Economics Insights @ CBS

This essay concerns the process of globalization, the integration of economies around the world which has put new demands on nation-states at the very same time that, in many ways, it has reduced their capacities to deal with those demands. The nation-state today is squeezed, on the one side, by the forces of global economics and, on the other side, by the political demands for devolution of power.

For many years, average bed occupancy level has been the primary measure that has guided hospital bed capacity decisions at both policy and managerial levels. Even now, the common wisdom that there is an excess of beds nationally has been based on a federal target of 85% occupancy that was developed about 25 years ago. This paper examines data from New York sate and uses queueing analysis to estimate bed unavailability in intensive care units (ICUs) and obstetrics units. Using various patient delay standards, units that appear to have insufficient capacity are identified.

There is a long normative 'Social Contract' tradition that attempts to characterize ex-post income in equalities that are agreeable to all 'behind a veil of ignorance.' This paper takes a similar normative approach to characterize social decision-making procedures. It is shown that quite generally some form of majority-voting is preferred to unanimity 'behind a veil of ignorance' whenever society faces dead weight costs in making compensating transfers.