Institutional Variables Research Articles

Impact of institutional variables on centre performance in long-term survival after heart transplant.

The gold standard metric for centre-level performance in orthotopic heart transplantation (OHT) is 1-year post-OHT survival. However, it is unclear whether centre performance at 1 year is predictive of longer-term outcomes. This study evaluated factors impacting longer-term centre-level performance in OHT. Patients who underwent OHT in the USA between 2010 and 2021 were identified using the United Network of Organ Sharing data registry. The primary outcome was 5-year survival conditional on 1-year survival following OHT. Multivariable Cox proportional hazard models assessed the impact of centre-level 1-year survival rates on 5-year survival rates. Mixed-effect models were used to evaluate between-centre variability in outcomes. Centre-level risk-adjusted 5-year mortality conditional on 1-year survival was not associated with centre-level 1-year survival rates [hazard ratio: 0.99 (0.97-1.01, P = 0.198)]. Predictors of 5-year mortality conditional on 1-year survival included black recipient race, pre-OHT serum creatinine, diabetes and donor age. In mixed-effect modelling, there was substantial variability between centres in 5-year mortality rates conditional on 1-year survival, a finding that persisted after controlling for recipient, donor and institutional factors (P < 0.001). In a crude analysis using Kaplan-Meier, the 5-year survival conditional on 1-year survival was: low volume: 86.5%, intermediate volume: 87.5%, high volume: 86.7% (log-rank P = 0.52). These measured variables only accounted for 21.4% of the between-centre variability in 5-year mortality conditional on 1-year survival. Centre-level risk-adjusted 1-year outcomes do not correlate with outcomes in the 1- to 5-year period following OHT. Further research is needed to determine what unmeasured centre-level factors contribute to longer-term outcomes in OHT.

Safety and Efficacy of Laser Interstitial Thermal Therapy as Upfront Therapy in Primary Glioblastoma and IDH-Mutant Astrocytoma: A Meta-Analysis.

Although primary studies have reported the safety and efficacy of LITT as a primary treatment in glioma, they are limited by sample sizes and institutional variation in stereotactic parameters such as temperature and laser power. The current literature has yet to provide pooled statistics on outcomes solely for primary brain tumors according to the 2021 WHO Classification of Tumors of the Central Nervous System (WHO CNS5). In the present study, we identify recent articles on primary CNS neoplasms treated with LITT without prior intervention, focusing on relationships with molecular profile, PFS, and OS. This meta-analysis includes the extraction of data from primary sources across four databases using the Covidence systematic review manager. The pooled data suggest LITT may be a safe primary management option with tumor ablation rates of 94.8% and 84.6% in IDH-wildtype glioblastoma multiforme (GBM) and IDH-mutant astrocytoma, respectively. For IDH-wildtype GBM, the pooled PFS and OS were 5.0 and 9.0 months, respectively. Similar to rates reported in the prior literature, the neurologic and non-neurologic complication rates for IDH-wildtype GBM were 10.3% and 4.8%, respectively. The neurologic and non-neurologic complication rates were somewhat higher in the IDH-mutant astrocytoma cohort at 33% and 8.3%, likely due to a smaller cohort size.

Impact of Institutions on Financial Inclusion in Africa

Abstract Financial inclusion, for which the keystone is access to a bank account, is crucial to overcome the socioeconomic backwardness of African countries and to improve the African societies’ well-being. The study concentrates on this continent to better understand the nature of its development in terms of financial inclusion. The research aims to identify the institutions’ impact on financial inclusion in 35 African countries in the years 2010-2019. The analysis is based on a panel model with fixed individual effects. Novelty of the study rests in incorporation of four institutional variables: constraints on the executive, resolving insolvency, property rights, and WGI. The results showed a positive and statistically significant impact of resolving insolvency on financial inclusion (a measure covering people with financial institution accounts) across the entire sample. However, this relationship is especially visible in more developed countries, while constraints on the executive turned out to be crucial for low-income countries. Another novelty of the study is creation of an index of financial inclusion covering Mobile Money which was used to verify the obtained results. In this case, no positive impact of any institutional variable was identified which may mean that a favourable institutional environment is not required for the development of Mobile Money.

Institutional effects of nonviolent and violent revolutions

This paper conducts a systematic review and comparative analysis of the institutional impacts of nonviolent versus violent revolutions. It examines sixty-six quantitative studies across disciplines on how revolutionary tactics affect post-conflict institutions. The analysis categorizes institutional outcome variables into five groups: democracy, military/police/courts, foreign relations, ethnicity/culture, and well-being. The comparative analysis finds a preponderance of evidence that nonviolent movements have more positive institutional effects than violent ones. Civil resistance is associated with democratization, reduced repression, loyalty shifts, human rights protections, inclusion of marginalized groups, and greater well-being compared to violent campaigns. The comparative analysis contributes strong cross-disciplinary evidence on the differential institutional impacts of revolutionary tactics.

Exploring techniques to improve machine learning’s identification of at-risk students in physics classes

Machine learning models were constructed to predict student performance in an introductory mechanics class at a large land-grant university in the United States using data from 2061 students. Students were classified as either being at risk of failing the course (earning a D or F) or not at risk (earning an A, B, or C). The models focused on variables available in the first few weeks of the class which could potentially allow for early interventions to help at-risk students. Multiple types of variables were used in the model: in-class variables (average homework and clicker quiz scores), institutional variables [college grade point average (GPA)], and noncognitive variables (self-efficacy). The substantial imbalance between the pass and fail rates of the course, with only about 10% of students failing, required modification to the machine learning algorithms. Decision threshold tuning and upsampling were successful in improving performance for at-risk students. Logistic regression combined with a decision threshold tuned to maximize balanced accuracy yielded the strongest classifier, with a DF accuracy of 83% and an ABC accuracy of 81%. Measures of variable importance involving changes in balanced accuracy identified homework grades, clicker grades, college GPA, and the fraction of college classes successfully completed as the most important variables in predicting success in introductory physics. Noncognitive variables added little predictive power to the models. Classification models with performance near the best-performing models using the full set of variables could be constructed with very few variables (homework average, clicker scores, and college GPA) using straightforward to implement algorithms, suggesting the application of these technologies may be fairly easy to include in many physics classes. Published by the American Physical Society 2024

Understanding the factors associated with nurse employment in clinics: Experiences in Taiwan.

The shortage and distribution of nurses affect healthcare access in aging societies. Limited research has explored the nursing workforce in clinics, which is vital for healthcare delivery. This study aimed to investigate the shortage and distribution of nurses in clinics in Taiwan, considering geographical, institutional, and specialty variations. We conducted a cross-sectional analysis of the national nursing workforce in Western medicine clinics in Taiwan using open government data. The nursing practice rate (NPR) was calculated. The ratio of clinics employing nurses (RCN) was determined by calculating the percentage of clinics with nurses in each category. A logistic regression model was fitted to examine the factors associated with nurse employment, including urbanization level and different specialty clinics. Adjusted odds ratios (OR) and 95% CIs were calculated. The study revealed an overall NPR as low as 59.1%, and a decreasing trend with age. Among the 11 706 clinics in the study, nearly a quarter did not employ nurses, with an overall RCN of 72.3%. Urbanization level and clinic specialty were associated with nurse employment ( p < 0.05). After adjusting for urbanization level, the fitted regression model identified the top three specialties as plastic surgery (OR = 11.37, RCN = 96.8%), internal medicine (OR = 1.94, RCN = 84.1%), and orthopedics (OR = 1.89, RCN = 83.6%), while the bottom three were otolaryngology (OR = 0.59, RCN = 61.5%), psychiatry (OR = 0.49, RCN = 57.1%), and rehabilitation medicine (OR = 0.30, RCN = 45.2%). Nurses were more likely to be employed in areas at urbanization level 1 (OR = 1.17), 3 (OR = 1.37), and 6 (OR = 1.48), which represent highly urbanized areas within the urban, suburban, and rural categories, respectively, than in urbanization level 4. Clinics in Taiwan showed nursing shortages and maldistribution, with 72.3% RCN and variations based on urbanization and specialty. These factors may be considered in nursing research conducted in other countries to inform future workforce planning.

Necessity- and opportunity-based female entrepreneurship across countries: The configurational impact of country-level institutions

This study proposes an integrative framework for analyzing the interdependence of multiple institutional supports for necessity- and opportunity-based female entrepreneurship across countries. The proposed framework incorporates three streams of national institutional systems to capture cross-country variations in national economic institutions, social welfare systems, and socio-cultural attitudes that jointly promote both types of female entrepreneurship. We conducted a fuzzy-set qualitative comparative analysis of data from the Global Entrepreneurship Monitor, which covered 150 country-year observations for 65 countries between 2011 and 2014. The findings suggest that while the two types of female entrepreneurship are associated with different configurations of national institutional supports, there are multiple equifinal pathways for each type to prosper. This study enriches the literature on female entrepreneurship by explicating its institutional embeddedness across countries, thus providing policymakers with important policy implications for supporting female entrepreneurship.

Why federalism matters: policy feedback, institutional variation and the politics of trade policy-making in Canada and Germany

ABSTRACT Sub-federal units in federal systems increasingly participate in international trade policy-making, a domain that historically represents an exclusive jurisdiction of the federal level. A first strand of research emphasised exogenous factors, most notably the changing scope and depth of trade agreements and social contestation, to explain this trend. This study, by contrast, contributes to more recent efforts that focus on endogenous factors to elucidate variation in terms of how and with what implications sub-federal units have entrenched themselves in trade policy governance. The paper makes two contributions. First, it introduces a new theoretical argument suggesting that ideational and institutional feedback effects can explain variation in sub-federal trade policy-making. Second, the paper tests this framework by using two contrasting cases of federalism: Canada and Germany. The study shows that in Canada intergovernmental institutions facilitating sub-federal participation in trade policy-making had to be created through layering, while in Germany existing institutions were activated through conversion. Although both patterns of institutional change have empowered sub-federal units, they differ in terms of their robustness.

Deploying fuzzy analytic hierarchy process and sensitivity analysis to identify and prioritize the barriers faced by early‐career social science researchers during research collaborations

AbstractResearch is about an individual's intellectual acumen and rationality, and inter‐researcher collaboration capability magnifies the outcomes. Despite common belief, there exist fundamental asymmetries in the goals, orientations and expectations among the research collaborators. Seldom studied in‐depth and empirically validated, the challenges and barriers faced by early‐career researchers (ECRs) in social sciences are crucial to understand. In this study, we aim to identify, categorize and rank the order of priority of the research collaboration barriers and their sub‐barriers. This analysis highlights which barrier is likely to impact the research collaboration outcome more as compared to other barriers, as seen through the pairwise comparison. We contribute to the literature on research collaborations by providing a much‐needed assessment of the barriers faced by ECRs in social sciences to develop a nuanced understanding of the dynamics within collaboration research. Key barriers identified and explored in this research relate to research design, interpersonal and interprofessional relationships, team‐level dynamics, spatial and temporal factors, cultural differences and institutional variables. The fuzzy AHP tool was used to prioritize and rank the barriers, check the consistency ratio and then perform the sensitivity analysis. Research design barriers emerged as the most challenging barrier to research collaborations, implying researchers place huge emphasis on the compatibility of research goals, objectives, paradigms and perspectives. The study provides insights for individuals/institutions leading and managing research collaborations into improving the collaborative dynamics in social sciences.

Budget Deficits in Pakistan: A Time Series Analysis of The Impact of Economic Political and Institutional Factors

This article aims to provide a thorough empirical examination of the budget deficit of Pakistan, spanning a period of four decades from 1976 to 2023. In order to fulfill the objective of the study, a wide range of economic, political, and institutional variables have been extensively examined. The ARDL technique to cointegration has been employed due to the time series structure of the variables. The objective of this article is to examine the long-term correlation between the budget deficit and its several drivers, such as inflation, debt services, economic expansion, and government size. The study's findings offer important insight into the dynamic connections between the budget deficit and its different determining factors. In Pakistan, inflation has become a major and harmful factor contributing to the budget deficit. The data demonstrates that a continuous increase in prices has resulted in a higher budget deficit. Furthermore, empirical evidence indicates that a significant portion of the deficit that exists is attributed to debt servicing charges. This highlights the importance of implementing effective regulations to control debt. Economic development exerts a positive and major impact on the management of budget deficit. In the case of Pakistan, a higher growth rate is correlated with a lower budget deficit. Moreover, this size of government has an adverse impact on the budget deficit. This demonstrates the necessity for the effective management of public finances. Corruption has an insignificant impact on the increase of the budget deficit in Pakistan. Moreover, the relationship between the political variables and budget deficit is not significant. The study fails to identify the relationship between the elections and democratic processes. This finding is unanticipated and the cause of rejection of one of the main hypothesis of the study. This may be attributed to the fact that the concerns of the political factors may be comparatively minor as compared to the economic ones. Keeping in view the findings of the current study and the previously mentioned variables, therefore this study provides an important insight into the dynamic relationship between the budget deficit and others economic, institutional and political factors. The findings of this study has generated fresh avenues for the future research, especially for the examinations of the impact of political factors because, this hypothesis has been rejected in our study.

Sports integrities: a conceptual and methodological framework for analysis and policymaking

ABSTRACT Since the manipulation of sport competitions became one of the main threats to sport integrity, both the academy and international organizations have sought to establish a coherent conceptual framework that defines what criteria determine a manipulation and what are the factors that might cause it. Although the literature has shown that the manipulation of sport competition is a multifaceted phenomenon that includes individual, relational, organizational and institutional variables, most of the authors have focused their explanations on individual factors, and institutional prevention campaigns continue to understand match-fixing as a problem of moral failure of on-field sports actors. This work proposes a novel dynamic framework for analysis based on the theoretical roots on Morin’s paradigm of complexity and Archer’s critical realism. In addition to articulating the micro, meso, and macro factors together, the paper defends the idea of three conceptions of integrity, personal, competition and institutional, often operating simultaneously in the same space. Each one of these integrities, operates across individual, organizational and structural levels, acting recursively on the others, generating the gears of the global sports integrity. We then discuss the reasons, structures, opportunities and incentives that each of these integrities creates and fuels. We argue that the errors and ineffectiveness of the fight against the manipulation of sport competitions are largely due to a lack of understanding of, and appreciation for, the different conceptions of integrity and their interactions that require different approaches and differentiated public policies. We conclude with innovative possibilities for more effective policy-making processes in this space.

Evaluating special representation of non‐resident citizens: Eligibility, constituency and proportionality

AbstractSo far, 21 countries have introduced—and some thereafter withdrawn—reserved legislative seats for their citizens living abroad. Existing literature on this form of special representation has studied this topic either empirically or normatively. We bring these two approaches together based on the main dimensions of institutional variation of special representation: (1) eligibility, (2) constituency structure and (3) electoral proportionality. We first discuss each dimension from a normative perspective. In the second step, we map the range of empirical variation and highlight the most common arrangements. We conclude that the normative justification for special representation is generally weak, but some institutional configurations pose fewer problems. Specifically, we see fewer issues with special representation when electoral inclusion is limited to the first generation of emigrants and when it is used to limit the electoral influence of non‐resident populations that make up a large share of the overall electorate. By grounding our normative discussion on an empirical mapping, we bridge two disconnected literatures on special representation of non‐resident citizens.

Government reform and innovation performance in China

Innovation is key for economic growth and well-being. The capacity for innovation, however, is profoundly influenced by the quality of local institutions. Although the impact of national institutions on innovation is well-documented, the effects of subnational institutional variations on innovation remain underexplored. This paper studies the impact of government agency reforms, designed to enhance local government effectiveness, on the innovation performance of city-regions in China. We examine the adoption of these reforms between 2009 and 2016 as an exogenous shock to regional institutions. Our analysis identifies a positive and significant relationship between improvements in institutional quality and the innovation performance of Chinese city-regions, particularly pronounced in regions with medium to high levels of innovation. The results are robust to a series of checks including placebo and endogeneity tests and potential confounding policies. This research highlights the critical role of government institutions in driving innovation across China, bringing to the fore important regional variations in the adoption of government agency reforms that are defining the country’s innovation landscape.

Steering Towards Sustainable Mobility: A Holistic Examination of Public Utility Vehicle Modernization Program Impact on Commuting Public and Private School Students in the University Belt, Manila, Philippines

The Public Utility Vehicle Modernization Program aims to create convenient, accessible, and eco-friendly electric jeepneys, commonly called “Jeepney Modernization,” for commuters in urban areas. However, the price of modernized jeepneys is costly, leaving a majority of commuters, especially students, with the burden of making enough profit to fund the program, resulting in fare increases continually. Hence, this research study aims to assess the following categories: (1) students’ perceptions of the significance of jeepneys for student commutes, (2) students’ perception of Jeepney Modernization policies and possible fare increase, and (3) students’ perceptions on their affordability of the fare increase. The researchers utilized a quantitative approach using modified survey questions adapted from existing studies. This survey was distributed to (40) college students. Specifically, (10) participants from each of the following four universities: Pamantasan Ng Lungsod ng Maynila (PLM) and Unibersidad de Manila (UDM), public schools; Far Eastern University (FEU) and University of Santo Tomas (UST), private schools. Results have shown no significant differences in students’ perspectives from public and private universities within U-Belt. This indicates that regardless of variation in academic institutions, students have similar perspectives on the significance of Jeepney usage, Jeepney modernization program policies, Fares increase, and Fares affordability. Ultimately, this research provided valuable insights regarding students’ challenges and experiences due to the recent transportation changes and could potentially aid policymakers in mitigating negative impacts.

Building of Brazilian Party System

The main objective of this paper is to analyze the phenomenon of the formation and success of new parties in the period of redemocratization and the return of Brazilian multipartyism (1979-2018). Although the phenomenon is recurrent in Brazil, few studies have looked more directly at the subject in Brazil. What are the determinants of the ongoing formation of new parties? Our hypotheses are that the permissiveness of the electoral system loses effect when actors adapt to it and that factors endogenous to political competition increase the likelihood of new parties emerging. We use previous methodologies and conceptualize new parties as those that are organizationally new (obtain a new registration) and win at least one seat in the Chamber of Deputies. We divided the parties into contestation or coaptation parties to assess the impact of institutional and economic variables on them. Our results indicate that parties that are totally "outside the system" (those of contestation) have more difficulty in becoming competitive, demonstrating that the phenomenon of the appearance of new acronyms is more linked to a strategic reorganization of the elites than to a demand from voters.

B-42 | Institutional Variation in Radiation Doses During Transcatheter Valvular Interventions: A Statewide Experience

B-42 | Institutional Variation in Radiation Doses During Transcatheter Valvular Interventions: A Statewide Experience

Resilient or declining? An institutional analysis of employer associations and their implications for companies in the European Union

Institutional transformations in recent decades have limited the weight and power of collective actors. Notwithstanding this, literature on employer associations (EAs) has argued a resilient performance in terms of affiliation. In this paper, we use comparative institutional analysis to evaluate the actual scope of these associations in terms of membership and the share of workforce employed by their members. Moreover, by utilising a logistic regression approach we delve into the drivers of the choice to join these organisations. Our results show a general decline of EAs, and point to large manufacturing companies as the great reservoirs of affiliation. However, institutional variations across Europe cause significant differences between countries. We thus demonstrate how membership is strongly influenced by the institutional framework, the relevance of the variables related to the provision of collective goods as a counterbalance to trade union activity and adherence to collective bargaining schemes.

The impact of inflation on bank stability: evidence from the MENA banks

PurposeSerious concerns about the stability of the international financial systems have arisen recently, resulting from the mounting inflation rates and the accompanying procedures to control them. Consequently, this study aims at examining empirically the impact of inflationary pressures/shocks on the stability of banking sectors.Design/methodology/approachThe study adopts a dynamic GMM models and exploits a sample of 188 banks operating in 14 MENA economies, over the period 1999–2021.FindingsThis research finds that high inflation does indeed harm bank financial stability and deteriorates banks credit risk. Furthermore, the examination of the impact of interaction terms between inflation and bank-specific and institutional quality variables shows that better capitalisation levels, higher liquidity buffers, larger asset size, greater market power, foreign ownership and overall political stability, all can counterbalance the impact of inflationary pressures on MENA banks financial stability.Originality/valueIn addition to empirically revealing how inflationary shocks can deteriorate financial stability, the main novelty of this research is examining how the interactions between inflation on one hand, and bank-specific and institutional quality on the other, affect bank stability.

Institutional ownership and women representation on boards in three different institutional settings

AbstractThis study aims to investigate the moderating effect of country level institutional variables on the relationship between institutional ownership and board gender diversity. Using firm and country level data of three different cultural environments (Gulf Cooperation Council countries, UK, and France) for the years 2018–2019, this study concludes that institutional elements related to women (Women Tertiary education levels; legal support, Economic Participation and culture) create isomorphic pressure on firms that enhance the role of institutional owners in increasing women representation on board of directors. Other governance elements, such as ownership concentration, board independence and board size may indicate governance levels better than board gender diversity in certain institutional environments. The study recommended that board gender diversity should not be a priority for investors and portfolio managers in financial markets where reduced female labor market participation exists. Moreover, quotas may be a good tool for enhancing female representation among boards in contexts that have reduced female labor market participation and high levels of tertiary education attainment to maintain corporate sustainability.

How culture shapes choices related to fertility and mortality: Causal evidence at the Swiss language border.

Results from cultural evolutionary theory often suggest that social learning can lead cultural groups to differ markedly in the same environment. Put differently, cultural evolutionary processes can in principle stabilise behavioural differences between groups, which in turn could lead selection pressures to vary across cultural groups. Separating the effects of culture from other confounds, however, is often a daunting and sometimes intractable challenge for the working empiricist. To meet this challenge, we exploit a cultural border dividing Switzerland in ways that are independent of institutional, environmental and genetic variation. Using a regression discontinuity design, we estimate discontinuities at the border in terms of preferences related to fertility and mortality, the two basic components of genetic fitness. We specifically select six referenda related to health and fertility and analyse differences in the proportion of yes votes across municipalities on the two sides of the border. Our results show multiple discontinuities and thus indicate a potential role of culture in shaping stable differences between groups in preferences and choices related to individual health and fertility. These findings further suggest that at least one of the two groups, in order to uphold its cultural values, has supported policies that could impose fitness costs on individuals relative to the alternative policy under consideration.