Emerging economies are often exposed to sudden shortages of international financial resources. Yet domestic agents do not seem to take preventive measures against these sudden stops. We highlight the central role played by the limited development of ex ante (insurance) and ex post (spot) domestic financial markets in generating this collective undervaluation of international resources. We study...

This paper develops a financial mechanism which integrates housing and the real economy through housing-secured debt. In this environment, movements in home prices are amplified through both borrowers and banks’ balance sheets, leading to a self-reinforcing credit/liquidity crunch. When placed within a traditional business cycle model, this financial structure quantitatively captures empirical ...

The financial crisis that surfaced in 2007 has stressed the need to identify the ultimate sources of the incentives that were behind the preceding credit and housing bubbles. To lower the likelihood of future financial collapses, prudent economic policies as well as an adequate regulatory and supervisory framework for financial institutions are required. Monetary policy, in turn, should be dire...

We consider the dynamic risk management problem for a commodity processor in a multi-period setting. The firm procures an input commodity and processes it to produce an output commodity. The processed commodity is sold using forward contracts while the input itself can be traded at the end of the horizon. The firm can also trade financial derivative instruments to manage the commodity price ris...

The objective of this study was to use audited hospital financial statements to identify predictors of payer mix and financial performance in safety net hospitals prior to the Affordable Care Act. We analyzed the 2010 financial statements of 98 large, urban safety net hospital systems in 34 states, supplemented with data on population demographics, hospital features, and state policies. We used...

The paper discusses frameworks in which the financial sector is at the eye of the storm. In that context, policies that do not repair the damage in the financial sector are, by necessity, second‐best. Actually, aggregate demand policies – emphasized in textbook Keynesian models – may be inferior to heterodox policies that rely on credit targeting. Moreover, based on salient characteristics of m...

Emergency surgeon: “ last of the mohicans” 2014-2016 editorial policy WSESWJES: position papers, guidelines, courses, books and original research; from WJES impact factor to WSES congress impact factor Fausto Catena, Frederick Moore, Luca Ansaloni, Ari Leppäniemi, Massimo Sartelli, Andrew B Peitzmann, Walt Biffl, Federico Coccolini, Salomone Di Saverio, Belinda De Simone, Michele Pisano and Ern...

Ensuring financial access to health services is a critical challenge for poor countries if they are to reach the health Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). This article examines the case of Rwanda, a country which has championed innovative health care financing policies. Between 2000 and 2007, Rwanda has improved financial access for the poor, increased utilization of health services and reduc...

Health policy instruments such as the public financing of health technologies (e.g., new drugs, vaccines) entail consequences in multiple domains. Fundamentally, public health policies aim at increasing the uptake of effective and efficient interventions and at subsequently leading to better health benefits (e.g., premature mortality and morbidity averted). In addition, public health policies c...