A-1 - Monthly Public Assistance Statistical Report Family Investment Program - October 2007

A-1 - Monthly Public Assistance Statistical Report Family Investment Program - October 2007

Investment Provider Comparison Retirement Investors' Club, 2005

The Retirement Investors’ Club (RIC) (also referred to as 457/401(a) deferred compensation) is a voluntary retirement savings program designed to help you meet your need for income at retirement and lower your current income taxes. Your contributions to RIC are automatically withdrawn from your paycheck and you are credited with an employer match. You may enroll*and make changes at any time. Other advantages are explained below…keep reading about this excellent employee benefit!

Long diagnostic delay in Crohn's disease is associated with complicated disease course and increased operation rate

Background: We have recently shown that the median diagnostic delay to establish Crohn's disease (CD) diagnosis (i.e. the period from first symptom onset to diagnosis) in the Swiss IBD Cohort (SIBDC) was 9 months. Seventy five percent of all CD patients were diagnosed within 24 months. The clinical impact of a long diagnostic delay on the natural history of CD is unknown. Aim: To compare the frequency and type of CD-related complications in the patient groups with long diagnostic delay (>24 months) vs. the ones diagnosed within 24 months. Methods: Retrospective analysis of data from the SIBDCS, comprising a large sample of CD patients followed in hospitals and private practices across Switzerland. The proportions of the following outcomes were compared between groups of patients diagnosed 1, 2-5, 6-10, 11-15, and ≥ 16 years ago and stratified according to the length of diagnostic delay: bowel stenoses, internal fistulas, perianal fistulas, CD-related surgical interventions, and extraintestinal manifestations. Results: Two hundred CD patients (121 female, mean age 44.9 ± 15.0 years, 38% smokers, 71% ever treated with immunomodulators and 35% with anti-TNF) with long diagnostic delay were compared to 697 CD patients (358 female, mean age 39.1 ± 14.9 years, 33% smokers, 74% ever treated with immunomodulators and 33% with anti-TNF) diagnosed within 24 months. No differences in the outcomes were observed between the two patient groups within year one after CD diagnosis. Among those diagnosed 2-5 years ago, CD patients with long diagnostic delay (n = 45) presented more frequently with internal fistulas (11.1% vs. 3.1%, p = 0.03) and bowel stenoses (28.9% vs. 15.7%, p = 0.05), and they more frequently underwent CD-related operations (15.6% vs. 5.0%, p = 0.02) compared to the patients diagnosed within 24 months (n = 159). Among those diagnosed 6-10 years ago, CD patients with long diagnostic delay (n = 48) presented more frequently with extraintestinal manifestations (60.4% vs. 34.6%, p = 0.001) than those diagnosed within 24 months (n = 182). For the patients diagnosed 11-15 years ago, no differences in outcomes were found between the long diagnostic delay group (n = 106) and the one diagnosed within 24 months (n = 32). Among those diagnosed ≥ 16 years ago, the group with long diagnostic delay (n = 71) more frequently underwent CD-related operations (63.4% vs. 46.5%, p = 0.01) compared to the group diagnosed with CD within 24 months (n = 241). Conclusions: A long diagnostic delay in CD patients is associated with a more complicated disease course and higher number of CD-related operations in the years following the diagnosis. Our results indicate that efforts should be undertaken to shorten the diagnostic delay in CD patients in order to reduce the risk for progression towards a complicated disease phenotype.

A-1 Monthly Public Assistance Statistical Report Family Investment Program, November 2007

A-1 - Monthly Public Assistance Statistical Report Family Investment Program - Nov 2007

Economic growth and investment in the Arab world

This paper analyses the economic growth performance in the Arab world overthe last forty years. The Arab world has managed to reduce povertyperformance despite its relatively disappointing growth performance. Werelate this poor performance of both oil and non-oil producers toinvestment. Contrary to widespread belief, we do not find evidence that lowquantity of investment is the main of low growth. The decline in theinvestment rate followed rather than preceded the reduction in the aggregategrowth rate. We conclude that the low quality of investment projects is thekey determinant of growth. The excessive reliance on public investment, thelow quality of financial institutions, the bad business environment (due topolitical and social instability and to excessive public intervention andoverregulation) and the low quality of human capital are importantdeterminants of systematically unproductive investment decisions and, thus,low economic growth.

Financial intermediation and equity investment with costly monitoring

This paper studies the efficiency of equilibria in a productive OLG economy where the process of financial intermediation is characterized by costly state verification. Both competitive equilibria and Constrained Pareto Optimal allocations are characterized. It is shown that market outcomes can be socially inefficient, even when a weaker notion than Pareto optimality is considered.

Is lumpy investment really irrelevant for the business cycle?

New-Keynesian (NK) models can only account for the dynamic effects of monetary policy shocks if it is assumed that aggregate capital accumulation is much smoother than it would be the case under frictionless firm-level investment, as discussed in Woodford (2003, Ch. 5). We find that lumpy investment, when combined with price stickiness and market power of firms,can rationalize this assumption. Our main result is in stark contrast with the conclusions obtained by Thomas (2002) in the context of a real business cycle (RBC) model. We use our model to explain the economic mechanism behind this difference in the predictions of RBC and NK theory.

Short-term investment and equilibrium multiplicity

I study the effects of the heterogeneity of traders'horizon in the context of a 2-period NREE model whereall traders are risk averse. Owing to inventory effects,myopic trading behavior generates multiplicity ofequilibria. In particular, two distinct patterns arise.Along the first equilibrium, short term tradersanticipate higher second period price reaction toinformation arrival and, owing to risk aversion,scale back their trading intensity. This, in turn,reduces both risk sharing and information impoundinginto prices enforcing a high returns' volatility-lowprice informativeness equilibrium. In the second one,the opposite happens and a low volatility-high priceinformativeness equilibrium arises.

Does foreign direct investment crowd out domestic entrepreneurship?

In analyzing firm entry and exit across Belgian manufacturing industries,this paper presents evidence that import competition and foreign directinvestment discourage entry and stimulate exit of domestic entrepreneurs.These results are in line with theoretical occupational choice modelsthat predict foreign direct investment would crowd out domesticentrepreneurs through their selections in product and labor markets.However, the empirical results also suggest that this crowding out effectmay be moderated or even reversed in the long-run due to the long termpositive effects of FDI on domestic entrpreneurship as a result oflearning, demonstration, networking and linkage effects between foreignand domestic firms.

A-1 Monthly Public Assistance Statistical Report Family Investment Program, January 2008

A-1 - Monthly Public Assistance Statistical Report Family Investment Program

A-1 Monthly Public Assistance Statistical Report Family Investment Program, Februray 2008

A-1 - Monthly Public Assistance Statistical Report Family Investment Program

A-1 Monthly Public Assistance Statistical Report Family Investment Program, March 2008

A-1 - Monthly Public Assistance Statistical Report Family Investment Program

Financing constraints, irreversibility and investment dynamics

We develop a model of an industry with many heterogeneous firms that face both financingconstraints and irreversibility constraints. The financing constraint implies that firmscannot borrow unless the debt is secured by collateral; the irreversibility constraint thatthey can only sell their fixed capital by selling their business. We use this model to examinethe cyclical behavior of aggregate fixed investment, variable capital investment, and outputin the presence of persistent idiosyncratic and aggregate shocks. Our model yields threemain results. First, the effect of the irreversibility constraint on fixed capital investmentis reinforced by the financing constraint. Second, the effect of the financing constraint onvariable capital investment is reinforced by the irreversibility constraint. Finally, the interactionbetween the two constraints is key for explaining why input inventories and materialdeliveries of US manufacturing firms are so volatile and procyclical, and also why they arehighly asymmetrical over the business cycle.

Testing financing constraints on firm investment using variable capital

We consider a dynamic multifactor model of investment with financing imperfections,adjustment costs and fixed and variable capital. We use the model to derive a test offinancing constraints based on a reduced form variable capital equation. Simulation resultsshow that this test correctly identifies financially constrained firms even when the estimationof firms investment opportunities is very noisy. In addition, the test is well specified inthe presence of both concave and convex adjustment costs of fixed capital. We confirmempirically the validity of this test on a sample of small Italian manufacturing companies.