Simulating a realistic-sized equity premium in macroeconomic models has proved a daunting challenge, hence the “equity premium puzzle”. “Resolving” the puzzle requires heavy lifting. Precise choices of particular preferences, shocks, technologies, and hard borrowing constraints can do the trick, but haven’t stopped the search for a simpler and more robust solution. This paper suggests that soft...

Many physicians confronting declining reimbursement from insurers have invested in ambulatory surgery centers, where they perform outpatient surgical and diagnostic procedures. An ownership stake entitles physicians to a share of the facility’s profits from self-referrals. This arrangement can create a potential conflict of interest between physicians’ financial incentives and patients’ clinica...

T salesman problems with profits (TSPs with profits) are a generalization of the traveling salesman problem (TSP), where it is not necessary to visit all vertices. A profit is associated with each vertex. The overall goal is the simultaneous optimization of the collected profit and the travel costs. These two optimization criteria appear either in the objective function or as a constraint. In t...

Health reform has become a politically divisive issue in the United States. But survey responses from Democratic and Republican state legislators show that both parties agree on one thing: the importance of reducing health care costs. While the parties have other competing priorities — like increasing access to health care and reducing the role of government — tackling costs could provide a bas...