In this paper we show that fixed‐term contracts, which are commonly used to franchise highways, do not allocate demand risk optimally. We characterize the optimal risk‐sharing contract and show that it can be implemented with a fairly straightforward mechanism—a least‐present‐value‐of‐revenue auction. Instead of bidding on tolls (or franchise lengths), as in the case of fixed‐term franchises, in an LPVR auction the bidding variable is the present value of toll revenues. The lowest bid wins and the franchise ends when that amount has been collected. We also show that the welfare gains that can be attained by replacing fixed‐term auctions with LPVR auctions are substantial.

Organizations are all around us. Culture is trickier—to analyze and even to see. We consider both the effect of management on culture and the effect of culture on performance. We begin by describing an intervention that dramatically improved outcomes and conspicuously included a culture-change component. We then use details from this intervention to describe potential empirical analyses of the association between organizational culture and performance in this and similar settings. Finally, we describe opportunities for theoretical models to explore how and why organizational culture might influence organizational performance.

We ask whether the US government should replace its current discounting practices with a declining discount rate schedule, as the United Kingdom and France have done, or continue to discount the future at a constant exponential rate. We present the theoretical basis for a declining discount rate (DDR) schedule, but focus on how, in practice, a DDR could be estimated for use by policy analysts. We discuss the empirical approaches in the literature and review how the United Kingdom and France estimated their DDR schedules. We conclude with advice on how the United States might proceed to consider modifying its current discounting practices.

US health care expenditures reached $2.5 trillion in 2009, representing 17.6 percent of gross domestic product (GDP) and $8,086 per person (US Department of Health and Human Services Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services 2011). Since health care represents a large and growing share of the economy, and factors such as population aging imply that chronic disease treatment will continue to expand as a share of health expenditures, developing methods for assessing the value of quality improvement for chronic disease spending is of increasing importance for accurately measuring real economic activity. This paper develops a method for assessing the value of quality changes associated with health care for patients living with one important chronic disease, diabetes mellitus, using 11 years of detailed data on spending and quality of care for over 800 patients. We first provide an overview of measurement issues for health care quality, and then present our data, methods, results, and a brief discussion.

Abstract This article presents information on various books related to accountancy. The book "An Accountant's Guide to Databases," by K.N. Bhasker, examines the basic concepts and terminology of database management and its implications for the field of accounting. The book begins with a brief introduction to current micro-technology and the organization of computer files and defines three distinctive meanings of the term database relevant to its use in accounting. The purpose of the book "Comprehensive Auditing in Canada: Theory and Practice," by James Cutt, is the development of a theory and methodology for a comprehensive auditing model by examination of current theory and practice in the areas of auditing and policy analysis or program evaluation. The theory and methodology developed is designed primarily for the nonprofit component of the public sector but is extended to the profit component of the public and private sectors. In the book "The British Accounting Review Research Register 1988," edited by K.P. Gee and R.H. Gray, the data presented has been gathered from across 90 universities, polytechnics and colleges, and provides information on 1,072 accounting and finance academic staff members throughout the British Isles.

Abstract Focuses on a project by the American Accounting Association's Committees on Professional Examinations which evaluated the professional examinations for accountants. Objectives of the project; Methodology of the projects; Comparison of examinations and accounting curricula; Recommendations.

We explore the impact of allowing for outsourcing service delivery to the private sector within Indonesia’s largest targeted transfer program. In a field experiment across 572 municipalities, we find that allowing for outsourcing the last mile of food delivery reduced operating costs without sacrificing quality. However, the prices citizens paid were lower only where we modified the bidding rules to encourage more bidders. Higher rents are associated with greater entry despite elites’ efforts to block reform. In this context, the option to outsource and sufficient competition generated significant benefits relative to public distribution.

Redistribution programs in developing countries often “leak” because local officials do not implement programs as the central government intends. We study one approach to reducing leakage. In an experiment in over 550 villages, we test whether mailing cards with program information to targeted beneficiaries increases the subsidy they receive from a subsidized rice program. On net, beneficiaries received 26 percent more subsidy in card villages. Ineligible households received no less, so this represents substantially lower leakage.

This paper provides a systematic analysis of identification in linear social interactions models. This is a theoretical and econometric exercise as the analysis is linked to a rigorously delineated model of interdependent decisions. We develop an incomplete information game for individual choice under social influences that nests standard models as special cases. We consider identification of both endogenous and contextual social effects under alternative assumptions regarding an analyst’s a priori knowledge of social structure or access to individual-level or aggregate data. Finally, we discuss potential ramifications for identification of endogenous formation of social structure.

We present a new estimator for causal effects with panel data that builds on insights behind the widely used difference-in-differences and synthetic control methods. Relative to these methods we find, both theoretically and empirically, that this “synthetic difference-in-differences” estimator has desirable robustness properties, and that it performs well in settings where the conventional estimators are commonly used in practice. We study the asymptotic behavior of the estimator when the systematic part of the outcome model includes latent unit factors interacted with latent time factors, and we present conditions for consistency and asymptotic normality. (JEL C23, H25, H71, I18, L66)