Financial Ties Research Articles

Securing the Future: Financial Ties of Thoracic Surgery Program Directors to Industry

Thoracic surgery program directors (PDs) are key mentors for the next generation of cardiothoracic surgeons and surgeon-scientists. This study evaluates the industry payments to PDs compared to other practicing thoracic surgeons to assess potential conflicts of interest and their influence. PDs were identified using the Electronic residency application system (ERAS) and their National provider identifiers (NPIs). Industry payments from 2015 to 2021 were extracted from the OpenPayments (cms.gov) database. We analyzed the number and types of payments, including consulting fees, speaking engagements, and research-related contributions. Payments were compared by PD characteristics such as gender, specialty, and academic metrics using the Chi-square test and Kruskal-Wallis test. All 77 identified PDs (66 males and 11 females) received industry payments, totaling $14,094,422 across 8,028 transactions. The median payment was $16716, with maximum reaching $2,661,001. Male PDs and those in cardiac specialties received significantly higher payments. Research funding for PDs was predominantly awarded to males (100%). Significant disparities were observed in industry payments to PDs compared to non-PDs, especially in food and beverage, and educational activities. PDs initially received more than double the research payments compared to non-PDs in the early years. This disparity reduced significantly by 2021, reflecting a move towards more equitable research funding. The substantial payment to PDs reflects their significant role in thoracic surgery, yet raises concerns regarding potential influence on trainees. These findings underscore the need for increased transparency and measures to address disparities in industry support, particularly concerning gender and specialty.

Age Set versus Kin: Culture and Financial Ties in east Africa

Age Set versus Kin: Culture and Financial Ties in east Africa

Multilateral financial flows and state–business relations in Morocco

ABSTRACT Political economy explanations of regime resilience often look at domestic support bases and patronage systems. Foreign aid to the state is seen as a direct form of propping up regimes. This article attempts to track the flow of foreign assistance to one part of the domestic support base of a regime, namely the economic elite, thereby making a connection between domestic explanations and foreign support explanations of regime resilience. The core argument of this article is that multilateral financial flows from Western dominated institutions may preserve regimes in the Middle East and North Africa. Multilateral flows from the World Bank Group, the European Investment Bank, and the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development went to regime insiders and thus potentially strengthened existing economic elites during the time in which the former Islamist opposition party led a coalition government. I draw on the linkage dimension of Levitsky and Way’s model to show the importance of specifying the nature and destination of multilateral financial ties with Morocco’s private sector. This contribution helps us link the international dimension to the domestic political economy. It thus potentially adds to our understanding of monarchical regime resilience post-Arab Spring by highlighting how multilateral financial institutions support an important part of the economic elite.

Исследование неоднородности социально-экономического пространства России на уровне макрорегионов

Introduction. This article examines the problem of differentiation of the economic space of Russia. This problem originates during the collapse of the Soviet Union, when, during the transition from a command economy to a market economy, the state was faced with an uneven distribution of natural, territorial, demographic and other resources across the country's regions. The destruction of industrial, financial and social ties of the regions occurred as a result of the policy pursued by Yeltsin B., who pursued a course of strengthening the sovereignty of the subjects of Russia. In the Decree of the President of the Russian Federation No. 803 dated 06/03/1996 "On the main provisions of regional policy in the Russian Federation", the task was set to smooth out significant imbalances in the socio-economic development of the regions. In this paper, the question is considered: has the task regulated by the decree of the President of the Russian Federation been achieved? The purpose of the work is to assess the differences in the socio-economic development of Russian regions grouped into federal districts.Materials and methods. The information base of this study consists of the works of domestic authors and data from the State Statistics Service (Rosstat). The Thale index, its structural decomposition, and the Atkinson index were used to analyze the socio-economic inequality of the regions.Results. The article provides a structural analysis of the socio-economic development of Russia (at the level of macro-regions) from 2000-2020 using the above indices. The results of the study showed significant intergroup differences in the macro-regions of Russia, as well as increased regional inequality in most of the considered indicators. An analysis of the regions within the federal districts showed that the regions of the Central Federal District differ significantly in terms of socio-economic development. In other federal districts, there is a low level of regional inequalityConclusions. As a result of the study, proposals were developed to reduce the socio-economic differentiation of the regions. The conclusions of this work can be used to improve the state regional policy in the field of balanced development of territories.

Healthcare consumers’ perceptions of incentive-linked prescribing: A scoping review

Incentive-linked prescribing (ILP) is considered a controversial practice universally. If incentivised, physicians may prioritise meeting pharmaceutical sales targets through prescriptions, rather than considering patients’ health and wellbeing. Despite the potential harms of ILP to patients and important stakeholders in the healthcare system, healthcare consumers (HCCs) which include patients and the general public often have far less awareness about the practice of pharmaceutical incentivisation of physicians. We conducted a scoping review to explore what existing research says about HCCs’ perceptions of the financial relationship between physicians and pharmaceutical companies. To conduct this scoping review, we followed Arksey and O’Malley’s five-stage framework: identifying research questions, identifying relevant studies, selecting eligible studies, data charting, and collating, summarising, and reporting results. We also used the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses’ extension for scoping reviews (PRISMA-ScR), as a guide to organise the information in this review. Quantitative and qualitative studies with patients and the general public, published in the English language were identified through searches of Scopus, Medline (OVID), EMBASE (OVID), and Google Scholar. Three themes emerged through the analysis of the 13 eligible studies: understanding of incentivisation, perceptions of hazards linked to ILP, and HCCs’ suggestions to address it. We found documentation that HCCs exhibited a range of knowledge from good to insufficient about the pharmaceutical incentivisation of physicians. HCCs perceived several hazards linked to ILP such as a lack of trust in physicians and the healthcare system, the prescribing of unnecessary medications, and the negative effect on physicians’ reputations in society. In addition to strong regulatory controls, it is critical that physicians self-regulate their behaviour, and publicly disclose if they have any financial ties with pharmaceutical companies. Doing so can contribute to trust between patients and physicians, an important part of patient-focused care and a contributor to user confidence in the wider health system.

Nature and Trend of Pharmaceutical Payments to Japanese Board-Certified Neurologists Between 2016 and 2019: A Pre-emergence Analysis Amidst the Development of Next-Generation Alzheimer's Disease Drugs.

There is insufficient data on the financial relationships between Japanese neurologists and pharmaceutical companies prior to the advent of new-generation Alzheimer's disease drugs. The purpose of this study is to evaluate the magnitude, prevalence, and trend of the financial relationship between Japanese neurologists and pharmaceutical companies between 2016 and 2019. A cross-sectional study was undertaken to evaluate the financial relationships between all board-certified neurology specialists and pharmaceutical companies in Japan from 2016 and 2019. Descriptive statistics were applied to measure the magnitude and prevalence of payments among specialists, as well as their trends during the study periods. In a four-year analysis, 77 pharmaceutical companies disbursed a total of USD 36,869,204 across 50,050 payments to 2,696 neurologists in Japan, revealing a mean payment of USD 10,809 per specialist. Notably, the Gini index of 0.997 indicated a high inequality in payment distribution, with a minority of specialists receiving a substantial proportion of payments. Trends displayed irregularities, but an overall increase in total payments from 2016 to 2019, with a significant contribution from the top 10 pharmaceutical companies accounting for 74.2% of total payments, with Takeda Pharmaceutical and Eisai Company notably increasing payments in 2019. There were notable geographical variations in neurologist and payment distribution across 47 prefectures. Our analysis of neurologist payments from pharmaceutical companies in Japan showed a substantial financial relationship with overall increases, yearly varied increments, and payment inequality. Caution is warranted as financial ties may intensify with the continued development of next-generation Alzheimer's disease drugs.

Undisclosed financial conflicts of interest in DSM-5-TR: cross sectional analysis

ObjectiveTo assess the extent and types of financial ties to industry of panel and task force members of the American Psychiatric Association’s Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, fifth...

Asian stock market volatility and economic policy uncertainty: The role of world and regional leaders

This paper investigates the relative influence of the United States, China, Japan and the European Union on Asian stock markets from the perspective of economic policy uncertainty (EPU). The empirical setting assumes that stock markets evolve through high- and low-volatility regimes with a probability driven by EPU in these leader countries. The main result of the paper indicates that Chinese EPU surpasses Japanese and US EPU as the main driver of Asian stock market volatility, except in the South Korean and Hong Kong stock markets. Moreover, Chinese policy-specific uncertainty indices, such as monetary, fiscal, trade and exchange rate policies play a significant role but in the most developed financial markets only. These result provides further evidence that China’s economic and financial ties with its near neighbors are deepening, which has important implications for the regional institutions tasked with promoting and monitoring regional financial stability.

Dynamics and Prospects for Forestry Development in Russia and China: Cross-Country Comparisons

The purpose of the study is to assess the possibility of changing the trade exchange of timber products between Russia and China, caused by external circumstances. First, the growing sanctions pressure on both countries; secondly, the cessation of roundwood exports from Russia to China from the beginning of 2022, which accounted for up to 60 % of the total foreign trade turnover in timber products between the countries; thirdly, a special military operation of Russia since February 2022. All this led to a severance of logistical and financial ties and complicated the economic state of the forest complex of both countries in 2022. The article identifies and analyzes the most significant indicators that affect the efficiency of the development of forestry in Russia and China, as the basis of the forest industry. Including dynamics and trends in forest areas in both countries for 2010– 2021. which made it possible to show their multidirectional nature: in Russia, forest areas decreased by 0.37 %, in China - increased by 9.87 %. This indicates that contradictions between the owner of the forest and the forest business are growing in Russia, and vice versa in China. It has been established that the total forest reserves in Russia are 4.7 times greater than in China, and the forest reserves per hectare of forest area are 1.35 times greater. This is the competitive advantage of Russian forests. But the study of the trend of their changes indicates a reduction in forest reserves over the study period in Russia, and an increase in China. The quality of forest management in our country needs to be improved. It is noted that Russian and Chinese forests have been degraded. The reasons for this are different. Different outcomes and factors influencing reforestation in the countries studied. It is shown that in Russia during the study period, not only deforestation was observed, but also forest degradation, i.e. deterioration of the species composition, reduction of the species diversity of forest ecosystems. The studied dynamics and trends in the parameters of development of the forestry sector of the two countries made it possible to determine the directions for deepening economic cooperation in the field of forestry relations in the context of sanctions pressure on Russia and China, aimed at their expansion, taking into account the observance of mutual interests.

Tweets don't vote - Twitter discourse from Wales and England during Brexit.

The Welsh vote for "leave" in the Brexit referendum surprised some academics and analysts due to its strong preference for Labor and its close financial ties to the EU. It also brought up a debate about apparent differences in Welsh and English attitudes towards race, ethnicity, and migration, with the former often claiming to have a more positive stance regarding the presence of ethnic minorities and foreign nationalities. This paper proposes to analyze discourse posted on Twitter during June 2016, specifically targeting Wales and England with the aim to offer insight into the perceptions and beliefs of Welsh and English individuals on the platform and if attitudes on race, ethnicity, and migration played a significant role. Counterfactuals are checked with posts from the first few weeks of the refugee crisis in Afghanistan in 2021, the war on Ukraine, and the announcement of the Rwanda policy. The current discussion of Welsh national identity includes its claims as a "nation of sanctuary" and that understands oppression and marginalization. Thus, Welsh perspectives on Brexit become an interesting viewpoint to comprehending ethnic minorities and foreigners as it creates a possible conflict between the institutional discourse, cultural views, and perceived economic needs. In this context, this paper takes the view that Twitter is an area where individuals post their thoughts uninhibited, and where we can conduct an aggregate analysis of that public sentiment.

Relationship Banking and Firms’ Earnings Quality – Does it Matter Whether Banks are Creditors or Owners?

There is mixed empirical evidence on whether close banking relationships are associated with lower or higher earnings quality of borrowing firms. This paper analyzes how this evidence can be explained by the role of the bank, whether the bank is a creditor or equity-holder of the firm. We use a sample of Japanese public firms. In Japan, (1) banks historically have both close financial and personal ties to borrowing firms, (2) banks are not only lenders, but are also permitted to have an equity stake in the firm, and (3) detailed data on bank relationship characteristics are publicly available.One key result is that relationship banking is associated with lower earnings quality if the bank only provides debt. This effect is more pronounced in years of economic expansion. The results are in line with the theoretical literature, which argues that borrowing firms that want to conceal good performance from competitors benefit from relationship banking because banks’ access to private information lowers the demand for high earnings quality. However, if banks have an equity stake, they are more concerned about complying with insider-trading rules and governing agency problems of equity by efficient executive compensation contracts. Consistently, the second main finding is that the firm's earnings quality improves significantly with a bank's equity stake, regardless of the state of the economy. These results are robust according to various specifications of relationship banking or earnings quality.

Pharmaceutical industry payments to NHS trusts in England: A four-year analysis of the Disclosure UK database.

Although hospitals are key health service providers, their financial ties to drug companies are little understood. We examine non-research pharmaceutical industry payments to English National Health Service (NHS) trusts-hospital groupings providing secondary and tertiary care. We extracted data from the industry-run Disclosure UK database, analysing it descriptively and using the Jonckheere-Terpstra test to establish whether a statistically significant time trend existed in the median values of individual payments. We explained payment value and number per trust with random effects models, using selected trust characteristics as predictors. Drug companies reported paying £60,253,421 to 234 trusts, representing between 90.0% and 92.0% of all trusts in England between 2015 and 2018. As a share of payments to all healthcare organisations, the number of payments rose from 38.6% to 39.5%, but their value dropped from 33.0% to 23.6%. The number of payments for fees for service and consultancy and contributions to costs of events increased by 61.5% and 29.4%. The median payment value decreased significantly for trusts overall (from £2,250.8 to £1,758.5), including those with lower autonomy from central government; providing acute services; and from half of England's regions. The random effects model showed that acute trusts received significantly more money on average than trusts with all other service profiles; and trusts from East England received significantly less than those from London. However, trusts enjoying greater autonomy from government did not receive significantly more money than others. Trusts also received significantly less money in 2018 than in 2015. NHS trusts had extensive pharmaceutical industry ties but were losing importance as payment targets relative to other healthcare organisations. Industry payment strategies shifted towards events sponsorship, consultancies, and smaller payments. Trusts with specific service and geographical profiles were prioritised. Understanding corporate payments across the health system requires more granular disclosure data.

Zoroastrian Fire Foundations: A Portrait of Slaves and Slaveholders

ABSTRACT Throughout the Sasanian era (224-650/1 CE), Zoroastrian Fire Foundations were some of the most significant landowners in Iran. The sources represented in this study reveal that Fire Foundations were among the most prominent organizations in late antique Iran, actively utilizing slaves and their labour in various social, economic and religious contexts. This article studies the religious, social, legal, and economic aspects of slaves in general, and slaves of Fire Foundations in particular throughout the Sasanian period. Drawing on Middle Persian legal and religious texts, the article examines three interrelated themes: the Fire Foundations characterized as slavers, and the function of priests in mobilizing their immense landed estates, income, and the utilization of slave labour; the relationship between free persons and slaves; and the link between the Fire Foundations and slaves. Analyzing these key questions and the considerable involvement of clerics in all these aspects enables us to discern the structural role of priests in Fire Foundations’ use of slavery and within the broader framework of the Sasanian economy. Through this analysis, the article highlights the close administrative and financial ties binding the priesthood and the monarchy during Sasanian Iran.

Pengimplementasian Kebijakan Desentralisasi dan Otonomi Daerah Terhadap Hubungan Keuangan Daerah Pusat dan Daerah

The effects of decentralization and regional autonomy on Indonesia's federal-regional financial ties are the subject of this brief study. Patterns of financial interactions in the implementation of regional autonomy, changes to statutory rules, and the history of central and regional financial legislation are all part of the issue. The development of efficient financial systems requires substantial work, but regional autonomy also affords regions the chance to boost their own financial performance. The structure of central-regional financial connections may be affected by decentralization and regionalautonomy policies; how prepared institutions are, available human resources, financial management systems, and budget submission procedures are all crucial factors to consider. Implementing decentralization and regional autonomy policies in Indonesia is expected to have a good influence on financial ties between the center and regions if these aspects are carefully considered.

Evaluation of public submissions to the USDA for labeling of cell-cultured meat in the United States.

With the rapid advancement of cell-cultured meat processing technologies and regulations, commercialization of cell-cultured meat to market shelves requires the implementation of labeling that informs and protects consumers while ensuring economic competitiveness. In November 2022, the United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA) completed its first pre-market consultation of cell-cultured meat and did not question the safety of these products for human consumption. As of June 2023, commercialization of cell-cultured meat products has become a reality in the United States. To derive potential label terms and gain insight into how different stakeholders refer to these novel products, we analyzed 1,151 comments submitted to the 2021 U.S. Department of Agriculture's Food Safety and Inspection Services (USDA-FSIS) call on the labeling of cell-cultured meat and poultry. Our first aim was to systematically assess the nature of comments with regards to their length, cited references, and supplemental materials. In addition, we aimed to identify the most used terms to refer to these products through text analysis. We also asked how these analyses would vary by affiliation category and economic interest. Using the listed organizations for each comment, we first determined financial ties: 77 (7%) comments came from those with an economic interest, 12 (1%) of the comments did not have an identifiable economic interest, while for the remaining 1,062 (92%) comments economic interest could not be determined. We then grouped comments into affiliation categories. Cell-cultured meat companies and animal welfare non-profits had the highest median word count, whereas comments from the unknown affiliation category had the lowest. We found across all comments the predominantly mentioned potential label terms, in descending order, to be cultured meat, lab-grown meat, cultivated meat, cell-cultured meat, clean meat, and cell-based meat. While all label terms were discussed throughout overall submissions, percentages of comments mentioning each term differed between affiliation categories. Our findings suggest differences in how affiliation categories are discussing cell-cultured meat products for the US market. As a next step, the perception and acceptance of these terms must be evaluated to identify the optimal label term regarding the information and protection provided to consumers while ensuring economic competitiveness.

Subsidy Management: The Role of Government Refineries’ Commercialisation Using the NLNG Model

The continuous gulp of scarce Federal Government resources in Nigeria is worrisome, as significant proportion of NNPC oil generated revenue is absorbed in the form of oil subsidy payments while, abandoning a 450 thousand refining capacity project for importation of refined petroleum products. Hence the study into Subsidy Management: The Role of Government Refineries’ Commercialization using The NLNG model. Techniques of Autoregressive Distributed Lag was deployed to examine Oil price subsidy payment(OPSP) on corporate governance quality(CGQ), economic value added proxy of NLNG dividend payment to NNPC (Dv-NLNG); while controlling for institutional quality(ISQ),external reserves (ER) and output per capita (GDPPC).The estimate result revealed that lagged value of OPSP showed that continued disbursement of subsidy payments from Nigerian Federation Account results in promotion of subsidy regime without recourse to refineries rehabilitation. Corporate governance quality exhibited an inverse relationship with oil price subsidy payments. The weak corporate governance of NNPC pave way for harsh consequences of subsidy payments and unattended issues of moribund refineries in Nigeria. Dividend received from NLNG accounts for 53 per cent, on average, to subsidy payments and empowering refinery rehabilitation. Controlling for stochastic effects of Institutional quality on subsidy management as well as capacity to revamp refineries. The finding result revealed that, weak regulatory power and lack of policy transparency hampers refineries rehabilitation, and encourages continuation of subsidy regime in spite of the allegation of corruptions. It was recommended that, the PIA should be revisited with clauses with respect to the Board of the NNPC Limited, limiting the power and discretion of the President to appoint members of the board. In this way, the firm may be completely separate from any outside influence or financial ties, allowing it to follow the guidelines of good corporate governance

Understanding the Decline of Pakistan-US Alliance and the Growing Influence of China in Pakistan

This article examines Pakistan's strategic options in order to understand its puzzling behavior, which can be seen as a hedging strategy against the uncertain future of China-US relations in South Asia. The study sheds light on Pakistan's perplexing conduct towards its alliances with China and the US under the theoretical framework elucidated by Kuik Cheng-Chwee (2008). On one hand, Pakistan fears becoming excessively dependent on the US for security and economic support, particularly as India and the US forge a stronger alliance to counter China. On the other hand, it worries about getting enmeshed in the growing influence of China in Pakistan, which could come at the cost of its financial, conventional military, and strategic ties to the US. The study maintains that Pakistan is striving to position itself as a crucial security partner of the US in the fight against terrorism, which is currently a fading alliance, and as a strategic ally of rising China, an idea that has received scant attention in academic scholarship.

Sanctions and Restrictive Measures against Business Representatives and Members of their Families: Legal Aspects

The paper is devoted to the analysis of the legal grounds for the imposition of sanctions by Western jurisdictions against representatives of Russian business and their relatives, as well as current law enforcement practice. An important general trend in the development of sanctions legislation is the gradual expansion of the scope of application of the grounds for imposing sanctions with the simultaneous simplification of inclusion in the sanctions lists. Prominent examples are the expansion of sectors of the economy affected by US sanctions, and the very ability of the US and UK to impose blocking sanctions simply by virtue of the fact that a person operates in a certain sector of the economy. In the EU, to impose sanctions on a businessperson operating in a particular sector, one still has to prove the presence of a leading position, but this is also a rather vague term. This approach is also the result of a simplification: there is practically no need to prove connection with the regime due to the presumption of connection between big business and the political regime considered in this paper. The UK also simplified the procedure for imposing sanctions by extending them to family members of sanctioned persons, which eliminated the need to prove the presence of financial and economic ties with the sanctioned person. An even more important easing in the imposition of sanctions was the emergence of a simplified procedure for imposing sanctions on persons who fell under the sanctions of the UK’s allies. This procedure only allows checking the coincidence of the grounds for imposing sanctions without checking the actual circumstances that caused the inclusion of a person in the sanctions list. In fact, the only way to avoid being included in the sanctions lists is to refuse any activity that serves as a basis for inclusion in the sanctions lists. Often, such a scenario is unrealistic, which means that representatives of Russian big business will only have to take measures to minimize possible harm, since the elimination of the sanctions risk becomes almost impossible.

In the fight against climate change, did the financial sector cut secular ties with the oil industry or merely camouflage them?

In the fight against climate change, did the financial sector cut secular ties with the oil industry or merely camouflage them?

Exclusionary Regimes, Financial Corporations, and Human Rights Activism in the UK, 1973–92

This paper examines the two British civic campaigns, Chile Solidarity Campaign and End Loans to Southern Africa, to investigate the role of financial sanctions on authoritarian regimes to suggest the limits of human rights movements in the late twentieth century. While they not only publicised the financial ties between authoritarian regimes and British banks but also garnered popular support, the campaigns had relatively little success owing to the rise of the liberal creed from the mid-1970s. First, the growth of commercial Euroloans, free from national regulations, was detrimental to putting political pressure on financial corporations; in the Euro-capital market, there was no institutional channel to convey the call for human rights. Second, the shift from a Labour government to a Conservative rendered it impossible to introduce governmental measures. Instead of the political pressure, the creditworthiness of the authoritarian regimes assessed by international banks leveraged the financial future of Chile and South Africa. (151 words)