Public Pricing Research Articles

Multimodal pricing model in a deficit public transport market: Implication of informal transport

This article explores one of the most important segments of public transport in developing countries, namely informal transport and its relation to the pricing system of public transport. This paper is an extension of the work of Tirachini, A. and Hensher, D.A., who have developed a model to analyze the impact of non-motorized transport on an optimal public transport pricing policy. We are looking at three congested modes of transportation, and we introduce informal transport as an independent mode of transport instead of non-motorized transport in this analysis. Informal transport has never been incorporated into an intercity transport pricing analysis and this is the first one that informal transport has been considered an autonomous mode in a pricing model. We tried to show how the pricing policy would change by considering or ignoring the Informal Transport. We propose three congested modes (Public transport, particular vehicular and informal transport) pricing model that incorporates informal transport and reconstruct the impact of a capacity constraint on optimal public transport prices. Pricing model were developed explaining the first best and second best prices and the changes effects of capacities and frequency of public transport bus.

Assessing social preferences in reimbursement negotiations for new Pharmaceuticals in Oncology: an experimental design to analyse willingness to pay and willingness to accept

BackgroundPrice negotiations for specialty pharmaceuticals take place in a complex market setting. The determination of the added value of new treatments and the related societal willingness to pay are of increasing importance in policy reform debates. From a behavioural economics perspective, potential cognitive biases and other-regarding concerns affecting outcomes of reimbursement negotiations are of interest. An experimental setting to investigate social preferences in reimbursement negotiations for novel, oncology pharmaceuticals was used. Of interest were differences in social preferences caused by incremental changes of the patient outcome.MethodsAn online experiment was conducted in two separate runs (n = 202, n = 404) on the Amazon Mechanical Turk (MTurk) platform. Populations were split into two (run one) and four (run two) equally sized treatment groups for hypothetical reimbursement decisions. Participants were randomly assigned to the role of a public price regulator for pharmaceuticals (buyer) or a representative of a pharmaceutical company (seller). In run two, role groups were further split into two different price magnitude framings (“real world” vs unconverted “real payoff” prices). Decisions had real monetary effects on other participants (in the role of premium payers or investors) and via charitable donations to a patient organisation (patient benefit).Results56 (run one) and 59 (run two) percent of participants stated strictly monotone preferences for incremental patient benefit. The mean incremental cost-effectiveness ratio (ICER) against standard of care (SoC) was higher than the initial ICER of the SoC against no care. Regulators stated lower reservation prices in the “real world” prices group compared to their colleagues in the unconverted payoff group. No price group showed any reluctance to trade. Overall, regulators rated the relevance of the patient for their decision higher and the relevance of their own role lower compared to sellers.ConclusionsThe price magnitude of current oncology treatments affects stated preferences for incremental survival, and assigned responsibilities lead to different opinions on the relevance of affected stakeholders. The design is useful to further assess effects of reimbursement negotiations on societal outcomes like affordability (cost) or availability (access) of new pharmaceuticals and test behavioural policy interventions.

A multi-method approach to design urban logistics hubs for cooperative use

Limited availability of public space and high urban property prices make shared logistics solutions highly attractive. The objective of this paper is to offer guidance on the best way to design urban logistics hubs for cooperative use by different courier-, express and parcel service providers (CEPs). The present research used a set of different methods to collect a substantial amount of qualitative and quantitative data. The example of Vienna (Austria) offers real-world data. The research paper identifies suitable attributes for describing different CEP user types and uses a linear optimisation model to suggest an optimal allocation of the shared infrastructure capacity. The optimisation model aims to maximise the total utility of hub space utilisation throughout an average working day. It assumes that the utility increases with the hub’s occupancy rate and the convergence of its CEP user types with the administration’s and the citizens’ vision of future city development. The results show that involved stakeholder groups – i.e. CEPs, citizens and city administrations – have both, conflicting and common goals.

Online Advertising Increased New Hampshire Residents' Use Of Provider Price Tool But Not Use Of Lower-Price Providers.

Insurers and policy makers have created health care price transparency websites to facilitate price shopping and reduce spending. However, price transparency tools to date have been plagued by low use. It is unclear whether this low use reflects a lack of interest or a lack of awareness. We launched a large online advertising campaign to increase consumers' awareness about insurer-specific negotiated price information available on New Hampshire's public price transparency website. Our campaign led to a more than 600percent increase in visits to the website. However, in our analysis of health plan claims, this increased use of the website did not translate to increased use of lower-price providers. Our findings imply that the limited success to date of price transparency tools in reducing health care spending is driven by structural factors that limit consumers' ability to use health care price information as opposed to only a lack of awareness about price transparency tools.

A comparison study between public and private healthcare sector medicine prices in South Africa

Abstract Objectives The objectives of the study were to compare price trends, determine price differentials, and equate the average price index of a basket of medicines between the public and private healthcare sectors in South Africa. Methods A price list consisting of 32 essential medicines available in both the public and private healthcare systems of South Africa was chosen for this study. The price of medicines for the private sector were obtained from the Medicine Price Registry-Open Up website for the period 2014–2018. Public sector medicine prices were obtained from the Department of Health website for the corresponding period. Observations and price trends were identified and analyzed using Microsoft Excel version 2016. Key findings A total of 74 medicine brands were analyzed in the study. It was found that the prices across both sectors had increased over time, however, the majority of brands (87%) displayed higher prices in the private sector in comparison to the public sector. On average, the price differential between the private and public sector medicines were 395.47%. Conclusions The study found varying price differences between medicines in the public and private sectors because of the different methodologies used in each. The reasons for changes in medicine prices across the years in both sectors, could not always be clearly determined as both sectors lacked complete transparency in the processes applied to establish medicine prices. Therefore, more transparent medicine price systems need to be considered for the future of South Africa’s healthcare system as the country transitions toward universal health coverage.

Origins of Mutual Fund Skill: Market versus Accounting Based Asset Pricing Anomalies

We investigate the information source of active U.S. equity mutual funds’ value added using 234 public asset pricing anomalies. On average, mutual funds add value through their positive exposures to anomalies based on market information (e.g., momentum and liquidity risk) and lose value through their negative exposures to anomalies based on accounting information of firm fundamentals (e.g., investment and profitability), corroborating that both the semi-strong and weak forms of the efficient market hypothesis do not hold. We also find weak evidence that mutual funds profit from their private information, supporting the rejection of the strong form efficient market hypothesis.

Cost and potential savings generated by a paediatrics e-Health web site for parents

IntroductionThere are few studies on e-Health interventions directed at parents that analyse their costs and any potential savings that may occur. The aims of this study consisted of calculating the costs of the development and maintenance of a paediatric web site for parents, including the costs per visit and per visitor, and the potentially savings made as regards medical visits avoided as a result of its use. MethodsThe technology costs as well as the work of the professionals were considered as costs of the web site. The calculation of the cost of the professionals and the potential savings were based on the official fees and public prices of the Andalusian Public Health Service. ResultsDuring 5 years and 6 months of the study, the total cost of the web site was €45,201.56. The cost per visit received was €0.0155€, and €0.0186 for each single visitor. Among the 516 users that took part in the study, face-to-face visits to Primary Care paediatric clinics were avoided, as well as those to Paediatric Emergency Department, at a savings of €22,263.89. ConclusionsThe costs of developing a paediatric e-Health website for parents written in Spanish, using existing and free technologies, are low compared to other forms of e-Health development. Furthermore, the costs are considerably low if they are divided by the total number of visits or the number of visitors. There is also a considerable potential financial saving on contributing to avoid face-to-face visits.

Disamenties of Living Close to Transit Tracks: Evidence from Singapore

Urban transit systems bring social and economic benefits but generate disamenities to residents who live close to transit tracks. This paper empirically estimates the real costs of noise disamenities generated from mass rapid transit (MRT) tracks on public housing prices in Singapore. We use the aboveground and underground rail tracks in our identification strategy and find that noise disamenities from MRT trains cause a depreciation of approximately 3% to 4% in public housing prices for every 1 km reduction in the distance to the MRT rail tracks. Singapore’s government erects noise barriers along selected segments of the MRT tracks to mitigate noise. Difference-in-differences (DID) tests on the policy shock show that housing prices increase by approximately 2% and 4% after the announcement and completion of noise barrier projects, respectively. The welfare gains of the project to public housing residents are estimated at approximately 700 million Singapore dollars.

Academic Ableism: Disability and Higher Education (Corporealities: Discourses of Disability)

Academic Ableism: Disability and Higher Education (Corporealities: Discourses of Disability)

Reserve Price Signaling with Public Information: Evidence from Online Auto Auctions

This paper studies the problem of information provision in auctions. The linkage principle indicates that credibly revealing private information would benefit the seller, which implies that a seller should prefer a public reserve price to a secret one if the reserve price could reveal her private information. However, information revelation may backfire if the seller's information is not verifiable, and the reserve price works as a signaling device. In this paper, we consider an auction model in which a seller's choice of reserve price signals her private information about the object's quality. We show that such a signaling incentive could decrease the seller's profit and probability of sale in equilibrium, with a larger impact when the seller's private information is more precise relative to the public information announced by a third party. We estimate the reserve price signaling model using a novel dataset from a large online auto auction platform. We find that the signaling incentive could cost the seller 4% of her profit, and decrease the probability of sale by 15 percentage points. Counterfactual simulations suggest that a secret reserve price can improve both the seller's profit and probability of sale, especially when the signaling incentive is strong. Our findings support the prevalent use of secret reserve prices in practice, contrary to the predictions of linkage principle.

Online public opinion and asset prices: a literature review

<abstract> We review the research work undertaken to explore how online public opinion information through social media and news media affects asset prices. First, it summarizes the measurement of online public opinion from three aspects: data source of online public opinion, textual sentiment analysis, and measurement of online public opinion index. Second, it puts forward the related theoretical basis of the research on online public opinion and asset price such as the noise trading theory, arbitrage limitation demonstrations, limited attention assumption and divergence models, etc. Third, it summarizes the three transmission channels through which online public opinion affects asset prices: investor attention, investor perceptions, and investor sentiment. Last, it looks deeply into the area and classifies the empirical literature according to various sources of online public opinion chosen by the researcher. Therefore, this exploratory work contributes to the existing literature by introducing the first systematic review. </abstract>

From South Asia to the world: embracing the challenge of global sustainable nitrogen management

From South Asia to the world: embracing the challenge of global sustainable nitrogen management

Cost-effectiveness of a Contact Intervention and a Psychotherapeutic Program for Post-discharge Suicide Prevention.

To determine the cost-effectiveness of 2 strategies for post-discharge suicide prevention, an Enhanced Contact intervention based on repeated in-person and telephone contacts, and an individual 2-month long problem-solving Psychotherapy program, in comparison to facilitated access to outpatient care following a suicide attempt. We conducted a cost-effectiveness analysis based on a decision tree between January and December 2019. Comparative effectiveness estimates were obtained from an observational study conducted between 2013 and 2017 in Madrid, Spain. Electronic health care records documented resource use (including extra-hospital emergency care, mortality, inpatient admission, and disability leave). Direct cost data were derived from Madrid's official list of public health care prices. Indirect cost data were derived from Spain's National Institute of Statistics. Both augmentation strategies were more cost-effective than a single priority outpatient appointment considering reasonable thresholds of willingness to pay. Under the base-case scenario, Enhanced Contact and Psychotherapy incurred, respectively, €2,340 and 6,260 per averted attempt, compared to a single priority appointment. Deterministic and probabilistic sensitivity analyses showed both augmentation strategies to remain cost-effective under several scenarios. Enhanced Contact was slightly cost minimizing in comparison to Psychotherapy (base-case scenario: €-196 per averted attempt). Two post-discharge suicide prevention strategies based on Enhanced Contact and Psychotherapy were cost-effective in comparison to a single priority appointment. Increasing contacts between suicide attempters and mental health-care providers was slightly cost minimizing compared to psychotherapy.

Toll roads vs. Public transportation: A study on the acceptance of congestion-calming measures in Madrid

• This article compares the acceptance of transit improvements and incentives to use an underutilized toll road. • Toll discounts are less acceptable than transit improvements, especially those related to carpooling. • Incentives to use the toll road are not enough to attract free highway drivers. • Socioeconomic factors play a smaller role compared to trip-related variables. To relieve road congestion, a variety of transport demand management measures (TDM) have been implemented all over the world. The success of these measures has been found to depend at least partially on users’ perception about them. Several articles have jointly addressed the acceptability of public transport improvement (carrot policies) and road pricing (stick policies). However, these research works have not considered discounts on existing toll roads to relieve congestion on free alternative expressways. The objective of this paper is to study the combined acceptance of different congestion-calming policies at the suburban level, including the promotion of toll roads and measures to foster the use of transit. To that end, a survey was conducted among travelers on a commuting transport corridor in the region of Madrid aimed at exploring their perceptions towards four TDM measures, and a choice modeling framework was conducted. The scenarios considered are “carrot” policies, and the results of the analysis indicate that enhancing public transportation enjoys more support among respondents than toll promotions. Motorists using the free highway are more willing to use transit improvements than to opt for a toll road as an alternative regardless of the proposed toll discounts. Among the TDM measures explored, the least supported is the promotion of toll discounts associated with non-household carpooling. Furthermore, according to the results, the adoption of these TDM measures is more influenced by trip-related factors, in particular, the trip frequency and the mode of transport, than by socio-economic characteristics of the traveler. Finally, some geodemographic attributes of the residential location are also found to be statistically significant.

Who believes and why they believe: Individual perception of public housing and housing price depreciation

NIMBY attitudes have been a longstanding obstacle to the implementation of public housing programs. The root cause of community opposition to public housing has primarily been the fear of housing price depreciation. This research extends the previous literature by examining individual perceptions and beliefs in the impact of public housing on neighboring housing prices. This study examines specific characteristics of residents that affect their negative beliefs in the change of housing prices due to public housing in Seoul, Korea. We use a logistic regression method to examine significant characteristics that influence the belief of housing price depreciation due to public housing developments. The findings showed that variables including income category, apartment living, negative physical image of public housing, positive and negative environmental changes due to public housing, and socioeconomically advantaged neighborhoods were positively associated with the belief of housing price depreciation due to public housing. Conversely, female gender, older age, self-employed workers, existence of public housing, and preference for the mixed income approach were negatively correlated with the belief of nearby housing price depreciation. Furthermore, these characteristics that affected the negative belief in public housing regarding the change of nearby housing prices varied across both income and age groups of residents. This study may help planners and scholars develop tailored strategies to mitigate residents' negative attitudes toward public housing.

Public value and pricing in English hospitals: Value creation or value extraction?

Abstract Value creation happens when hospitals provide new services or clinicians deliver existing services in better or more cost efficient ways. On the other hand, those who deliver healthcare can extract financial value from the system. Cost-based prices are now potent measures of financial value for profit centres in English hospitals. Here, we focus on the ramifications of these cost-based prices for creating or extracting value in the health care system. Our empirical data is drawn from: first, semi-structured interviews with Clinical Directors who head up profit centres in English hospitals; and, second, documentary sources which reveal how accounting drives costing for health treatments. From these data sources we identify three valuing activities which mobilise cost-based prices: “bubble” charts; “up-coding” and business cases in the context of a joint venture. We conclude that cost-based pricing can create public value because it incentivizes clinical activity and can be used to enhance health care quality. But the traditional accounting mode for cost-based pricing advantages standardised care while disadvantaging complex care, this generates opportunities for value extraction for those, including some private sector providers, who deliver standardised care. Our analysis encompasses three different levels: the profit centre based on a specialty, the hospital and the entire health care system. This broad appraisal reveals that value creation at the level of the individual profit centre can become value extraction for the hospital and the health care system as a whole.

적격심사제도에서 예정가격 공개 여부에 따른 입찰가격 균형에 대한 이론적 고찰

본 연구는 우리나라 공공조달시장의 낙찰자 선정 기준으로 활용되는 적격심사제도에서 예정가격을 공개할 때와 복수의 예정가격 중 임의로 예정가격을 선정할 때의 입찰균형을 이론적으로 살펴보고 구매자와 입찰자 측면에서의 성과를 비교한다. 분석 결과, 복수의 예정가격이 활용되는 경우 발생하는 예정가격과 낙찰하한율의 불확실성은 모두 발주자의 기대비용이 낮아지는 방향으로 작용하게 되며, 이에 따라 발주자의 기대비용 관점에서 복수의 예정가격 중 임의로 예정가격을 선정하는 것이 예정가격을 공개하는 경우에 비하여 우월한 성과를 갖는 것으로 분석되었다. 한편, 낙찰자가 받는 최저비용의 관점에서는 입찰자들이 높은 낙찰하한율 이상으로 입찰하므로 이때 받게 되는 비용의 최저가는 공개된 예정가격에서의 균형과 같게 된다. 따라서 발주자의 기대비용과 낙찰자가 받는 최저비용의 관점을 모두 고려할 때 적격심사제의 성과는 복수의 예정가격 중 임의로 선정되는 것이 예정가격이 공개되는 경우에서 보다 우월하게 된다. 본 연구의 이론적 분석 결과는 현행의 적격심사제도에서 예정가격을 선정하는 방식이 타당함을 이론적으로 뒷받침한다.

Pricing Dynamics in the Truckload Sector: The Moderating Role of the Electronic Logging Device Mandate

Most truckload freight in the United States is priced using long‐term contracts. It is widely recognized in industry that contract prices evolve based on prices shippers pay for one‐time spot market transactions. This research examines whether the impact of spot market prices on contract prices has become more pronounced following the start of the electronic logging device (ELD) mandate. We draw on economic theories regarding how firms process information to explain why the ELD mandate, by reducing carriers’ ability to artificially adjust capacity up or down as spot prices changed, should strengthen this relationship. To test this prediction, we construct a database that combines monthly proprietary spot market pricing data from DAT Solutions with monthly public contract pricing data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics. We test our predictions using time series regression and evaluate the robustness of our findings using both instrumental variable estimation and seemingly unrelated regression to rule out reverse causality. Consistent with our theorizing, we further this relationship has become more pronounced since the ELD mandate started. We explain the importance of these findings to theory and practice.

PSU4 Cost Comparison and Budget IMPACT MODEL for Radical Prostatectomy in England

Robotic-assisted surgery has been introduced into a range of hospitals in the UK. This study aims to assess the budget impact of increasing adoption of robotic-assisted radical prostatectomy (RARP) compared with open radical prostatectomy (ORP) and laparoscopic radical prostatectomy (LRP) from the perspective of the UK National Health Service (NHS). A Markov cohort model was developed to estimate budget impact over 10 years for the three surgical approaches from the NHS perspective, with the transitional states of surgery, surveillance, recurrence, and death. Costs for surgical treatment, hospitalization, monitoring, dysfunction treatment, adjuvant therapy, adverse events, recurrence and end-of-life were included. Model inputs were derived from the published literature and NHS 2017-2018 reference cost. Information on surgical equipment and instrument cost was based on UK public listing price. Deterministic and probabilistic sensitivity analyses were conducted to assess parameter uncertainty. Scenario analysis was conducted to include or exclude capital cost. Although the cost of RARP was more than ORP and LRP during hospitalization when capital cost was included, the total cost per RARP after 10 years’ follow-up was €752 lower than ORP and € 1277 lower than LRP. Assuming that RARP will be increased from 75% to 84%, LRP decreased from 9% to 2 % and ORP decrease from 16% to 14%, NHS could have total budget savings of €129K over 10 years. If capital cost is removed from the calculation, further scenario analyses suggest NHS could achieve cost saving in the first year. Our study suggests modest increases in the adoption of RARP would not increase total budget for NHS over 10 years. Initial capital investment for the da Vinci robotic-assisted surgical platform could be offset by cost savings from improved short-term and long-term clinical benefits. Further research is needed to demonstrate and validate long-term benefits of RARP and its financial impact.

Examining impacts of time-based pricing strategies in public transportation: A study of Singapore

Abstract Peak and off-peak pricing strategies are an important policy tool used to spread peak demand in public transportation systems. This study uses an agent-based simulator (SimMobility Mid-term) to examine the impact of pricing (off-peak fare discounts) strategies used in Singapore. The aim of the paper is to demonstrate the capabilities of the simulator, and types of detailed performance indicators it can provide, in order to examine the effects of complex public transport pricing policies. Behavioral models within the simulator are calibrated with relevant datasets such as household travel survey, smart card, GPS probe data from taxis and traffic counts for the Singapore network. Nine (09) time-based pricing strategies are examined that consist of a combination of free pre-peak travel on Mass Rapid Transit (MRT) and an off-peak discount for integrated transit (public buses, MRT and Light Rail Transit (LRT)). Changes in public transport ridership, mode shares, operator's revenue and denied boarding are used as indicators to examine the impacts of pricing strategies. The effects of these policies are also examined on segments of the population in terms of income level, person type and gender. Results indicate that off-peak discounts spread PM peak demand and attract individuals to public transportation. However, the availability of fare discounts in all off-peak periods results in adverse impacts during the AM peak because many commuters shift the return leg rather than the initial leg of their journey. The study concludes with suggestions on how to explore more effective pricing strategies, i.e. providing fare discounts only during off-peak periods that surround AM peak.