Distribution Of Liabilities Research Articles

Non-Gaussian Liability Distribution for Depression in the General Population.

Unlike depression sum scores, the underlying risk for depression is typically assumed to be normally distributed across the general population. To assess the true empirical shape of depression risk, we created a continuous-valued estimate of the latent depression density, using the Davidian-Curve Item Response Theory (DC-IRT) and the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES) cohorts from 2005 to 2018 (n = 36,244 on the Nine-item Patient Health Questionnaire; PHQ-9). We conducted simulations to investigate the performance of DC-IRT for large samples and realistic items. The method can recover complex latent-risk distributions even when they are not evident from sum scores. However, estimation accuracy for different sample sizes depends on the method of model selection. In addition to full-data analysis, random samples of a few thousand observations were drawn for analysis. The latent shape of depression was left-skewed and bimodal in both investigations, indicating that the latent-normality assumption does not hold for depression.

A Study on the liability distribution system for medical accidents: Focusing on comparison of the Medical Accident Handling Special Act and foreign legal systems

A Study on the liability distribution system for medical accidents: Focusing on comparison of the Medical Accident Handling Special Act and foreign legal systems

Guaranteed minimum withdrawal benefits with high-water mark fee structure.

The Guaranteed Minimum Withdrawal Benefit (GMWB), an adjunct incorporated within variable annuities, commits to reimbursing the entire initial investment regardless of the performance of the underlying funds. While extensive research exists in financial and actuarial literature regarding the modeling and valuation techniques of GMWBs, much of it is founded on a static fee structure. Our study introduces an innovative fee structure based on the high-water mark (HWM) principle and a regime-switch jump-diffusion model for the pricing of GMWBs, employing numerical solutions through the Monte Carlo method for solving the stochastic differential equation (SDE). Furthermore, a companion piece of research addresses the risk management of GMWBs within the same analytical framework as the pricing component, an aspect that has received limited attention in the existing literature. In assessing the necessary capital reserves for unforeseen losses, our methodology involves the computation of two risk metrics associated with the tail distribution of net liability from the insurer's perspective, Value-at-Risk (VaR) and Conditional-Tail-Expectation (CTE). Comprehensive numerical results and sensitivity analyses are also provided.

The Odious Debt Doctrine: The Equitable Rule

Abstract The odious debt doctrine was envisaged by the Russian jurist Alexander Sack as an exception to the passing rule of a debt in case of state and government succession. An analysis of the practice indicates that this exception was often accompanied by some equitable solution. Although the 1983 Vienna Convention did not acknowledge the doctrine, the equitable distribution of assets and liabilities as a method of settling disputes may allow an application of the doctrine in disguise. This equitable method of settling could come into play if the doctrine found application beyond the strict boundaries of state succession. Such a step would imply the formalization of the doctrine in national legislation, with the result that a loan agreement tainted with odiousness would be illegal and unenforceable. Nevertheless, in common law countries, the laws of which usually govern financial transactions, a claim for recovering what transferred under an illegal contract could be denied based on public policy considerations. This denial of restitution would refrain these countries, traditionally sensitive to creditors’ rights, from acknowledging the doctrine in their legal systems. To overcome this impasse, the formalization of the doctrine should include an equitable approach based on the benefit for the population. This equitable approach would reflect the practice of state and government succession on which the doctrine is usually grounded.

N-Defendant Litigation and Settlement: The Impact of Joint and Several Liability

Abstract This article generalizes the analysis of settlement under joint and several liability from lawsuits involving one plaintiff and two defendants to those involving n ≥ 2 defendants. We demonstrate that, depending upon the correlation of outcomes among the defendants, but regardless of the distribution of liability shares, joint and several liability may encourage plaintiffs to select some defendants for litigation while settling with those remaining. In particular, under joint and several liability, when each defendant is grouped with others sharing correlated outcomes, and the plaintiff’s probability of success against any defendant is sufficiently high, we show that, in all Nash equilibrium, the plaintiff litigates against the defendant from each group with the smallest share and settles with all other defendants. There are a continuum of equilibria but they are all payoff-equivalent up to permutation. Plaintiff’s payoff is identical in all equilibria; only the payoffs of the members with the smallest share within a group are permuted. We also show that, for sufficiently high plaintiff’s probability of success, this result holds even when the defendants are allowed to form coalitions, and derive the set of offers in the behaviorally unique coalition proof Nash equilibrium; as before, these offers induce litigation against the defendant with the smallest share in each group and settlement with all other defendants.

Безопасное использование высокоавтоматизированных (беспилотных) транспортных средств: правовые гарантии

The article reviews some problems of the regulation of relations in the sphere of usage of highly-automated (unmanned) vehicles in the Russian Federation. The paper justifies the author’s view on the establishment of the system of fair distribution of liability of parties to the relations and the development of insurance in this sphere.

Public perception of autonomous vehicle capability determines judgment of blame and trust in road traffic accidents

Road accidents involving autonomous vehicles (AVs) will not only introduce legal challenges over liability distribution but also generally diminish the public trust that may make itself manifested in slowing the initial adoption of the technology and call into question the continued adoption of the technology. Understanding the public’s reactions to such incidents, especially the way they differentiate from conventional vehicles, is vital for future policy-making and legislation, which will in turn shape the landscape of the autonomous vehicle industry. In this paper, intuitive judgments of blame and trust were investigated in simulated scenarios of road-traffic accidents involving either autonomous vehicles or human-driven vehicles. In an initial study, five of six scenarios showed more blame and less trust attributed to autonomous vehicles, despite the scenarios being identical in antecedents and consequences to those with a human driver. In one scenario this asymmetry was sharply reversed; an anomaly shown in a follow-up experiment to be dependent on the extent to which the incident was more likely to be foreseeable by the human driver. More generally these studies show—rather than being the result of a universal higher performance standard against autonomous vehicles—that blame and trust are shaped by stereotypical conceptions of the capabilities of machines versus humans applied in a context-specific way, which may or may not align with objectively derived state of affairs. These findings point to the necessity of regularly calibrating the public’s knowledge and expectation of autonomous vehicles through educational campaigns and legislative measures mandating user training and timely disclosure from car manufacturers/developers regarding their product capabilities.

Life is pain: Fibromyalgia as a nexus of multiple liability distributions.

Fibromyalgia is a complex disease of unclear etiology that is complicated by difficulties in diagnosis, treatment, and clinical heterogeneity. To clarify this etiology, healthcare-based data are leveraged to assess the influences on fibromyalgia in several domains. Prevalence is less than 1% of females in our population register data, and about 1/10th that in males. Fibromyalgia often presents with co-occurring conditions including back pain, rheumatoid arthritis, and anxiety. More comorbidities are identified with hospital-associated biobank data, falling into three broad categories of pain-related, autoimmune, and psychiatric disorders. Selecting representative phenotypes with published genome-wide association results for polygenic scoring, we confirm genetic predispositions to psychiatric, pain sensitivity, and autoimmune conditions show associations with fibromyalgia, although these may differ by ancestry group. We conduct a genome-wide association analysis of fibromyalgia in biobank samples, which did not result in any genome-wide significant loci; further studies with increased sample size are necessary to identify specific genetic effectson fibromyalgia. Overall, fibromyalgia appears to have strong clinical and likely genetic links to several disease categories, and could usefully be understood as a composite manifestation of these etiological sources.

LIABILITY FOR TRADEMARK INFRINGEMENT ON E-COMMERCE MARKERPLACES

This article examines the issue of distribution of liability for infringement of exclusive rights to trademarks in the sale of goods through marketplaces. Examined the legislation and case law of Russia and other countries on the liability for selling counterfeit goods on marketplaces. International and Russian legal practice in resolving disputes over infringement of exclusive rights to trademarks on e-commerce platforms was examined. Models of legal regulation of e-commerce in foreign countries were analysed. The conclusions have been formulated on the need for progressive development of legislation of the Russian Federation in the area under study, including regulation of e-commerce platforms, and measures to improve the liability of marketplaces and sellers for the sale of counterfeit products were developed.

Determination of the remediability score for remediation liability allocation among polluters

AbstractWhen a pollution incident occurs, there can be impact liability and/or remediation liability on the polluter. The impact liability pays for the loss of life and property due to pollution. The remediation liability is to pay for remediating the environment in accordance with applicable laws and regulations. If there is only one polluter in a pollution incident, the entire liability can be placed on the sole polluter. However, liability allocation becomes complex when there are multiple polluters. To allocate the fractional remediation liability among multiple polluters, it is important to identify the factors that determine the cost of remediation so that a just distribution of liability can be made based on the contribution of each polluting party to the factors identified. Along with factors such as “quantity of the chemical released by the polluter,” “distribution of the chemical in the environmental medium,” “persistence of the chemical in the environmental medium,” and so forth, the ease with which the chemical pollutant can be separated from the contaminated medium, which we name as “remediability,” is important in deciding the remediation liability. The “remediability” of a chemical is critical in selecting the remediation technologies to be adopted and, consequently, in deciding the cost of remediation. Determination of a remediability score (RS) for each “chemical–environment medium” pair will help in quantifying the ease with which the site can be remediated. The score is envisaged on a 0–100 scale. The higher the score, the more difficult it is to remediate the chemical in the environmental medium under consideration. The score is estimated based on a set of predetermined factors that are characteristic to the technologies available for remediation. The factors are then subjected to a Delphi process to arrive at the weights. The overall RS is determined by determining the weighted impact of the identified factors after the normalization of the magnitudes of factors.

Minimum capital requirement and portfolio allocation for non-life insurance: a semiparametric model with Conditional Value-at-Risk (CVaR) constraint

We present an optimization problem to determine the minimum capital requirement for a non-life insurance company. The optimization problem imposes a non-positive Conditional Value-at-Risk (CVaR) of the insurer’s net loss and a portfolio performance constraint. When expressing the optimization problem in a semiparametric form, we demonstrate its convexity for any integrable random variable representing the insurer’s liability. Furthermore, we prove that the function defining the CVaR constraint in the semiparametric formulation is continuously differentiable when the insurer’s liability has a continuous distribution. We use the Kelley-Cheney-Goldstein algorithm to solve the optimization problem in the semiparametric form and show its convergence. An empirical analysis is carried out by assuming three different liability distributions: a lognormal distribution, a gamma distribution, and a mixture of Erlang distributions with a common scale parameter. The numerical experiments show that the choice of the liability distribution plays a crucial role since marked differences emerge when comparing the mixture distribution with the other two distributions. In particular, the mixture distribution describes better the right tail of the empirical distribution of liabilities with respect to the other two distributions and implies higher capital requirements and different assets in the optimal portfolios.

FX swaps, shadow banks and the global dollar footprint

The era of dollar-based financial globalisation has seen a steady rise in the use of foreign exchange (FX) swaps. We provide a macrofinancial political economy perspective on the geography of FX swaps, and the spatial effects of central bank policies aimed at taming instabilities associated with the uneven geography of the dollar. First, we analyse the mechanisms and potential sources of instability involved in accessing dollars using FX swaps and repurchase agreement (repo) contracts, respectively, in both private and public (central bank) use. Second, we show that the distribution of currencies and institutions involved in trading swaps is skewed, reflecting both the dominance of the dollar as international financing currency and the uneven international distribution of dollar-denominated assets and liabilities. We document the changing composition of dollar swap users on both the long-dollar and short-dollar side and identify potential sources of macrofinancial vulnerability for dollar lenders and borrowers. The Fed's approach to global liquidity provision via both swaps and repos constitutes a spatially variegated strategy to preserve the hegemony of the US dollar. Despite its partial success in reducing instability due to cross-border financial imbalances, the Fed's uneven and hierarchical lender of last resort approach cannot sufficiently stabilise global finance to underpin a new era of macrofinancial stability.

Reforming the Medicare Part D Benefit Design: Financial Implications for Beneficiaries, Private Plans, Drug Manufacturers, and the Federal Government.

Reforming the Medicare Part D program-which provides prescription drug coverage to 49 million beneficiaries-has emerged as a key policy priority. The authors evaluate prescription drug claims from a 100% sample of Medicare Part D beneficiaries to evaluate the current spending distribution across different payers for different types of beneficiaries across different benefit phases. They then model how these estimates would change under a proposal to redesign the Medicare Part D standard benefit. Spending patterns differ for beneficiaries who do and do not qualify for low-income subsidies. Part D plans face limited liability for total spending under the current standard benefit design, amounting to 36% of total spending for beneficiaries who do not receive low-income subsidies and 28% of total spending for those who do. Proposed reforms would increase plan liability and significantly change the distribution of liability across plans, drug manufacturers, and the federal government. Though the original goal of the Part D program was to create a market of competing private plans that provide prescription drug coverage to Medicare beneficiaries, the standard benefit design that was included in the original legislation reflected significant political compromises. Reforming the standard benefit design to give plans more skin in the game could significantly affect competition in the market, with differential impact across drug classes and types of beneficiaries.

The compensation system for marine ecological damage resulting from offshore drilling in China

In the past four decades that China has devoted to its offshore oil exploration and production, a model of joint development between the China National Offshore Oil Corporation (CNOOC) and foreign operators has been used. Drilling for oil offshore is a challenging task with multiple hazards, as oil spills both from daily operations and from offshore accidents, endangers the marine ecosystem of nearby waters. Unlike traditional damage (i.e., personal injury and property damage) via the environment, tort liabilities resulting from marine ecological damage require a separate regime where relevant rules are scattered in different legal instruments. Some unique features rooted in the Chinese offshore oil industry fundamentally shape the liability distribution and the approaches to ecological remediation. The Bohai Bay Oil Spill in 2011 demonstrated that China was in urgent need of dealing with this issue in practice. This study will describe the applicable legal remedies concerning this type of damage and analyse the existing compensation system. Based on a law and economics approach, some observations are made on the efficiency of the regime to evaluate if the applicable rules are in line with economic starting points when compensating marine ecological damage arising from offshore drilling.

Application of the Concept of Asset and Liability Management (ALMA) in the Islamic Banking System

This study discusses the application of the concept of asset and liability management (ALMA) in the banking system. The method used in this research is library research with a qualitative approach, where the data are obtained from books, journals, articles and the like that discuss the theme. After that, it was validated, and analyzed descriptively. The results of this study are: Application of Asset and Liability Management in banking institutions, both Islamic banks and conventional banks must go through an assessment of the budget, make income plans, evaluate investment performance in the past, unify the distribution of bank assets and liabilities and implement asset and financial strategies obligation

Understanding the role of the bring-your-own-device policy in medical education and healthcare delivery at the University of Botswana’s Faculty of Medicine

PurposeSeeking to leverage on benefits of personal mobile device use, medical schools and healthcare facilities are increasingly embracing the use of personal mobile devices for medical education and healthcare delivery through bring-your-own-device (BYOD) policies. However, empirical research findings that could guide the development of BYOD policies are scarce. Available research is dominated by studies that were guided by technocentric approaches, hence seemingly overlooking the complexities of the interactions of actors in mobile device technologies implementation. The purpose of this study was to use the actor–network theory to explore the potential role of a BYOD policy at the University of Botswana’s Faculty of Medicine.Design/methodology/approachPurposive sampling was used to select the participants and interviews, focus group discussions, observations and document analysis were used to collect data. Data were collected from 27 participants and analysed using grounded theory techniques. Emerging themes were continually compared and contrasted with incoming data to create broad themes and sub-themes and to establish relationships or patterns from the data.FindingsThe results suggest that the potential roles for BYOD policy include promoting appropriate mobile device use, promoting equitable access to mobile devices and content, and integrating mobile devices into medical education, healthcare delivery and other institutional processes.Research limitations/implicationsBYOD policy could be conceptualized and researched as a “script” that binds actors/actants into a “network” of constituents (with shared interests) such as medical schools and healthcare facilities, mobile devices, internet/WiFi, computers, software, computer systems, medical students, clinical teachers or doctors, nurses, information technology technicians, patients, curriculum, information sources or content, classrooms, computer labs and infections.Practical implicationsBYOD is a policy that seeks to represent the interests (presents as a solution to their problems) of the key stakeholders such as medical schools, healthcare facilities and mobile device users. BYOD is introduced in medical schools and healthcare facilities to promote equitable access to mobile devices and content, appropriate mobile device use and ensure distribution of liability between the mobile device users and the institution and address the implication of mobile device use in teaching and learning.Originality/valueThe BYOD policy is a comprehensive solution that transcends other institutional policies and regulations to fully integrate mobile devices in medical education and healthcare delivery.

Формування стратегічних рішень при управлінні змінами на підприємстві

It is noted that the strengthening of the dynamics and uncertainty of the external environment significantly increases the requirements for the management of enterprises that represent complex socioeconomic systems. The purpose of the study is to define the directions for managing changes in enterprises and forming strategic decisions as to improving the efficiency of activities based on resource saving. The methodological basis of the article are methods of scientific knowledge that allow identifying the nature of change management in enterprises, the basic laws of modeling strategic scenarios for managing changes at enterprise. The used methods include: analysis, synthesis, systematization – to identify factors that determine the need to model strategic scenarios for managing changes in enterprises; abstraction – in order to form a theoretical generalization and conclusions. As result of the study, it is proved that enterprises need to initiate and implement changes in order to meet market requirements, increase value, maintain stability and provide a balanced economic growth along with further development. The algorithm for modeling the balance structure within terms of change management is substantiated. It is proposed, for the choice of strategy and the ability to develop scenarios for its implementation, to apply the J. Aubert-Krier’s method, according to which, in order to diagnose financial prerequisites, it will be advisable to assess the rationality of the structural distribution of assets and liabilities of the enterprise, which from the standpoint of movement and participation in the production and commercial process allows to evaluate the important elements of ensuring the activities of the enterprise. Consequently, the methodological support for the substantiation of the directions of change management at the enterprise on the basis of strategic decisions on the use of resources is improved, which will increase the effectiveness of activities and the related resource saving.

Civil liability of taxi-aggregation companies: Between contract and tort law

Technical and information progress undoubtably have an influence on the trade market and the consumer service sector of the modern economy. The sphere of taxi companies is no exception. When a user downloads a taxi-aggregation company’s application and orders a taxi, using its information about a carrier, this causes uncertainty in the qualifcation of the legal relationship between aggregator, carrier, and consumer. This ambiguity becomes critical if non-performance of the contract causes injury or non-pecuniary loss to a passenger. In this case, a concurrence arises between contact and tort qualifcation of the claim against the carrier and/or aggregator. The essay examines approaches to the distribution of liability between the aggregator, the carrier, and other persons who could contribute to causing harm, from the point of view of contract and tort law.

Factors impacting BIM application in prefabricated buildings in China with DEMATEL-ISM

PurposeSome papers have investigated the complex factors impacting building information modeling (BIM) application in prefabricated buildings (PBs), but few paid attention to their interaction relationships. Ignoring the fact that different factors are not isolated may lead to some key factors being overlooked without appropriate improvement strategies being proposed. This paper aims to analyze those factors and their inter-relationships, with the view to identify the critical factors and their interaction relationships so as to derive constructive strategies that would effectively facilitate BIM adoption in Chinese prefabrication.Design/methodology/approachFirst, factors influencing BIM application in prefabrication are extracted and collated by literature review, expert interview and analysis of PBs characteristics. Thereafter, an evaluation laboratory (decision-making trial and evaluation laboratory) and interpretive structural modeling are used to explore the relationships and hierarchy among the factors. Based on the degree of cause and centrality, critical factors are extracted and the interaction relationship are investigated.FindingsThe results show that BIM policies and standards for PBs are the main causal factors. The maturity of BIM software and BIM data interface for PBs, willingness to share data, the strategic goals of the enterprise, BIM law and BIM input and benefit are the main transitional factors while BIM staff and workflow, enterprise attitude, distribution of BIM liability and cooperation of participants are the main direct factors.Originality/valueBased on the above findings, corresponding improvement strategies are proposed so as to promote BIM application in prefabrication and the rapid development of China’s PBs efficiently.

Understanding and Application of Fair Responsibility in the Civil Code

Article 1186 of the Civil Code limits the scope of fair liability and effectively prevents the abuse of fair liability. Fair liability has undergone three legislative changes, and there are disputes as to whether fair liability is an independent imputation principle or a liability distribution rule. Through the understanding of Article 1186 of the Civil Code, the applicable scope of fair liability can be better clarified. The scope of application of fair liability in academic circles mainly includes the following four: The first is the fair liability for damage caused by emergency avoidance; the second is the fair liability for suffering damage due to righteousness; the third is the fair liability for the damage caused by people with full civil capacity falling into an unconscious state or losing control; the fourth is the damage caused by people throwing objects at height Responsibility for fairness.