The United States offers two markedly different subsidy structures for private health insurance. When covered through employer-based plans, employees and their dependents benefit from the exclusion ...from taxable income of the premiums. Individuals without access to employer coverage may obtain subsidies for Marketplace coverage. This paper seeks to understand how the public subsidies embedded in the privately financed portion of the U.S. healthcare system impact the payments families are required to make under both ESI and Marketplace coverage, and the implications for finance equity.
Using the Household Component of the Medical Expenditure Panel Survey (MEPS-HC) and Marketplace premium data, we assess horizontal and vertical equity by calculating public subsidies for and expected family spending under each coverage source and using Lorenz curves and Gini and concentration coefficients. Our study pooled the 2018 and 2019 MEPS-HC to achieve a sample size of 10,593 observations. Our simulations showed a marked horizontal inequity for lower-income families with access to employer coverage who cannot obtain Marketplace subsidies. Relative to both the financing of employer coverage and earlier Marketplace tax credits, the more generous Marketplace premium subsidies, first made available in 2021 under the American Rescue Plan Act, substantially increased the vertical equity of Marketplace financing. While Marketplace subsidies have clearly improved equity within the United States, we conclude with a comparison to other OECD countries highlighting the persistence of inequities in the U.S. stemming from its noteworthy reliance on employer-based private health insurance.
•United States uses employer and individual private health insurance coverage.•No recent investigations of horizontal and vertical equity of U.S. private coverage.•Analysis of Gini coefficients and Lorenz curves suggests regressivity.•Public policies including insurance subsidies can reduce inequities.
We introduce a methodology to estimate the historical time series of returns to investment in private equity funds. The approach requires only an unbalanced panel of cash contributions and ...distributions accruing to limited partners and is robust to sparse data. We decompose private equity returns from 1994 to 2015 into a component due to traded factors and a time-varying private equity premium not spanned by publicly traded factors. We find cyclicality in private equity returns that differs according to fund type and is consistent with the conjecture that capital market segmentation contributes to private equity returns.
Cardiovascular diseases (CVDs) are responsible for approximately 35% of all deaths in women. In 2019, the global age-standardized CVD prevalence and mortality of women were 6,403 per 100,000 and 204 ...per 100,000, respectively. Although the age- and population-adjusted prevalence has decreased globally, opposite trends are evident in regions of socioeconomic deprivation. Cardiovascular health and outcomes are influenced by regional socioeconomic, environmental, and community factors, in addition to health care system and individual factors. Cardiovascular care in women is commonly plagued by delayed diagnoses, undertreatment, and knowledge gaps, particularly in women-specific or women-predominant conditions. In this paper, we describe the global epidemiology of CVD and highlight multilevel determinants of cardiometabolic health. We review knowledge and health care gaps that serve as barriers to improving CVD outcomes in women. Finally, we present national, community, health care system, and research strategies to comprehensively address cardiometabolic risk and improve outcomes in women.
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•CVD is the leading cause of death in women worldwide.•Regional variation in CVD burden reflects socioeconomic determinants.•A multilevel approach is required to improve cardiometabolic health and CVD outcomes in women on a global scale.
Digital health innovations have been rapidly implemented and scaled to provide solutions to health delivery challenges posed by the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic. This has provided people ...with ongoing access to vital health services while minimizing their potential exposure to infection and allowing them to maintain social distancing. However, these solutions may have unintended consequences for health equity. Poverty, lack of access to digital health, poor engagement with digital health for some communities, and barriers to digital health literacy are some factors that can contribute to poor health outcomes. We present the Digital Health Equity Framework, which can be used to consider health equity factors. Along with person-centered care, digital health equity should be incorporated into health provider training and should be championed at the individual, institutional, and social levels. Important future directions will be to develop measurement-based approaches to digital health equity and to use these findings to further validate and refine this model.
Leveraged Buyouts and Private Equity Kaplan, Steven N.; Strömberg, Per
The Journal of economic perspectives,
2009, Letnik:
23, Številka:
1
Journal Article
Recenzirano
Odprti dostop
In a leveraged buyout, a company is acquired by a specialized investment firm using a relatively small portion of equity and a relatively large portion of outside debt financing. The leveraged buyout ...investment firms today refer to themselves (and are generally referred to) as private equity firms. We describe and present time series evidence on the private equity industry, considering both firms and transactions. We discuss the existing empirical evidence on the economics of the firms and transactions. We consider similarities and differences between the recent private equity wave and the wave of the 1980s. Finally, we speculate on what the evidence implies for the future of private equity.
Equity crowdfunding: A new phenomena Vulkan, Nir; Åstebro, Thomas; Sierra, Manuel Fernandez
Journal of Business Venturing Insights,
June 2016, 2016-06-00, Letnik:
5
Journal Article
Odprti dostop
Crowdfunding has recently become available for entrepreneurs. Most academic studies analyse data from rewards-based (pre-selling) campaigns. In contrast, in this paper we analyse 636 campaigns, ...encompassing 17,188 investors and 64,831 investments between 2012 and 2015, from one of the leading European equity crowdfunding platforms. We provide descriptive statistics and carry out cross-campaign regression analysis. The descriptive statistics address its size, growth and geographic distributions in the UK. The regressions analyse which factors are associated with the probability of a successful campaign. We find some similarities and some interesting dissimilarities when comparing the descriptive statistics and regression results to research on rewards-based crowding. The data show that equity crowdfunding will likely pose great challenges to VC and business angel financiers in the near future. We discuss some research challenges and opportunities with these kind of data.
•Crowdfunding has recently become available for entrepreneurs.•Most academic studies analyse data from rewards-based (pre-selling) campaigns.•We provide descriptive statistics and carry out cross-campaign regression analysis for one UK equity crowdfunding platform.•The regressions analyse which factors are associated with the probability of a successful campaign.
This article offers a comprehensive exploration of gender bias within the Chinese workplace, addressing its definition, manifestations, impacts, and proposed solutions. Gender bias presents itself ...through various channels, encompassing wage disparities, unequal opportunities, limited career progression, and diminished job satisfaction. These biases not only detrimentally affect individuals' mental well-being and professional advancement but also impede organizational performance, innovation, and reputation. Furthermore, they pose significant challenges to a nation's economic prosperity and social harmony. Given the pervasive nature and far-reaching consequences of gender bias, it becomes imperative to undertake a series of concerted measures aimed at its reduction and eventual elimination. These measures encompass the establishment of clear and unequivocal policies and procedures, provision of comprehensive employee training and education, implementation of fair and transparent recruitment and promotion mechanisms, the establishment of robust feedback channels supplemented by counseling services, cultivation of a workplace culture that actively supports gender equality, promotion of diverse leadership teams, and facilitation of government policies conducive to gender parity. Through collaborative and collective efforts, a more equitable and inclusive work environment can be fostered, thereby fostering the mutual development and progress of individuals, businesses, and society at large. By prioritizing gender equality initiatives, we lay the groundwork for a fairer and more prosperous society, wherein the talents and contributions of all individuals are recognized, valued, and rewarded equitably.
Although the phenomenal growth of private equity investments into a $2 trillion market has been widely recognized, little is known about the recent rise of the private credit market, which has ...doubled to over $1 trillion in the past five years and generated annual returns of close to 9% during the past 15 years. In this panel, three private and public debt professionals discuss the interplay between private equity and debt, pricing pressures, competition for assets, and deal terms for private equity and debt investors in an increasing‐interest‐rate environment.Direct lending to PE‐owned firms has expanded dramatically since the 2008 global financial crisis, driven in significant part by the effect of Dodd‐Frank on traditional banks' lending to their core middle market segment. Alternative lenders such as Blackstone and Ares Capital Management have filled the resulting void in this large market. While much of this activity is direct lending to those small and mid‐market companies, another major part is structured or asset‐backed lending to a discrete pool of assets wherein repayment of that debt is derived solely from the contractual cash flows coming off those assets rather than from the company.Morgan Stanley's Vanessa Roberts explains how the private debt markets, as evidenced by their continued growth, complement public debt markets without supplanting them. But as Phil Canfield emphasized, private equity sponsors value the speed of execution and certainty of commitment along with fewer public disclosures that come with private credit. It's typically a less complex process, one that removes regulatory obstacles to risk‐reducing structures and ends up providing more flexible solutions. What's more, the dramatic expansion of private capital pools in 2021 has brought much more liquidity to the market and accelerated the move toward cash‐flow‐based lending.
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