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All Topic Review Biography
Topic Review
Advancing Health Service Delivery Through Inter-Organizational Relationships
Inter-organizational relationships are distinguishing forms of interactions linking two or more organizations to “…create a synergy that multiplies the reach and effectiveness of the partners” (Taylor and Doerfel 2005, p. 122). Inter-organizational relationships are high on the health policy agenda; however, little is still known on the approached which enhance the viability of health care organizations. Inter-organizational relationships should be carefully managed at the macro (institutional), meso (governance), and micro (management) levels to foster the design and implementation of collaborative health service delivery models ensuring patient-centredness and continuity of care.
  • 696
  • 24 Jan 2022
Topic Review
Building a Super Smart Nation
Globally, countries are increasingly facing challenges regarding their national future post the COVID-19 pandemic with respect to decreasing and aging populations; dwindling workforces; trade wars due to restricted movement of goods, people, and services; and overcoming economic development and societal problems. 
  • 695
  • 21 Mar 2022
Topic Review
Population Projections
Population projections serve various actors at sub-national, national, and international levels as a quantitative basis for political and economic decision-making. Often, the users are no experts in statistics or forecasting and therefore lack the methodological and demographic background to completely understand the methods and limitations behind the projections they use for their analyses. Our contribution primarily targets that readership.
  • 693
  • 27 Oct 2020
Topic Review
Dago Dazzler
A dago dazzler is an elaborately decorated document used to identify its bearer, usually an academic, as someone with an official association with an institution, usually a university or college, with the purpose of impressing low-level bureaucrats, usually of a foreign nation, so that they will allow the bearer to gain access to archived material or to perform some other action. The document is given more than the usual amount of decoration—often with colored ribbons and shiny seals—solely for the purpose of impressing bureaucrats. The term, used by academics and sometimes by government officials, is meant to disparage the bureaucrats, who are usually located in another country. The first word (dago) is an ethnic slur for Italians (and sometimes Spaniards and Latin Americans), but dago dazzlers have been used in other countries, including China . Dago dazzlers were created as early as the late 19th century in the United States , but examples have been referred to in recent decades. Published references nowadays are often accompanied by a statement by the writer that the word "dago" in the term is an ethnic slur.
  • 693
  • 25 Oct 2022
Topic Review
Eurobonds
European bonds are proposed government bonds issued in euros jointly by the 19 eurozone nations. The idea was first raised by the European Commission in 2011. Eurobonds would be debt investments whereby an investor loans a certain amount of money, for a certain amount of time, with a certain interest rate, to the eurozone bloc altogether, which then forwards the money to individual governments. Eurobonds have been suggested as a way to tackle the European sovereign debt crisis as the indebted states could borrow new funds at better conditions as they are supported by the rating of the non-crisis states. Because Eurobonds would allow already highly indebted states access to cheaper credit thanks to the strength of other eurozone economies, they are controversial, and may suffer from the free rider problem.
  • 692
  • 14 Nov 2022
Topic Review
Supply Chain Management in Pandemics
Pandemics cause chaotic situations in supply chains (SC) around the globe, which can lead towards survivability challenges. The ongoing COVID-19 pandemic is an unprecedented humanitarian crisis that has severely affected global business dynamics. Similar vulnerabilities have been caused by other outbreaks in the past. In these terms, prevention strategies against propagating disruptions require vigilant goal conceptualization and roadmaps. In this respect, there is a need to explore supply chain operation management strategies to overcome the challenges that emerge due to COVID-19-like situations. 
  • 691
  • 16 Mar 2021
Topic Review
Smart Specialisation
Smart specialisation is a concept that catalyses sources of financing and that concentrates the ways of influencing the innovative potential in the regions. 
  • 691
  • 27 Oct 2020
Topic Review
Over-the-Counter
Over-the-counter (OTC) or off-exchange trading or pink sheet trading is done directly between two parties, without the supervision of an exchange. It is contrasted with exchange trading, which occurs via exchanges. A stock exchange has the benefit of facilitating liquidity, providing transparency, and maintaining the current market price. In an OTC trade, the price is not necessarily publicly disclosed. OTC trading, as well as exchange trading, occurs with commodities, financial instruments (including stocks), and derivatives of such products. Products traded on the exchange must be well standardized. This means that exchanged deliverables match a narrow range of quantity, quality, and identity which is defined by the exchange and identical to all transactions of that product. This is necessary for there to be transparency in trading. The OTC market does not have this limitation. They may agree on an unusual quantity, for example. In OTC, market contracts are bilateral (i.e. the contract is only between two parties), and each party could have credit risk concerns with respect to the other party. The OTC derivative market is significant in some asset classes: interest rate, foreign exchange, stocks, and commodities. In 2008 approximately 16 percent of all U.S. stock trades were "off-exchange trading"; by April 2014 that number increased to about 40 percent. Although the notional amount outstanding of OTC derivatives in late 2012 had declined 3.3% over the previous year, the volume of cleared transactions at the end of 2012 totalled US$346.4 trillion. "The Bank for International Settlements statistics on OTC derivatives markets showed that notional amounts outstanding totalled $693 trillion at the end of June 2013... The gross market value of OTC derivatives – that is, the cost of replacing all outstanding contracts at current market prices – declined between end-2012 and end-June 2013, from $25 trillion to $20 trillion."
  • 689
  • 08 Nov 2022
Topic Review
List of Countries by Wealth Equality
This is a list of countries by distribution of wealth, including Gini coefficients. Wealth distribution can vary greatly from income distribution in a country (see List of countries by income equality). Higher Gini coefficients signify greater inequality in wealth distribution, with 0 being complete equality, whereas a value near 1 can arise in a situation where everybody has zero wealth except a very small minority. It is a common misconception that Scandinavian countries have low wealth inequality. This is not true. These countries have low income inequality, meaning that the income is relatively equal for everyone. However, their wealth inequality is very high, meaning that a small minority of the people owns the vast majority of wealth.
  • 689
  • 14 Oct 2022
Topic Review
Payment Protection Insurance in the United Kingdom
Payment protection insurance (PPI), also known as credit insurance, credit protection insurance, or loan repayment insurance, is an insurance product that enables consumers to ensure repayment of credit if the borrower dies, becomes ill or disabled, loses a job, or faces other circumstances that may prevent them from earning income to service the debt. It is not to be confused with income protection insurance, which is not specific to a debt but covers any income. PPI was widely sold by banks and other credit providers as an add-on to the loan or overdraft product. PPI usually covers payments for a finite period (typically 12 months). For loans or mortgages this may be the entire monthly payment, for credit cards it is typically the minimum monthly payment. After this point the borrower must find other means to repay the debt, although some policies repay the debt in full if you are unable to return to work or are diagnosed with a critical illness. The period covered by insurance is typically long enough for most people to start working again and earn enough to service their debt. PPI is different from other types of insurance such as home insurance, in that it can be quite difficult to determine if it is right for a person or not. Careful assessment of what would happen if a person became unemployed would need to be considered, as payments in lieu of notice (for example) may render a claim ineligible despite the insured person being genuinely unemployed. In this case, the approach taken by PPI insurers is consistent with that taken by the Benefits Agency in respect of unemployment benefits. Most PPI policies are not sought out by consumers. In some cases, consumers claim to be unaware that they even have the insurance. In sales connected to loans, products were often promoted by commission based telesales departments. Fear of losing the loan was exploited, as the product was effectively cited as an element of underwriting. Any attention to suitability was likely to be minimal, if it existed at all. In all types of insurance some claims are accepted and some are rejected. Notably, in the case of PPI, the number of rejected claims is high compared to other types of insurance. In the rare cases where the customer is not prompted or pushed towards a policy, but seek it out, may have little recourse if and when a policy does not benefit them. As PPI is designed to cover repayments on loans and credit cards, most loan and credit card companies sell the product at the same time as they sell the credit product. By May 2008, 20 million PPI policies existed in the UK with a further increase of 7 million policies a year being purchased thereafter. Surveys show that 40% of policyholders claim to be unaware that they had a policy.{{Citation needed|date=August 2010} "PPI was mis-sold and complaints about it mishandled on an industrial scale for well over a decade." with this mis-selling being carried out by not only the banks or providers, but also by third party brokers. The sale of such policies was typically encouraged by large commissions, as the insurance would commonly make the bank/provider more money than the interest on the original loan, such that many mainstream personal loan providers made little or no profit on the loans themselves; all or almost all profit was derived from PPI commission and profit share. Certain companies developed sales scripts which guided salespeople to say only that the loan was “protected” without mentioning the nature or cost of the insurance. When challenged by the customer, they sometimes incorrectly stated that this insurance improved the borrower's chances of getting the loan or that it was mandatory. A consumer in financial difficulty is unlikely to further question the policy and risk the loan being refused. Several high-profile companies have now been fined by the Financial Conduct Authority for the widespread mis-selling of Payment Protection Insurance. The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) fined Clydesdale Bank Plc (Clydesdale) £20,678,300 for serious failings in its Payment Protection Insurance (PPI) complaint handling processes between May 2011 and July 2013. This is the largest ever fine imposed by the FCA for failings relating to PPI. Clydesdale agreed to settle at an early stage of the FCA’s investigation and therefore qualified for at 30% stage 1 discount. Were it not for this the FCA would have imposed a financial penalty of £29,540,500.Alliance and Leicester were fined £7m for their part in the mis-selling controversy, several others including Capital One, HFC and Egg were fined up to £1.1m. Claims against mis-sold PPI have been slowly increasing, and may approach the levels seen during the 2006-07 period, when thousands of bank customers made claims relating to allegedly unfair bank charges. In their 2009/2010 annual report, the Financial Ombudsman Service stated that 30% of new cases referred to payment protection insurance. A customer who purchases a PPI policy may initiate a claim for mis-sold PPI by complaining to the bank, lender, or broker who sold the policy. Slightly before that, on 6 April 2011, the Competition Commission released their investigation order designed to prevent mis-selling in the future. Key rules in the order, designed to enable the customer to shop around and make an informed decision, include: provision of adequate information when selling payment protection and providing a personal quote; obligation to provide an annual review; prohibition of selling payment protection at the same time the credit agreement is entered into. Most rules came into force in October 2011, with some following in April 2012. The Central Bank of Ireland in April 2014 was described as having "arbitrarily excluded the majority of consumers" from getting compensation for mis-sold Payment Protection Insurance, by setting a cutoff date of 2007 when it introduced its Consumer Protection Code. UK banks provided over £22bn for PPI misselling costs – which, if scaled on a pro-rata basis, is many multiples of the compensation the Irish banks were asked to repay. The offending banks were also not fined which was in sharp contrast to the regime imposed on UK banks. Lawyers were appalled at the "reckless" advice the Irish Central Bank gave consumers who were missold PPI policies, which "will play into the hands of the financial institution."
  • 687
  • 25 Oct 2022
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