. In particular, it can simultaneously induce the firms to set lower retail prices, lead to wider geographical coverage of innovative services and higher social welfare level compared with a fixed access price. Moreover, in the model, the indexation may be used to achieve approximately the Ramsey outcome, or the first-best coverage level. I address how a regulator can set the access price indexation optimally, based on the coverage cost plus an incentive. I highlight the potential role of indexation as a tool to reduce the need for public subsidies and the associated tax distortions when compared with a fixed access price.

Changing the Rules of the Game: Sustainable Product Service Systems and Manufacturing in the Fashion Industry

The fashion industry is based on a bygone era in which time is linear and place is specific. This lack of relevancy results in global apparel production that is increasingly inefficient and destructive. The harmful practices of fashion manufacturing industry are no longer permissible in an age that has the knowledge capacity and technological innovations to avoid environmental damage and human inequalities. The deleterious manufacturing practices performed in developing countries contribute to the industry being under continued scrutiny, yet intensifying expectations for fast-paced delivery are at the root of these harmful practices. There is a tacit acknowledgement among fashion industry pundits that historical examples of manufacturing and commerce in the United States do not meet the demands of a society accustomed to instant access, constant change, and low prices. These slower and more traditional models of manufacturing and commerce will increasingly impede profitability in the contemporary marketplace as environmental and social issues continue.
 Thus, the fashion industry is in a state flux. Simultaneously, it must decrease destructive practices within the life cycle of clothing while remaining financially sustainable. This binary relationship elicits key questions that can help direct the industry toward a better future. What are the possibilities of domestic apparel manufacturing that utilizes innovative production methods, communication technology, and service systems that, in turn, encourage holistic, sustainable practices? What are the possibilities for and needs of designers who want to take full advantage of an evolving relationship between consumers and designers? In this study, particular attention is paid to new systems of production and distribution that will change the role of fashion designers for the future.

Postal Services: Survey of Competition Law Developments: 2019

This article summarises the most significant competition law developments in the postal services sector in 2019, at EU level and at national level in France, Germany and the UK.1 2019 has seen an important judgment of the European General Court concerning the use by the Polish authorities of a compensation fund mechanism to fund the net costs of the universal postal service. In the State aid area, the European Commission has adopted decisions authorising State aid by France and by Italy to the incumbent operators La Poste and Poste Italiane, respectively, to compensate them for the costs of the public service of distributing the press. At national level, in France, the national competition authority obtained commitments from La Poste to settle competition law issues in the parcels delivery sector, and in Germany the administrative courts confirmed decisions of the Federal Network Agency prohibiting abuse of dominance, through discriminatory conduct, by Deutsche Post AG. In the UK, the Competition Appeal Tribunal dismissed Royal Mail’s appeal against Ofcom’s decision that it had abused its dominant position by discriminating against its only end-to-end competitor regarding proposed downstream network access prices.

CO3D, A WORLDWIDE ONE ONE-METER ACCURACY DEM FOR 2025

Abstract. The goal of the CO3D (Constellation Optique 3D) mission is the full-automatic production of a worldwide accurate DEM. CO3D is also a constellation of a new generation of low-cost optical satellites. The DEM accuracy is expected to be one meter in relative height and two meters in absolute height with a one-meter grid space. Each of the four satellites of the constellation will provide images with 0.50 m resolution in red, green, blue bands. A NIR (Near-InfraRed) band will also be available with a resolution close to 1 m. The satellites resource will be shared by, on one hand, the French institutions (government, scientists concerned by global Earth monitoring) who will have dedicated access and preferred price conditions, and on the other hand commercial customers interested in 2D and 3D products. The launch of the constellation is expected mid-2023 and 90 % of the DEM worldwide production should be reached by the end of 2025.Starting from an overview of the system characteristics and its main innovations, this paper presents the expected performance, the 2D and 3D products that should be available for the end-users and finally how they should be qualified.

Kids in a Candy Store: An Objective Analysis of Children's Interactions with Food in Convenience Stores.

Increasing rates of childhood obesity worldwide has focused attention on the obesogenic food environment. This paper reports an analysis of children’s interactions with food in convenience stores. Kids’Cam was a cross-sectional study conducted from July 2014 to June 2015 in New Zealand in which 168 randomly selected children aged 11–14 years old wore a wearable camera for a 4–day period. In this ancillary study, images from children who visited a convenience store were manually coded for food and drink availability. Twenty-two percent of children (n = 37) visited convenience stores on 62 occasions during the 4-day data collection period. Noncore items dominated the food and drinks available to children at a rate of 8.3 to 1 (means were 300 noncore and 36 core, respectively). The food and drinks marketed in-store were overwhelmingly noncore and promoted using accessible placement, price offers, product packaging, and signage. Most of the 70 items purchased by children were noncore foods or drinks (94.6%), and all of the purchased food or drink subsequently consumed was noncore. This research highlights convenience stores as a key source of unhealthy food and drink for children, and policies are needed to reduce the role of convenience stores in the obesogenic food environment.

Internet of Beer: A Review on Smart Technologies from Mash to Pint.

The beer production chain includes some crucial steps regarding processing, delivery, service, and consumption that can benefit from the implementation of IoT (Internet of Things) based technologies. Large breweries implemented the use of sensors and digitization before smaller ones among which are craft breweries. Internet of Beer (IoB) technologies are becoming accessible to mid and small sized brewing companies. Therefore, the objective of this work is to review mainly low-cost IoB smart technologies that can be implemented from the mash to the final product and its service, to improve the brewing production, control, delivery, and final quality increasing profitability. The reviewed applications were retrieved both from the scientific databases and from the web. The work is structured in three macro areas such as beer processing, product logistics and traceability, and service. The results show a future trend characterized by a very fast increase in the use of IoB (also open source) systems to drive efficiency, productivity, quality, and safety. This will be done by real-time monitoring and a data-driven decision support system (DSS). Crucial aspects needing further investigation are data ownership and data standardization. The access price of IoB devices and software is destined for a significant decrease while their diversification on the market will grow leading to a massive future implementation within all the production levels.

Improving Access to Vitally Important Chemotherapy Treatments in Northern Nigeria Through the African Access Initiative

PURPOSE Cancer now kills more Africans than malaria. Without intervention, the number of cancer deaths in Africa is projected to double by 2040. BIO Ventures for Global Health (BVGH) launched the African Access Initiative (AAI) to address Africa’s cancer crisis by establishing sustainable access to cancer medicines. Through AAI, BVGH and the Ahmadu Bello University Teaching Hospital (ABUTH) are piloting a first-of-its-kind program focused on improving Nigeria’s access to affordable, gold-standard cancer drugs manufactured by multinational pharmaceutical companies. METHODS BVGH, the Federal Ministry of Health, and Nigerian oncologists held a stakeholder meeting to prioritize cancers and their associated drugs. After the meeting, pharmaceutical companies were invited to submit proposals outlining the terms by which the prioritized drugs could be made available. In parallel, Nigeria’s regulatory agency, the National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control, was engaged to discuss expediting its review and approval of priority drugs. RESULTS Forty-one priority cancer drugs covering 8 of Nigeria’s most prevalent cancers were selected for this program. Requests for proposals were sent to 14 multinational pharmaceutical companies. Companies responded with deeply discounted access prices, the majority of which were more affordable than cancer drugs available through ABUTH’s current procurement structure. On the basis of the companies’ proposed prices, BVGH crafted a budgeting tool tailored to the cancer treatment protocols offered at ABUTH. Using this tool, ABUTH, together with 7 northern Nigerian teaching hospitals and under the leadership of Ahmadu Bello University, calculated the number of patients they could treat and drug quantities they could purchase with their current budget. The relevant funds will be placed in an externally managed escrow account to ensure oversight of the drug procurement process. BVGH is working with the pharmaceutical companies and National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control to hasten approval of priority drugs. CONCLUSION The AAI drug access model is not donation based. Instead, it is an innovative, demand-driven program that is uniquely positioned to ensure affordable and sustainable access to cancer drugs in Africa.

Leveraging Dynamic Stackelberg Pricing Game for Multi-Mode Spectrum Sharing in 5G-VANET

5G enabled Vehicular ad hoc network (5G-VANET) plays a promising role to support diverse intelligent transportation system (ITS) applications. There are three types of communication modes in 5G-VANET: cellular mode, reuse mode and dedicated mode, i.e., vehicle users (VUEs) communicate with each other using the cellular network spectrum directly, in an underlay sharing way, and utilizing the allocated dedicated spectrum, respectively. However, how to dynamically share the multi-mode spectrum to optimize the network performance (i.e., network throughput) in 5G-VANET is a challenging task due to the high dynamic VANET environment and network resource heterogeneity. In this paper, we propose a dynamic Stackelberg pricing game enabled multi-mode spectrum sharing solution in 5G-VANET. In specific, we develop an access price strategy for different spectrum sharing modes considering the cellular BS's revenue and whole network throughput, while VUEs can select communication modes in a distributed way and dynamically change the selections through an evolutionary game. Through testing different traffic scenarios generated by SUMO, we demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed algorithm. Specifically, the proposed algorithm can improve the total transmission rate of VANET by at least 20% compared with the random selection method.

PND67 COMPARISON OF MULTIPLE SCLEROSIS DRUG PRICES IN SAUDI ARABIA VS. UNITED ARAB OF EMIRATES.

This study assessed the difference in patient access and public prices (PP) of multiple sclerosis (MS) disease modifying therapies (DMTs) marketed in Saudi Arabia (SA) vs. United Arab of Emirates (UAE).

La reforma energética (2013-2014) a la luz de la nueva legislación sobre los impactos sociales de los proyectos

En el marco de la reforma energética, en 2014, las leyes de Hidrocarburos y de la Industria Eléctrica incluyeron herramientas para prevenir, mitigar o reparar los posibles daños que la presencia de la infraestructura de los megaproyectos del sector puede causar en las comunidades o los pueblos. Este esfuerzo de regulación de la gestión social de los proyectos responde a la promoción del desarrollo sostenible del sector, que combina tanto la seguridad energética del país (disponibilidad de productos energéticos a precios adecuados) como la gobernanza de los proyectos (otorgar certeza jurídica a las inversiones públicas o privadas, pero también proteger los derechos de las comunidades). Se analizarán aquí tanto las aportaciones de las nuevas normas como sus posibles deficiencias.

Access Pricing to An Operating System Platform when Piracy Matters

This paper examines the impact of piracy on access pricing strategy of an operating system platform. We study the behavior of users and developers due to an increase in software protection when positive network externalities matter. We show that when piracy cost increases, access demands to the platform vary in the same direction and the magnitude of this variation depends on both the marginal network benefit that a developer derives and a certain threshold of piracy cost. Taking into account the behavior of these two sides when piracy matters, the monopoly platform changes its pricing strategy. We show that, it tends to reduce or to increase access fees. Finally, we show that under certain conditions, the divide-and-conquer pricing strategy can be reversed.

Establishing a Database of Competition between ISPs Based on Python Language

Nowadays, we have entered the era of 5G. And the application of the Internet surrounds our daily life. People need to rely on broadband products provided by different Internet service providers (ISP) when they access the Internet. People often compare the speed and the cost of Internet access between different providers. However, monopolistic behavior in the industry is severe in some countries, which may result in users having to withstand higher network access prices and lower quality broadband products. Therefore, the competition between ISPs is a direct influencing factor for users to use the network. This article first highlights the importance of competition among ISPs. And secondly, choose the European authoritative website, crawl the data, and manipulate it at the first step. Finally, this paper summarizes the ISPs competition data sets that can be used for subsequent model analysis. The author will elaborate on the relationship between competition and flow price in subsequent paper.

Fiber investment and access under uncertainty: long-term contracts, risk premia, and access options

Regulated access schemes shape incentives for both investment and entry in next-generation networks. We study in a general duopoly setting whether and how risk premia, access options or long-term contracts improve those incentives as compared to standard access pricing. The first two do so: Risk premia guarantee highest coverage, while distorting retail pricing. Access options safeguard undistorted retail competition, but are not effective in the most costly areas. On the other hand, long-term contracts have little scope to increase coverage because they intensify retail competition.

Investigating the intertwining impact of wholesale access pricing and the commitment to net neutrality principle on European next-generation access networks private investment plans: An options-game application for capturing market players' competitive interactions

Whilst the deployment of next generation access networks (NGANs) is undoubtedly beneficial to the economy, new legal developments in the United States (US) regarding the issue of net neutrality (NN) pose a new challenge not only to policy makers but to telecommunication providers as well, that could justify a fresh approach when assessing NGANs investments. In particular, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) subverted extant NN rules in the US and if the European Union (EU) decides to follow a similar deregulatory path in the future it could change the way telecommunications providers on both sides of the Atlantic lay down their optical-fibre network infrastructure investment plans. For instance, if traffic prioritization is allowed then diversification of revenue sources can be achieved by charging customers for privileged data delivery to their premises. Currently, NGANs roll-out throughout EU is an ongoing process in a setting whereby access regulation in the form of network element unbundling is already imposed. As a result, these legal developments form a new context within which it makes sense to assess the role of NGANs wholesale access pricing in tandem with the degree of commitment to NN rules so as to i) determine their combinatorial impact on private telecommunications operators' financial figures and ii) capture their competitive interactions. Towards this end, an important aspect of particular value to market players (i.e. incumbents and competitive providers – CPs), and policy makers (i.e. National Regulatory Authorities – NRAs) that this article aims to examine is how to employ the option-game (OG) analysis, that reflects the intersection of game theory (GT) and real options (ROs), to model the competitive interactions between participants in a particular competition game set-up by means of deriving possible Nash-equilibrium (NE) outcomes within a regulatory setting part of which is the commitment or non-commitment to the NN principle. This, hybrid, evaluation tool is applied on top of a conventional discounted cash flow (DCF) techno-economic analysis assessment of an NGAN investment opportunity.

Banking Concentration Impact on Market Structure of Post-Soviet Country – Armenia

The new wave of mergers and acquisitions after the global financial crisis intensified the interest of policy makers and academics in bank concentration and competition and the role of the state in competition policies and regulations (policies and laws that affect the market structure and degree of competition). It is important to not only make sure that banking sector is competitive, transparent and efficient, but also stable. The purpose of the study was to investigate and analyze the degree of concentration in Armenian banking market and its impact on competition and market structure of financial markets over the period of 2013-2017. Both the structural and the non-structural measurement approaches of concentration and competition, along with the desk research, a case study and interviews with the financial sector professionals and independent expert was employed to address research purpose. The findings of the study indicate that, in the developing country such as Armenia high concentration implies low or moderate competition levels and relationship between concentration and stability seems to be negative, meaning that high concentration results low stability of this banking market. The banks in Armenia have ability of extracting monopolistic profits from big interest rate spreads by setting less favorable prices to customers based on collusive and non-competitive behavior in highly concentrated market. Competition level and market structure of this country results in high prices of financial product and low access to finance. Armenian financial markets are bank dominated, characterized with monopolistic banking structure, with leading roles of a few universal profile banking institutions, dominating not only banking sector, but whole financial market.

Expanding Access and Reducing Prices for Drugs to Prevent HIV

Expanding Access and Reducing Prices for Drugs to Prevent HIV

Abstract P283: Where You Shop and Neighborhood Access to Fruit and Vegetables are Associated With Self-rated and Cardiometabolic Health

Introduction: The food environment, including food retail venues, has been shown to be associated with diet, and many disadvantaged neighborhoods lack access to high quality and affordable healthy foods. Research has sought to understand whether and how the food retail environment influences diet, and it is possible that shopping at different types of stores (e.g. full-service vs discount grocery store) influences diet and self-reported health outcomes. There is limited understanding of whether factors of the food environment and primary shopping location impact cardiometabolic health (blood pressure, HbA1c, cholesterol) and self-rated health. Methods: We report on 459 individuals who participated in a blood draw in 2018 as part of the Pittsburgh Hill/Homewood Research on Eating, Shopping, and Health, a longitudinal natural-experiment study among African American adults from two socioeconomically similar neighborhoods. Participants reported their perceived access to fruit and vegetables within their neighborhood and where they did their primary food shopping. Outcomes include measured height, weight, blood pressure, cholesterol (HDL, Total), HbA1c, and participant’s self-rated health. We employed logistic regression to examine associations between 1) perceived fruit and vegetable availability, quality, and price and 2) primary food shopping store type and reason for shopping there, with cardiometabolic and self-rated health outcomes. Covariates were neighborhood, years lived in neighborhood, age, race, income, education, and marital status. Results: Participants were on average, 60.7 years old (SD=13.9); 81.7% (375 of 459) female; 80.4% (369 of 459) overweight/obese. After covariate adjustment, both more perceived accessibility of purchasing (OR: 0.47, 95% CI: 0.28, 0.79) and pricing of fruits and vegetables (OR: 0.59, 95% CI: 0.36, 0.96) within one’s neighborhood were associated with lower odds of high blood pressure. More accessible purchasing (OR: 0.59, 95% CI: 0.39, 0.90), pricing (OR: 0.62, 95% CI: 0.41, 0.94), and higher quality of fruits and vegetables (OR: 0.64, 95% CI: 0.42, 0.97) within one’s neighborhood were associated with lower odds of poor self-rated health. Doing one’s primary food shopping at a discount grocery store compared to a full-service grocery store was associated with lower odds of being overweight (OR: 0.51, 95% CI: 0.26, 0.99). Choosing a primary food store based on price rather than quality of food was associated with increased odds of high cholesterol (OR: 2.02, 95% CI: 1.19, 3.45). Conclusion: These results suggest that higher perceptions of access to fruits and vegetables in one’s neighborhood and choice of primary food shopping store are important correlates of cardiometabolic health. Further research should look towards understanding how direct food choices made at stores impact cardiometabolic outcomes within this population.

Estimation of technical efficiency of black cumin (Nigella sativa L.) farming in northwest Ethiopia: a stochastic frontier approach

Ethiopia is one of the east African countries which produce and exports various spices to other countries. Black cumin (Nigella sativa L.) is an important stiff annual flowering plant which mainly grows by producers for its seeds. An increasing demand of black cumin seed and oil in local, national and international market for medicinal, consumption and commercial purpose makes the best alternative crop for small holder farmers in Ethiopia. In spite of its importance, not much has been done to improve its production and productivity in Ethiopia. Therefore, this research was designed to examining efficiency variations and factors influencing technical inefficiency levels of producers on black cumin production in northwest Ethiopia. Primary data were collected using a semi-structured questionnaire administered on 188 black cumin producers selected using systematic random sampling technique. Moreover, various data analysis methods such as descriptive statistics and stochastic frontier model were used for analyzing the data. The empirical result obtained by applying maximum likelihood estimate of stochastic frontier model revealed that seed (p < 0.01) labor (p < 0.05), chemical (p < 0.01) and land (p < 0.05) were significant input variables in determining black cumin production. The mean technical efficiency level of black cumin producer was generally low, about 53.1%. The mean value of actual yield, potential yield and yield gap was 3.131, 5.832 and 2.701 quintals, respectively. Moreover, the result of stochastic frontier model together with the inefficiency parameters revealed that market price of black cumin (p < 0.01) and access of extension service (p < 0.1) were significant variables and positively influenced the efficiency levels of black cumin producers. Whereas age of producers (p < 0.05) and distance to farm plot (p < 0.01) negatively influenced the technical efficiency levels of black cumin producers. Therefore, the study recommends that adoption of latest agricultural technologies; development of institutions, agricultural extension services and infrastructure are advisable to improve the efficiency and commercial value of black cumin production.

Impacts of Tourism Demand on Retail Property Prices in a Shopping Destination

Understanding the relationship between tourism demand and retail property prices is of great significance to tourist destinations, especially shopping destinations. The increase in tourism demand may alter the implicit prices of certain retail property characteristics (e.g., age and accessibility to transit). This study examines how tourism demand (measured by tourist volume) affects retail property prices in the tourist precinct of a shopping destination, namely Hong Kong. The implementation of the policy Individual Visit Scheme (IVS) in 2003 in Hong Kong has substantially increased tourist shoppers from Mainland China, and it is used as a quasi-natural experiment of the increased tourist volume. Spatial and non-spatial hedonic pricing models are developed based on the ground-floor retail property transaction data of Causeway Bay, Hong Kong before and after the IVS (1993–2011). The findings of this study are as follows. (1) Accessibility to transit has a larger positive price effect after the implementation of the IVS. (2) The implicit price of accessibility to accommodation facilities is not significantly altered by the implementation of the IVS. (3) Age has a larger negative price effect after the implementation of the IVS. The first two outcomes are related to the economic concerns of tourist shoppers, while the last can be explained by their hometown experience. Finally, practical implications are discussed.