General Economics

New submissions

• New submissions
• Replacements

New submissions for Wed, 15 May 24

[1]  arXiv:2405.07998 [pdf, ps, other]

Title: How does ClinicalTrials.gov Impact Company Innovation?

Authors: Yazhou Niu

Subjects: General Economics (econ.GN)

Pharmaceutical companies may have incentives to exaggerate the therapeutic effects of their developed products during the clinical stage, which endangers the health of patients. To increase transparency in clinical practice, the NIH established ClinicalTrials.gov in 2000, which indicates a significant impact on medicine. However, little evidence shows how ClinicalTrials.gov affects medical enterprises innovation. By identifying the patent application activities through USPTO, Pubmed, and Compustat, we used coherent DID to prove the impact of ClinicalTrials.gov on innovation. We found that the emergence of ClinicalTrials.gov reduced the number of patent applications and led to a shift in RD directions. This effect can also be moderated depending on firm size, probably because small companies are more incentivized to manipulate data. Hence, we suggest agencies could consider wide-ranging influences when formulating open science policies.

[2]  arXiv:2405.08030 [pdf, other]

Title: Medical Research as a Productivity Indicator

Authors: Maya M. Durvasula, Sabri Eyuboglu, David M. Ritzwoller

Subjects: General Economics (econ.GN)

Across fields, the quantity of research has increased substantially, without an attendant increase in output. We argue that, in medicine, this indicator of declining productivity reflects a compositional shift toward low-capital, low-productivity research. Using a fine-tuned, open-source large language model, we construct a novel census of capital-intensive, high-productivity medical investment -- clinical trials. Since 2010, the annual quantity of clinical trials has been constant. By contrast, the quantity of other forms of clinical research has increased substantially. Within clinical trials, there is substantial heterogeneity in productivity. The distribution of this heterogeneity is stable over time.

[3]  arXiv:2405.08052 [pdf, ps, other]

Title: Trade Openness, Tariffs and Economic Growth: An Empirical Study from Countries of G-20

Authors: S M Toufiqul Huq Sowrov

Subjects: General Economics (econ.GN)

International trade has been in the forefront of economic development and growth debates. Trade openness, its definition, scope, and impacts have also been studied numerously. Tariff has been dubbed as negative influencer of economic growth as per conventional wisdom and most empirical studies. This paper empirically examines relationships among trade openness as trade share to GDP, import tariff rate and economic growth. Panel dataset of 11 G-20 member countries were selected for the study. Results found a positively significant correlation between trade openness and economic growth. Tariff has negatively significant correlation with economic growth in lagged model. OLS and panel data fixed-effects regression were employed to carry out the regression analysis. To deal with endogeneity in trade openness variable, a 1-year lag regression technique was conducted. Results are robust and significant. Policy recommendation suggests country specific trade opening and tariff relaxation.

[4]  arXiv:2405.08159 [pdf, ps, other]

Title: Large increases in public R&D investment are needed to avoid declines of US agricultural productivity

Authors: Ariel Ortiz-Bobea, Robert G. Chambers, Yurou He, David B. Lobell

Comments: Main text: 19 pages, 4 figures. Supplementary material: 47 pages, 20 figures, 13 tables

Subjects: General Economics (econ.GN)

Increasing agricultural productivity is a gradual process with significant time lags between research and development (R&D) investment and the resulting gains. We estimate the response of US agricultural Total Factor Productivity (TFP) to both R&D investment and weather, and quantify the public R&D spending required to offset the emerging impacts of climate change. We find that offsetting the climate-induced productivity slowdown by 2050 alone requires a sustained public R&D spending growth of 5.2-7.8% per year over 2021-2050. This amounts to an additional $208-$434B investment over this period. These are substantial requirements comparable to the public R&D spending growth that followed the two World Wars.

[5]  arXiv:2405.08160 [pdf, ps, other]

Title: The Causal Effect of Repealing Certificate-of-Need Laws for Ambulatory Surgical Centers: Does Access to Medical Services Increase?

Authors: Thomas Stratmann, Markus Bjoerkheim, Christopher Koopman

Subjects: General Economics (econ.GN)

In many states, certificate-of-need (CON) laws prevent ambulatory surgical centers (ASCs) from entering the market or expanding their services. This paper estimates the causal effects of state ASC-CON law repeal on the accessibility of medical services statewide, as well as for rural areas. Our findings show that CON law repeals increase ASCs per capita by 44-47% statewide and 92-112% in rural areas. Repealing ASC-CON laws causes a continuous increase in ASCs per capita, an effect which levels off ten years after repeal. Contrary to the 'cream-skimming' hypothesis, we find no evidence that CON repeal is associated with hospital closures in rural areas. Rather, some regression models show that repeal is associated with fewer medical service reductions.

[6]  arXiv:2405.08168 [pdf, ps, other]

Title: Rural Healthcare Access and Supply Constraints: A Causal Analysis

Authors: Vitor Melo, Liam Sigaud, Elijah Neilson, Markus Bjoerkheim

Subjects: General Economics (econ.GN)

Certificate-of-need (CON) laws require that healthcare providers receive approval from a state board before offering additional services in a given community. Proponents of CON laws claim that these laws are needed to prevent the oversupply of healthcare services in urban areas and to increase access in rural areas, which are predominantly underserved. Yet, the policy could lower rural access if used by incumbents to limit entry from competitors. We explore the repeal of these regulations in five U.S. states to offer the first estimate of the causal effects of CON laws on rural and urban healthcare access. We find that repealing CON laws causes a substantial increase in hospitals in both rural and urban areas. We also find that the repeal leads to fewer beds and smaller hospitals on average, suggesting an increase in entry and competition in both rural and urban areas.

Replacements for Wed, 15 May 24

[7]  arXiv:2310.19100 (replaced) [pdf, other]

Title: The allocation of FIFA World Cup slots based on the ranking of confederations

Authors: László Csató, László Marcell Kiss, Zsombor Szádoczki

Comments: 21 pages, 2 figures, 6 tables

Subjects: General Economics (econ.GN); Optimization and Control (math.OC)

[8]  arXiv:2312.13564 (replaced) [pdf, other]

Title: The Effect of Antitrust Enforcement on Venture Capital Investments

Authors: Wentian Zhang

Subjects: General Economics (econ.GN)

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