What type of health care system is in place in the United Kingdom? (a,b,c, or d)

a.) National health insurance (single payer)

b.) National health service (socialized medicine)

c.) Insurance required of individuals and/or employers ( mandate)

d.) Other (describe)

Describe the role of government in the United Kingdom's health care system

A number of states, California and Illinois for example, have recently experienced fiscal problems because tax revenue has not kept up with expenses. States and cities have defaulted on debt in the past. Give an argument for and against the idea of the federal government bailing out the cities and states.

Read and comment:

$2500: “A Fair Price for Hamilton”

NY Times, 23 October 2016

1. Gregory Mankiw

Consumers of goods and services do not typically wish that producers charged higher prices. But that was exactly my desire on a recent trip to New York City.

The story begins with a basic mismatch: I am a big fan of theater, and I live just outside Boston. While Boston is a good city for the arts, it is not the mecca that New York is. Unfortunately, I’m in New York only a few times every year. But when my professional or personal life takes me into the city, I always try to squeeze a play into my schedule.

That occurred most recently over Columbus Day weekend. I was in New York visiting colleges with my wife and younger son, who is a high school senior. Most colleges don’t give tours on Sunday, so we had Sunday afternoon free — perfect timing to see a matinee.

We had no doubt about what we wanted to see. “Hamilton” had received rave reviews from both critics and our friends who had seen it. We had much enjoyed “In the Heights,” an earlier musical by Lin-Manuel Miranda, the genius behind “Hamilton.” And as an economist, I have always viewed Alexander Hamilton, the first Treasury secretary, as one of the most important and intriguing founding fathers.

You may have heard that “Hamilton” tickets are hard to come by. The show is so popular that tickets from the theater sell out quickly and far in advance. On a recent episode of“Saturday Night Live (Links to an external site.)Links to an external site.” that Mr. Miranda was hosting, the television show’s producer, Lorne Michaels, jokingly asked him about getting “Hamilton” tickets. Mr. Miranda demurred.

We, however, had no problem getting tickets. Two weeks before our trip, I logged into StubHub, the online ticket marketplace owned by eBay. I found the performance we wanted, located some great seats and within a few minutes was printing our tickets.

The rub is the price. Including StubHub’s fee, I paid $2,500 a ticket, about five times their face value. Such a large markup is not unusual (Links to an external site.)Links to an external site..

Now, at this point, some people might object to this price. Terms like “scalping” and “price gouging” are pejoratives used to demonize those who resell tickets at whatever high prices the market will bear.

To be sure, most people can’t easily afford paying so much for a few hours of entertainment. That is indeed lamentable. The arts expand our horizons, and in a perfect world, everyone would have the opportunity to see a megahit like “Hamilton.”

Yet there is another way to view the situation. It was only because the price was so high that I was able to buy tickets at all on such short notice. If legal restrictions or moral sanctions had forced prices to remain close to face value, it is likely that no tickets would have been available by the time my family got around to planning its trip to the city.

High prices are a natural reflection of great demand and scant supply. In a free market, in which private individuals can engage in mutually advantageous gains from trade, they are inevitable until demand subsides or supply expands.

The comedian Jay Leno (Links to an external site.)Links to an external site. learned this lesson some years ago. In 2009, while the economy was suffering through the Great Recession, Mr. Leno, a car enthusiast, generously performed two free “Comedy Stimulus” shows for unemployed workers near Detroit.

Yet zero is not, as economists put it, the equilibrium price to see a live performance by Jay Leno. Some of the unemployed who received free tickets tried to turn around and sell them on eBay for about $800. When Mr. Leno learned about this, he objected, and eBay agreed to take down offers to resell the tickets.

But why should Mr. Leno have objected? Some unemployed workers, presumably short on cash, thought that the $800 in their pockets was more valuable than an evening of laughs. Similarly, the ticket buyers would voluntarily give up their $800 for a seat. The transaction makes both buyer and seller better off. That is how free markets are supposed to work.

The only person made worse off by the sale is, perhaps, Mr. Leno himself. He wanted to be seen performing before an audience of the unemployed. Doing a show for higher-income residents of Michigan might not be viewed as altruistic, even if it left the unemployed better off. In other words, Mr. Leno’s objection to the eBay resale was arguably a rationally self-interested act in that the resale impeded his ability to appear selfless to others and, even, to himself.

Although I don’t object to ticket resales above face value, and I think it is pernicious when others do, I was saddened by my “Hamilton” transaction in one important way. About 80 percent of what I paid went to the ticket reseller, rather than to Mr. Miranda and his investors.

In the past, Mr. Miranda has objected (Links to an external site.)Links to an external site. to the automated software that quickly buys as many tickets as it can, so they can be resold at a profit. But there is an easy way to put these resellers out of business: The theater can charge higher prices to begin with.

Such a move would surely increase the show’s profitability. From my standpoint as a theater consumer, that’s a good thing. Future talents like Mr. Miranda would find it easier to fund their innovative theater projects. And with more projects funded, those consumers who don’t buy “Hamilton” tickets — perhaps deterred by its uniquely high prices — would find a greater variety of other shows from which to choose.

1. GREGORY MANKIW is a professor of economics at Harvard.

Alex's favorite soccer team is Manchester United. When the last new Manchester United jersey became available for sale to the public, Alex was willing to pay $90 for it. However, he was able to buy one for a price of $40. Based on this information, how much consumer surplus did Alex receive from his purchase of the jersey?

Interdependence among states suggests that power only harms multiple interests of states and other actors

Now assume that you are given an N-state Markov chain, in which each state has bi-directional connections with its two neighboring states (i.e., the neighboring states of S1 are S2 and SN; the neighboring states of S2 are S1 and S3, ..., and the neighboring states of SN−1 are SN−2 and SN ). Identify under what conditions (i.e., what values of N) will this N-state Markov chain have a periodic recurrent class, and justify your answer

MARKETING ANALYTICS: Case Study                       Name: ____________________

                                                                                                       Date:     ________________________

Background

You have been promoted to Vice President of Marketing for ACME CPG, Inc. ACME sells consumer packaged goods (CPG) to its customers in the United States. ACME competes against other CPG companies, such as Procter & Gamble with brands such as Tide laundry detergent and Ivory soap, as well as Unilever, with brands such as Sun laundry detergent and Dove soap.

Customers mostly know ACME CPG for its line of environmentally friendly all-purpose cleaners. ACME prides itself on its non-toxic formula, safe for homeowners along with their children and pets. ACME has diversified beyond all-purpose cleaners to include stainless steel cleaner, pet stain remover, deck & fence cleaner, concrete and driveway cleaner, car wash, barbecue grill cleaner, carpet cleaner, floor cleaner, glass cleaner, and all-purpose wipes.

ACME CPG is considering expanding its product line to include laundry detergent. The company faces stiff competition but believes it can compete because of the stellar reputation of its environmentally-friendly brand.

ACME CPG management has asked you to estimate the size of the market to assess whether it is financially worthwhile to enter the market. To conduct a thorough approach to the problem, you plan to estimate the size using several different techniques, and then aggregate the results. Specifically, you will estimate the size using multiple approaches:

• Available industry analyst reports
• Government sources, such as Census data
• Top-Down estimation methods
• Bottom-Up estimation methods

Industry Analyst Reports

You learn that industry analyst firm SymphonyIRI Group (iriworldwide.com) has estimated the total size of the US laundry detergent market:

Fact 1: Laundry detergent accounted for $7.2 billion of sales for the 52 weeks ended Nov. 4, 2012.

Source: Branna, Tom. “Where’s the Bounce?” Household and Personal Products Industry (HAPPI) website. January 21, 2013.

http://www.happi.com/issues/2013-01/view_features/wheres-the-bounce/

Government Sources

You wonder how this industry analyst estimate compares with the Industry Statistics Sampler available through the U.S. Census Bureau. You conduct an Internet search and find the North American Industry Classification System (NAICS) code information you need:

Fact 2: United States Census Bureau data for 2007 Census:

NAICS 325611: Soap and other detergent manufacturing: $26.371 billion

NAICS 32561146 Household dry and liquid laundry detergents, heavy-duty: $6.734 billion

Source: U.S. Census Bureau, Industry Statistics Sampler, NAICS 325611 Soap and other detergent manufacturing.

Top-Down Estimation Methods

Having determined the industry analyst and government data, you proceed to the next step, which is to estimate the size using top-down techniques. To perform the top-down technique, we will need to know the total “universe” of detergent-using entities in the United States (i.e., households who do laundry), how many loads of laundry they wash per year, and the average cost of detergent per load. Luckily, we are able to find all of the facts we need:

Fact 3: Number of U.S. Households (designated as “HH” in U.S. Census Bureau data) in 2010 Census:

U.S. Households (HH) in 2010: 114.8 million

Source: U.S. Census Bureau, “Current Population Reports: Projections of the Number of Households and Families in the United States: 1995 to 2010.” April 1996

http://www.census.gov/prod/1/pop/p25-1129.pdf

Fact 4: Average number of loads of laundry washed per year per household: 400 loads/year.

The article mentions the impact of children on the loads of laundry washed, so we assume the figure refers to loads/year washed by households with children.

Source: California Energy Commission, “Consumer Energy Center: Appliances: Clothes Washers.”

Fact 5: Average cost of detergent per load of laundry: $0.23/ load

Source: Consumer Reports, “Laundry Detergent Test: High Price Doesn’t Guarantee High Performance.” June 1, 2010.

At this point, you have the data you need to estimate the market size using top-down techniques.

1. Estimate the size of the U.S. laundry detergent market using the Top-Down approach using the data given.

Bottom-Up Estimation Methods

Next, you estimate the market size using bottom-up techniques. You research the space and learn that different types of households have different laundry-washing behaviors. Specifically, you learn that married couples (especially those with children) wash many more loads of laundry than bachelors. You examine U.S. Census data and learn that the government breaks down households into three segments: Married Couples, Male Householder, and Female Householder. You obtain the data for each segment:

Fact 6: Breakdown of U.S. Households, according to 2010 U.S. Census Bureau data:

Married Couples: 58.4 million

Female Householder: 35.3 million

Male Householder: 23.8 million

Source: U.S. Census Bureau, “America’s Families and Living Arrangements: 2010.”

http://www.census.gov/population/www/socdemo/hh-fam/cps2010.html

Armed with this information, you set out to estimate the market size using bottom-up techniques. In general, the bottom-up approach will sum up usage from each segment like this:

Total Usage     =    Usage from Married Couples Households (i.e. Segment 1)

                           + Usage from Female Householder (i.e. Segment 2)

                           + Usage from Male Householder (i.e. Segment 3)

We can express this as follows:

Total Usage      = (Married HH * #Loads/yr) + (Female HH * #Loads/yr) + (Male HH * Loads/yr) * $cost/load

We assume that behavior for each segment will be different. We make the assumption that married households (especially those with children) will wash more laundry than female households, who in turn will wash more laundry than male households. We will need to quantify (or estimate) the difference in behavior as we calculate the bottom-up value.

2. Estimate the size of the U.S. laundry detergent market using the Bottom-Up approach.

Aggregating the Data

You decide to combine the values you estimated. In this process, if you feel particularly strongly about the accuracy of one of the methods, you can weight it higher or lower than the others. Alternatively, you can perform a simple arithmetic average.

3. Submit a final estimate by triangulating the data from the different approaches.

PEST Market Trend Analysis

You complete your analysis by conducting a PEST market trend analysis to predict the future state of the U.S. laundry detergent market, based on current market forces.

4. Conduct a PEST market trend analysis for the laundry detergent market in the United States, please refer to data from the top-down and bottom-up.

International Economics data analysis: Please read this document thoroughly

Consequences for infectious diseases arise from intensified trade in goods and services. This can be observed in the trends towards globalization of the food industry for example. Over recent decades, huge increases in international trade have changed the availability of food products, particularly for inhabitants of high-, middle-, and low-income countries. Consequently, several individuals come into contact with the food through manufacturing, packaging, handling, and shipment thereby increasing the risks of the transmission of infectious diseases. In this exercise we are going to focus on the relationship between globalization and infectious diseases. Specifically, with focus on the 2009 H1N1 Pandemic, we will study the nexus between globalization and communicable diseases. We will utilize a combination of information from the Center of Disease Control (CDC), data from the World Development Indicators, and related academic articles. This will be the structure of the study.

1. Familiarization with the Global Problem: First, we will familiarize ourselves with the source of the 2009 H1N1 pandemic and present a brief summary of the timeline of this pandemic. More precisely, we will identify its origin, timeline, and general statistics related to the number of infections and deaths in its early spread. We will also try to understand when and how it hit the United States. To this end, we will use verified and “accurate” data from the Center for Disease Control (CDC) website. The key resource here is from the link below: https://www.cdc.gov/flu/pandemic-resources/2009-h1n1-pandemic.html. The learning goal here is not to simply copy and paste full sentences from this page. Instead, you are to read the most essential part of this information that will help you answer the questions that follow. Additionally, I will provide you with an article to further help the discussion of Globalization and infectious diseases. To this end, do NOT simple copy and paste from this page and the article that will be provided. Push yourself to learn by explaining what you read from the article in your paper.

2. Data Analysis: The data analysis component will offer us an opportunity to look at the relationship between infectious diseases and globalization from an empirical perspective. Specifically, we can use the H1N1 pandemic that spanned 2009-2010 as a case study to examine the nexus between globalization and infectious disease. We will focus on data from the World Development Indicators (WDI) to answer a few data driven questions with regards to this relationship. You already know how to work with the WDI. However, I will include additional videos to help you better work navigate the WDI.

Please see the questions below. Your paper should be in an essay format and include all the relevant graphs from the questions. The data analysis comprises two sections with a total of four questions with sub-questions. Answer all questions.

Section 1. Familiarization with the Global Issue of H1N1 in 2009

Question 1: Provide a summary of the following: the origins of the H1N1 virus in 2009, its timeline, how it affected the United States and more generally, the global world health-wise and economically. Finally, when did the pandemic ended, and what has been done post the pandemic to ensure a safe global world? (NB: Your summary should be half a page or maximum one page long. A good answer should succinctly address the questions with facts that can be easily verified. Make sure to cite all relevant sources. Do not simply rely on Wikipedia.)

Section 2. Data Driven Questions for 2010 H1N1

Visit the World Development Indicator. Select the following three series “Cause of death, by communicable diseases and maternal, prenatal and nutrition conditions (% of total)”, “Imports of goods and services (% of GDP)”, and “Exports of goods and services (% GDP)” data for the 28 countries in Table 1 below for the year 2010:

TABLE 1: List of Countries for the Data Analysis (High- and Middle-income countries)

Antigua and Barbuda

2 Australia

3 Austria

4 Bahamas, The

5 Bahrain

6 Barbados

7 Brunei Darussalam

8 Canada

9 Chile

10 China

11 Czech Republic

12 Denmark

13 Iceland

14 Japan

15 Korea, Rep.

16 Kuwait

17 Lithuania

18 Mexico

19 Netherlands

20 New Zealand

21 Norway

22 Panama

23 Qatar

24 Singapore

25 Sweden

26 Switzerland

27 United States

28 Uruguay

After selecting this information, download the data into Excel, and use the data to answer the following questions.

Question 2: Using vertical or horizontal bar graphs, compare the “Cause of death, by communicable diseases and maternal, prenatal and nutrition conditions (% of total)” for the following 10 countries: Canada, Chile, China, Japan, Korea, Rep, Mexico, Qatar, Singapore, Sweden, and United States. From your graph, which countries rank the highest and lowest in terms of Cause of death by communicable diseases. Does this meet your expectations? Discuss why or why not.

Question 3. Recall from that we discussed in Chapter 1 (Patterns of Trade) of the course that “Openness of trade” is a result of globalization. Hence, we can use Openness of Trade to proxy for Globalization. Furthermore, to get a measure of “Openness of Trade”, we must sum the values from “Imports of goods and services services (% of GDP)” and “Exports of goods and services (% of GDP)”. To this end, create an additional variable in your excel file, which does the latter for all 28 countries and name it Openness. Once you create this variable, plot a vertical or horizontal bar graph and compare the level of openness for the following countries: Canada, Chile, China, Japan, Korea, Rep, Mexico, Qatar, Singapore, Sweden, and United States. Using your graph, discuss the level of openness across these countries.

Question 4. The key goal of this data analysis exercise is to try to investigate the nexus between Globalization and Infectious diseases. Answer the questions that follow:

I. Using your constructed data on Openness of Trade (as a proxy for globalization) and the “Cause of death, by communicable diseases and maternal, prenatal and nutrition conditions (% of total)” for all 28 countries in the sample, plot a scatter diagram in Excel with Openness of Trade on the x- axis and Cause of death, by communicable diseases on the y-axis. Include a linear trend in your diagram.

II. Briefly explain your results from the scatter diagram in part (ii). Can you conclude that seemingly, as openness increases, death from communicable diseases increases?

III. With regards to the ongoing COVID-19 crisis, what policy lessons can we learn from the H1N1 pandemic in 2009 to help slowdown the effects of COVID-19. (You can use this article: https://www.id.theclinics.com/article/S0891-5520(11)00037-7/pdf )

Resources

1. https://www.cdc.gov/flu/pandemic-resources/2009-h1n1-pandemic.html 2. https://www.who.int/tdr/publications/documents/seb_topic3.pdf

3. https://www.cdc.gov/h1n1flu/information_h1n1_virus_qa.htm#a

4. https://www.cdc.gov/h1n1flu/cdcresponse.htm

5. https://www.cdc.gov/flu/pandemic-resources/h1n1-summary.htm

Data for your analysis: https://databank.worldbank.org/source/world-development-indicators# All the data you need for your analysis:

• Cause of death, by communicable diseases and maternal, prenatal and nutrition conditions (% of total)

• Imports of goods and services (% of GDP)

• Exports of goods and services (% of GDP)

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Pedro – Hernandez Gable married a lovely young woman named Harriet and wanted to take her on an extravagant honeymoon to start their new life together as newlyweds. Pedro purchased traveler's emergency protection insurance before they took an extended around the world honeymoon. Hernandez- Gable took out this protection with a traveler’s insurance policy from Travails R US Inc. The insurance policy promised to pay, $ 2,000,000 coverage in the event of an accident in the event that a emergency medical evacuation was necessary due to an accident where it would be needed. On August 15, 2018, Pedro and his new wife, Harriet, were seriously injured in a car accident while on their honeymoon. When Hernandez-Gable’s parents found out about the accident, they immediately flew to the couple’s location. After Pedro’s parents arrived, it was determined that Pedro was not receiving adequate medical treatment and needed to be transported via air ambulance back to the United States for treatment. His parents paid for the transportation out of their own pocket at a cost of approximately $500,000. A few months after the accident, Pedro wrote a letter to his father stating he would repay the monies his father advanced on his behalf to get him evacuated to get better care. To formalize this promise, Pedro requested in the letter that his father sign the letter Thereafter, Pedro submitted a claim for reimbursement of his travel expenses.

     Traveler’s International argues that because Pedro’s parents signed the check and sent it directly to them, Pedro has no damages and, thus cannot sue them. The insurance company also states that Pedro’s father’s note indicates that the note is is not an enforceable contract against them (the insurance company) because they are not a party to that agreement either.

Issue: Was Pedro’s parents’ payment a novation that relieved the insurance company of their obligation under the traveler’s emergency protection policy?