Current debates in the insurance and public policy literatures over health care financing and cost control measures continue to focus on managed care and HMOs. The lower utilization rates found in HMOs (compared to traditional fee-for-service indemnity plans) have generally been attributed to...

This paper presents a definitive description of neural network methodology and provides an evaluation of its advantages and disadvantages relative to statistical procedures. The development of this rich class of models was inspired by the neural architecture of the human brain. These models...

Managerial efficiency is as important in social profit enterprises (SPEs) as it is for more traditional financial-profit organizations. In this regard, both donors and SPE executives use efficiency information in making decisions. Here, we suggest a linked, two-stage Data Envelopment Analysis...

The February 2002 issue of Omega contains an article by M.N. Nickel and M.C. Rodriguez which reviews and evaluates research dealing with what is called the "Bowman Paradox" in the literature of strategic management. Using accounting reports from business firms this paradox arises from the...

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to examine empirically the basis risk and hedging efficiency of temperature‐indexed standardized weather derivatives in hedging weather risks in the US energy industry. Design/methodology/approach – Within the risk minimization framework, using power...