Value-based reinforcement learning typically involves the repeated application of an update rule, such as the Bellman operator TB, to an action-value function. Recent work has explored the use of alternative operators, which remain optimality-preserving and may result in improved performance. In this report, I study in particular the advantage learning operator, TALQ = TBQ − α(V − Q). A theoret...

To combat adverse selection, governments increasingly base payments to health plans and providers on enrollees’ scores from risk-adjustment formulae. In 2004, Medicare began to risk-adjust capitation payments to private Medicare Advantage (MA) plans to reduce selection-driven overpayments. But because the variance of medical costs increases with the predicted mean, incentivizing enrollment of i...

An encrypted email is sent from Bob to Alice. A gateway wants to check whether a certain keyword exists in an email or not for some reason (e.g. routing). Nevertheless Alice does not want the email to be decrypted by anyone except her including the gateway itself. This is a scenario where public key encryption with keyword search (PEKS) is needed. In this paper we construct a new scheme (KR-PEK...

Previous research has documented Medicare overpayments to the private Medicare Advantage (MA) plans that compete with traditional fee-for-service Medicare. This research has assessed individual categories of overpayment for, at most, a few years. However, no study has calculated the total overpayments to private plans since the program's inception. Prior to 2004, selective enrollment of healthi...

Despite a slight drop in enrollment and a dramatic shift in the landscape of the rural Medicare Advantage (MA) market in early 2010, MA plans have experienced modest growth in enrollment in rural areas over the last two quarters of 2010. The majority of the growth is concentrated in preferred provider organization (PPO) plans, counteracting a decline in private fee-for-service (PFFS) plan enrol...

A recent (January 2010) editorial in The Lancet addressing the 'perils of journal and supplement publishing' states in no unclear terms that the publishing of commercially sponsored supplements is 'firmly off the agenda' for The Lancet (1). The editorial notes that although supplements and custom publications are an established element in journal publishing, supplemental material 'is usually mu...

This paper discusses the implications of basic trade theory for our understanding of the economic performance of national institutional networks. A nation’s institutional configuration importantly shapes the incentives of its economic actors and thereby affects its productive capacities in various economic sectors. I.e., firms’ production functions, and thereby the shapes of national production...