The paper considers the overarching objectives of the UK healthcare system, and the ways in which commissioning was originally intended to contribute to the achievement of these objectives. It also reviews a number of existing frameworks describing the activities of commissioners and the competencies required to perform these tasks effectively. From this, fourteen domains of competency for worl...

We study the connection between banking crises and non-life insurance consumption in 139 countries from 1988 to 2010. After controlling for output, we find a negative excess decline in non-life insurance consumption after the occurrence of a banking crisis only in countries heavily depending on bank credit. The primary contributing factor is motor insurance which loses 113% of the annual premiu...

When seeking new leaders, business and government organizations alike often need individuals that are less risk averse, or even risk-seeking, in order to improve performance. However, individuals amenable to increased risktaking may be more likely to engage in misconduct. To study this issue, we explore US political scandals and the implicated politicians’portfolio choices. We find that a polit...

Article history: Received 22 July 2014 Received in revised form 18 November 2014 Accepted 20 November 2014 Available online 26 November 2014 The corporate governance reform in China offers an interesting context for investigating the systematic relationship between board size and firm's risky policy choices. Our results indicate that firms with smaller boards experience larger variability in fu...

Although young men who have sex with men (MSM) are at high risk for contracting HIV, few interventions address the affective/automatic factors (e.g., sexual arousal, shame/stigma) that may precipitate young MSM’s risktaking. A National Institutes of Health (NIH)-funded DVD interactive video intervention that simulated a “virtual date” with guides/mentors reduced sexual risk over 3-months for Bl...

We provide new evidence on the relationship between option-based compensation and risktaking behavior by exploiting the change in the accounting treatment of stock options following the adoption of FAS 123R in 2005. The implementation of FAS 123R represents an exogenous change in the accounting benefits of stock options that has no effect on the economic costs and benefits of options for provid...

The current report presents data on lifetime prevalence of suicide ideation and nonfatal attempts as reported by the large representative sample of U.S. Army soldiers who participated in the Consolidated All-Army Survey of the Army Study to Assess Risk and Resilience in Servicemembers (N = 29,982). We also examine associations of key Army career characteristics with these outcomes. Prevalence e...

A new contact eatometer designed and built in our laboratory is described. The system makes possible the reliable continuous recording of feeding behavior in rats from the time of weaning, without significantly affecting food intake- and growth-related variables. Improved time discrimination and reliability of records--along with the small financial outlay necessary to manufacture the device--m...

Few studies of associations between housing and health have focused on housing insecurity and health risk behaviors and outcomes. We measured the association between housing insecurity and selected health risk behaviors and outcomes, adjusted for socioeconomic measures, among 8,415 respondents to the 2011 Washington State Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System. Housing insecure respondents ...

It was expected that viewers watching adult mixed-sex pairs dining together will give higher ratings of the perceived intimacy and involvement of the pair if feeding is displayed while eating, especially if the feeding involves contaminated (i.e., with potential germ transfer) foods. Our hypotheses were tested using a design in which participants viewed five videotapes in varying order. Each vi...