Permanent Benefits Research Articles

Firm-level access to international capital markets: evidence from Chilean equities

High growth, liquid Chilean firms have greater relative weights in US equity portfolios, but the most important determinant of a firm's portfolio weight is whether it is listed on a US exchange. Cross-listing does not, however, appear to have permanent benefits: weights in US portfolios of firms that cross-listed in the mid-1990s increased at the expense of firms that cross-listed earlier. Put another way, firms appear to be able to access international capital at the time of the cross-listing, but this access may well be short-lived.

Price Stability: Some Costs and Benefits in New Zealand

Among the distortions generated by inflation, those caused by its interaction with taxation are particularly important. Due to the non-indexation of the tax system, inflation exacerbates the inefficiencies generated by taxation. The aim of this paper is to evaluate the welfare effects of these distortions in New Zealand. By using a stylised model of the New Zealand tax system, the tax burden on capital income is calculated for different values of the inflation rate. Following Feldstein (1997a, 1997b), the paper then estimates the welfare effects of going from 2 percent 'true' inflation (net of measurement bias) to price stability. The benefits turn out to be about 0.4 percent of GDP, approximately half the size of those calculated by Feldstein for the US, the difference being mainly due to a less distortionary tax system. The permanent benefits are then compared with the one-off output loss that would be involved. As for the US, the result is supportive of price stability, but it does not hold for plausible values of some key parameters.

Firm-Level Access To International Capital Markets: Evidence From Chilean Equities

High growth, liquid Chilean firms have greater relative weights in U.S. equity portfolios, but the most important determinant of a firm's portfolio weight is whether it is listed on a U.S. exchange. Cross-listing does not, however, appear to have permanent benefits: Weights in U.S. portfolios of firms that cross-listed in the mid-1990s increased at the expense of firms that cross-listed earlier. Put another way, firms appear to be able to access international capital at the time of the cross-listing, but this access may well be short-lived.

Syncope in the elderly: new trends in diagnostic approach and nonpharmacologic management.

Syncope in the elderly is an important health care issue because of the large patient population, challenging diagnostic and therapeutic approaches, and potentially devastating consequences. Significant comorbidity and atypical clinical presentations render a precise determination of the cause of syncope difficult. Recent studies suggest that noninvasive tests, such as carotid sinus massage or tilt-table testing, can be helpful in the diagnostic workup. It has been shown that permanent pacemaker therapy benefits elderly patients with carotid sinus hypersensitivity, and younger patients with recurrent vasovagal syncope. The implantable wireless loop recorder can be effective in documenting transient arrhythmias as causes of syncope in selected patients. Elderly patients with syncope and a low ejection fraction are at increased risk of sudden death due to malignant ventricular arrhythmia. Electrophysiologic study and electrophysiology-guided therapy should be considered in this segment of the population.

Factors Affecting Permanent Partial Disability Ratings in Workers' Compensation

ABSTRACT Using a new and rich data source on permanent disability claims, this article explores two issues relating to permanent partial disability (PPD) benefits. First, the process of determining the final disability rating, which affects the actual level of PPD benefits, is modeled. Differences between the initial impairment rating provided by the treating physician and the final disability rating investigated to determine what factors, in addition to physical impairment, influence the determination of the final permanent, partial disability rating and, hence, the amount of indemnity benefits. This investigation highlights and measures some of the equity concerns inherent in establishing PPD benefits. Second, the influence of the final disability rating on the dollar amount of the permanent partial and total indemnity benefit award is measured. The empirical findings suggest that the same injuries, as measured by a physician impairment rating, may receive very different final disability ratings and thus have very different claim costs as a result of factors unrelated to the injury. These differences magnified across states. INTRODUCTION The adequacy and equity of benefits for permanently disabled workers continues to be a vexing problem for workers' compensation insurance. The 1972 National Commission on State Workers' Compensation Laws offered the view that permanent partial benefits are the most controversial and complex aspect of workmen's [sic] compensation The National Commission also observed that for no other type of benefit there more variations among states or more divergence between statutes and practice. Even after 20 years of significant reforms, these issues remain unresolved today. Moreover, recent studies have suggested that a substantial portion of the significant cost increases in the 1980s into the early 1990s in workers' compensation may be due to higher costs associated with permanent disability cases. Permanent partial disability (PPD) benefits account for approximately twothirds of the total costs of workers' compensation disability benefits (Berkowitz and Burton, 1987). Not surprisingly, the proportion of total benefits accounted for by permanent partial compensation also has been shown to be positively correlated to employer premiums (Krueger and Burton, 1990). Both the frequency and average cost of PPD cases have increased significantly in recent years. During the six-year period from 1988 to 1994, average PPD costs increased 25 percent, an increase of approximately 4 percent per year, while the frequency increased almost 29 percent or 4.4 percent annually. These increasing average costs and frequencies have resulted in an increase in the permanent partial cost per worker of approximately 52 percent (over 7 percent annually) over the same six year period. (National Council on Compensation Insurance, 1989-1995). Despite the importance of permanent partial benefits as a contributing factor to the increase in workers' compensation costs, little research has examined the factors that influence the costs of permanent partial disability claims. Using a new and rich data source on permanent disability claims, this article explores two issues relating to permanent partial disability benefits. First, we model the process of determining the final disability rating, which affects the actual level of PPD benefits. In this analysis, differences between the initial impairment rating provided by the treating physician and the final disability rating investigated to determine what factors, in addition to physical impairment, influence the determination of the final permanent partial disability rating and, hence, the amount of indemnity benefits. This investigation highlights and measures some of the equity concerns inherent in establishing PPD benefits. Second, we measure the influence of the final disability rating on the dollar amount of the permanent partial and total indemnity benefit award. …

Impairment Questions and Answers

Abstract Controversy attends use of the AMA Guides to the Evaluation of Permanent Impairment (AMA Guides) in defining injured workers’ permanent partial disability benefits: States desire an efficient, nonsubjective way to determine benefits for nonscheduled injuries and are using the AMA Guides to define the extent of disability. Organized labor is concerned that use of the AMA Guides, particularly with modifications, does not yield a fair analysis of an injured worker's disability. From its first issue, The Guides Newsletter emphatically emphasized and clearly stated that impairment percentages derived according to AMA Guides criteria should not be used to make direct financial awards or direct estimates of disability. The insurance industry and organized labor differ about the use of the AMA Guides in defining permanent partial disability (PPD). Insurers support use of the AMA Guides because they seek a uniform system that minimizes subjectivity in determining benefits. Organized labor is particularly concerned about the lack of fairness of directly equating impairment and disability, and if the rating plays a role in defining disability, additional issues also must be considered. More states are likely to use the AMA Guides with incorporation of additional features such as an index to PPD.

Literature Review

Abstract Evaluating physicians should understand how their impairment evaluations are used, and to these ends Section 1.5 of the AMA Guides to the Evaluation of Permanent Impairment (AMA Guides), Fourth Edition, discusses impairment and workers’ compensation. Permanent disability rewards may be paid according to a schedule that associates impairments of certain body parts, functions, or systems (eg, amputation or loss of sight or hearing) with specific awards. Typically, a schedule in the workers’ compensation law equates disability and a maximum number of weeks of benefits, but what occurs when an injured worker has both scheduled and unscheduled injuries? Under Colorado statute, scheduled injuries involve those to the neck, head, torso, and any injury not specifically enumerated in the statutory schedule. Because schedules usually do not cover all conditions following injuries, nonscheduled awards are available and are based on the extent of impairment, the nature of the injury, and the employee's occupation, experience, training, and age. The Colorado Supreme Court ruled that when a work-related injury results in both a scheduled and a nonscheduled injury, the scheduled injury must be converted to a whole person impairment rating and combined with the nonscheduled injury's whole person impairment when calculating permanent disability benefits. In its decision, the court relied heavily on and cited provisions in the AMA Guides.

Price Stability Versus Low Inflation in Germany: An Analysis of Costs and Benefits

We empirically investigate the costs and benefits of going from low inflation to price stability in the case of Germany. Recent empirical evidence on the sacrifice ratio suggests that the break-even point at which the permanent benefits of reducing the trend rate of inflation by 2 percentage points exceeds the temporary costs in terms of output losses is below 0.3% of GDP. We analyze the welfare implications of the interactions even of moderate rates of inflation with the distorting effects of the German tax system. Four areas of economic activity are considered: intertemporal allocation of consumption, demand for owner-occupied housing, money demand, and government debt service. We estimate the direct welfare effects of reducing the rate of inflation as well as the indirect tax revenue effects. We find that reducing the inflation rate by 2 percentage points permanently increases welfare by 1.4% of GDP. Finally, the optimal rate of disinflation is considered.

Work Disincentives of Workers' Compensation Permanent Partial Disability Benefits: Evidence for Canada

This paper examines the impact of workers' compensation benefits and expected labour market earnings on the post-injury employment status of permanently injured workers. Permanent partial disability benefits in Ontario at the time the data were collected were not related to post-injury labour market earnings and can therefore be characterized as having a pure income effect on post-injury employment behaviour. The estimation results indicate an elasticity of post-injury employment to workers' compensation permanent disability ben- efits of -0.15, evaluated for the mean worker. The elasticity of post-injury employment to expected post-injury labour market earnings is about 0.94 per cent. Les desincitations au travail des prestations d'indemnisation permanente des travailleurs pour incapacite partielle. Ce memoire examine l'impact des prestations d'indemnisation des travailleurs et des gains anticipes sur le marche du travail sur le statut d'emploi des travailleurs incapacites de maniere permanente. Les prestations permanentes pour compenser une incapacite partielle n'etaient pas reliees aux gains apres l'accident en Ontario au moment out les donnees ont ete recueillies. On peut donc parler d'un effet de revenu pur sur le comportement de travail apres l'accident. Les resultats montrent que, pour le travailleur moyen, l'elasticite de l'emploi apres l'accident par rapport a la prestation d'incapacite est de -0.15; d'autre part, l'elasticite de 1'emploi apres l'accident par rapport aux gains anticipes sur le marche du travail apres l'accident est a peu pres 0.94 pour cent.

An epidemiologic study of carpal tunnel syndrome and hand-arm vibration syndrome in relation to vibration exposure

No Minnesota workers' compensation claims have been filed for permanent partial disability benefits with a diagnosis of hand-arm vibration syndrome (HAVS). A cross-sectional study was undertaken to evaluate 519 compensation claimants following carpal tunnel surgery. Workers with significant vibration exposure and symptoms compatible with HAVS were identified within the group. The results show that some workers are not diagnosed as having HAVS even though they meet the diagnostic criteria. This suggests that HAVS should be considered in the differential diagnosis when a worker presents with neural and/or vascular symptoms of the hands and fingers.

Permanent Partial Disability in Workers' Compensation: Probability and Costs

Introduction Workers' compensation costs, as a percentage of covered payroll, have more than doubled since 1960, rising from 0.93 percent in that year to 2.15 percent in 1988. These increased costs have been attributed to changes in workers' compensation programs following the 1972 report of the National Commission of State Workmen's Compensation Laws, which criticized program benefits as inadequate.(1) Among other things, states responded to this report by increasing indemnity benefits and reducing the waiting period prior to benefit eligibility. In addition to the direct effect of such changes, a number of studies have found that liberalization of benefits increased program utilization. Specifically, several studies have found that higher compensation benefits are associated with higher claims incidence and longer durations of temporary total disability--the period of disability occurring prior to the point of maximum medical improvement (see Krueger, 1990a, and Ehrenberg, 1988, for recent reviews of the literature). A substantial portion of the increased cost of workers' compensation may be due to higher permanent partial disability costs. Permanent partial disability benefits represent approximately two-thirds of the total cost of workers' compensation benefits. In addition, while the incidence of permanent partial disability claims as a portion of total claims declined from a high of 26 percent in 1958 to 24 percent in 1982, the portion of total benefits attributable to permanent partial disability claims rose from 60 percent to 65 percent during that same period (Berkowitz and Burton, 1987). Krueger and Burton (1990) have shown that permanent partial disability benefits are an important determinant of overall program cost; that is, employer premiums are positively related to the proportion of total benefits accounted for by permanent partial compensation. Policy-makers have become increasingly concerned with permanent partial disability as overall costs have risen. Berkowitz and Burton (1987) have argued that increasing costs since the National Commission report have triggered a second wave of reform, centering on the compensation of permanent partial disability.(2) A number of jurisdictions have reassessed or changed their criteria or procedures for permanent partial benefits, including Florida, which implemented fundamental reform in 1979. Despite their importance as an element of compensation costs, there is little research examining the factors that influence the probability and costs of a permanent partial disability claim. This article explores three issues related to permanent partial disabilities. First, the process determining whether a claim becomes a permanent partial disability is modeled, as is the process determining the size of the permanent partial disability award. In particular, I estimate the extent to which each of these processes is affected by claimant moral hazard. Second, alternative empirical specifications of these processes are compared, one which assumes that the process determining the probability of permanent partial disability is identical to the process determining the size of the permanent partial disability award, and another which assumes that these two processes are different. (In this article, the probability of a permanent partial disability is estimated using a sample of injured workers rather than a sample of all workers. Therefore, the probabilities estimated in this study are not unconditional probabilities, but are conditional on a compensation claim having been initiated.) Finally, based on these results, estimates of the elasticities of permanent partial disability claims and costs with respect to changes in benefits are obtained. The next section of this article describes relevant aspects of workers' compensation programs; it is followed by a discussion of the potential effect of claimant moral hazard on the probability and size of a permanent partial award and a review of the empirical literature. …

Permanent Disability Benefits in Workers Compensation

Permanent Disability Benefits in Workers Compensation

Selection for improved carcass composition in Suffolk Sheep : Interim Results

It is likely that returns from lamb production in future will depend, much more than at present, on producing leaner carcasses. There are several short-term changes in management which could produce leaner carcasses. However, In the longer term genetic Improvement, particularly by within-breed selection In terminal sire breeds, is likely to provide permanent, cumulative and cost-effective benefits In carcass composition. In the early 1980s a research project was started at the Edinburgh School of Agriculture, using Suffolk sheep, to examine the genetic potential for Improving carcass composition In terminal sires. The work commenced with an evaluation of techniques for in vivo measurement of carcass composition (Simm, 1987) and derivation of selection indices to incorporate In vivo measurements (Simm and Dingwall, 1989). Since 1985 In vivo measurement and Index selection have been practised In the experimental flock, which now numbers about 220 ewes. This paper reports the interim results of selection.

Book Review: Economic and Social Security and Substandard Working Conditions: Permanent Disability Benefits in Workers' Compensation

Book Review: Economic and Social Security and Substandard Working Conditions: Permanent Disability Benefits in Workers' Compensation

Permanent Disability Benefits in Workers' Compensation.

Permanent Disability Benefits in Workers' Compensation.

Male labor force participation and the social security disability program.

In an article in thisJournal, Parsons (1980a) analyzes the doubling in the rate of' nonparticipation in the labor force of older men since 1946. Using cross-sectional data from the National Longitudinal Survey (Parnes et al. 1970) in an index function model of the labor force participation decision, he tests the assertion that the withdrawal of older males is attributable to the rapid expansion of alternatives to work provided by the Social Security Disability Insurance (SSDI) program. He reports an elasticity of nonparticipation with respect to the replacement rate of' SSDI benefits of' .631 and concludes that the recent decline in labor force participation can be "largely explained by the increased generosity of' social welfare transfers, particularly Social Security disability payments" (p. 130). The magnitude of Parsons's estimate and its impact on the public debate over disability transfer policy require careful scrutiny of' its basis. In Section I, we describe Parsons's econometric model and construction of' variables; in Section II we provide a critique. In Section III, we test the robustness of Parsons's elasticity estimate by presenting alternative estimates based on corrections and extensions of his basic model. Section IV concludes.

Comparison of surgical removal of tonsils and adenoids with x-ray treatment.

• Tonsils removed unilaterally in a number of children were compared with contralateral tonsils removed from the same children one year after treatment with roentgen rays. There was no evidence that irradiation had decreased the infectiousness of the tonsil. Irradiation has at times alleviated obstructions to nasal breathing, pharynx, and eustachian tube, but often the improvement has been only partial or temporary. Surgical removal of tonsils and adenoids has definite indications. Indiscriminate, routine tonsillectomy is quite properly a thing of the past, but, when the indications and cortraindications are duly observed, excision has positive and permanent benefits.

The Farmer and Social Security

IN this early postwar period public attention is focussing more and more upon the domestic economy. Whether or not we are to pass through a temporary business recession in the near future, the experiences of the thirties linger in the public mind. Already, as though anticipating an inevitable collapse of equal severity to the late depression, pressure groups are demanding that the government do something to assure economic stability and to guarantee satisfactory employment and earnings for all gainfully employed persons. In the past, a similar demand led to the adoption, in 1935, of the Social Security Act which provided for Old-Age and Survivors' Insurance and a system of State Unemployment Compensation. In 1939, the original Social Security Act was amended and expanded. The Wagner-Murray-Dingell Bill introduced originally on June 3, 1943, was revised and reintroduced by the same authors on May 24, 1945. It is this revised bill which may be regarded as representing the culmination of the present Administration's social security philosophy, and for that reason is used as the basis of this study.' The Wagner-Murray-Dingell Bill proposes to bring old-age and survivors' insurance, health insurance, maternity benefits, unemployment compensation, and temporary and permanent disability benefits to all groups, industrial, professional, and agricultural, and to employees and employers alike. All farmers, whether they be farm owners, operators, tenants, or farm workers, would be included. It is notable that the bill acknowledges no special differences between agriculture and industry, or between the farm owner and the operator, or between the tenant farmer or sharecropper, on the one hand, and the industrial worker, on the other. Yet it takes no special knowledge of social security to see that the farmer has been in quite a different position with reference to medical and hospital services than the city dweller, and to see that the collection of social security taxes is applied far more easily to industrial payrolls than to farm bookkeeping. These questions will be taken up in another study. In this survey we are concerned exclusively with the tax burden entailed in the extension of social security to the farmer. Hitherto very little specific attention has been given to the farmer's position in the future social security picture, and none at all to the financial burden of such an enlarged program and to the question of whether the cost would be in proportion to the social and economic advantages promised.

Actuarial Studies. No. 1: Sources and Characteristics of the Principal Mortality Tables. No. 2: Construction of Mortality Tables from the Records of Insured Lives. No. 4: Graduation of Mortality and Other Tables. No. 5: Total Permanent Disability Benefits in Relation to Life Insurance.

Actuarial Studies. No. 1: Sources and Characteristics of the Principal Mortality Tables. No. 2: Construction of Mortality Tables from the Records of Insured Lives. No. 4: Graduation of Mortality and Other Tables. No. 5: Total Permanent Disability Benefits in Relation to Life Insurance.

Total Permanent Disability Benefits in Relation to Life Insurance

Total Permanent Disability Benefits in Relation to Life Insurance