Search

: Introduction: In 2017, the Aurum Institute, with support from Unitaid, launched an initiative to expand short‐course therapy for the prevention of tuberculosis (TB) in 12 high‐burden countries. This study aimed to investigate the importance of “catalytic” effects beyond the original project timeframe when estimating cost‐effectiveness of such large investments. Methods: We estimated the cost‐effectiveness of the IMPAACT4TB (I4TB) initiative from a health system perspective, using a 10‐year time horizon. We first conservatively estimated costs using a “top‐down” approach considering only the direct health benefits of providing TB preventive therapy to people initiating antiretroviral therapy (ART) through I4TB activities. We then re‐estimated the incremental cost‐effectiveness of I4TB incorporating the costs and health benefits of potential catalytic effects beyond the program itself. Results: We estimated that TB preventive therapy through the I4TB initiative alone would prevent 14 201 cases of active TB and 1562 TB deaths over 10 years with an up‐front investment of $52.5 million; the estimated incremental cost‐effectiveness was $1580 per disability‐adjusted life year (DALY) averted. If this initiative could achieve its desired catalytic effects, an additional 375 648 cases and 41 321 deaths could be averted, at an incremental cost of $546 million and cost‐effectiveness of $713 per DALY averted. Conclusions: Our findings provide donors with reasonable evidence of value for money to support investment in short‐course TB preventive therapy for people initiating ART in high‐burden settings. Our study also illustrates the importance of considering long‐term secondary (“catalytic”) effects when evaluating the cost‐effectiveness of large‐scale initiatives designed to change a global policy landscape., INTRODUCTION Since 1993, the World Health Organization (WHO) has recommended preventive therapy for tuberculosis (TB) for people living with HIV (PLHIV) in whom active TB has been excluded (without testing [...]

Research has generally focused on demonstrating real earnings management (REM) stemming from managerial opportunism using the agency framework. Examining a sample of firms on the Korea Composite Stock Price Index from 2011 to 2019, we explore the benefits of REM. Empirical results show a positive relationship between corporate globalization and the extent of REM, and corporate globalization mitigates the negative relationship between REM and future (operating and market) performance, observed only in firms with a low incentive to engage in REM for zero earnings. Global firms with more operational flexibility may strategically utilize REM to avoid temporary crises and perform better in the future. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study examines the effect of client human resource investment in internal controls (ICs) and information technology (IT) on audit efficiency. Accordingly, we propose a novel approach to modify the measurement of audit efficiency by directly measuring the length of time from the fiscal year end to the last day of fieldwork of an audit firm—fieldwork lags (FWLs)—rather than audit report lags (ARLs). We investigate the relationship between FWLs and the number of IC personnel and their average work experience at the department level: accounting and finance, IT and others. We find that FWLs are negatively related to the number of IC personnel in the accounting and finance departments and other related areas. Furthermore, FWLs decrease when IC personnel in the IT department have more average work experience. This finding indicates that experienced IC personnel in the IT department are critical to reducing the fieldwork time taken by auditors. Overall results suggest that a client's investment in IC personnel in accounting/finance and IT departments enhances audit efficiency. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objectives: To mitigate the economic burden of tuberculosis (TB), it is important to fully understand the costs of TB treatment from the patient perspective. We therefore sought to quantify the patient-incurred cost of TB treatment in rural Malawi, with specific focus on costs borne by patients requiring inpatient hospitalisation.Methods: We conducted a cross-sectional survey of 197 inpatients and 156 outpatients being treated for TB in rural Malawi. We collected data on out-of-pocket costs and lost wages, including costs to guardians. Costs for inpatient TB treatment were estimated and compared to costs for outpatient TB treatment. We then explored the equity distribution of inpatient TB treatment cost using concentration curves.Results: Despite free government services, inpatients were estimated to incur a mean of $137 (standard deviation: $147) per initial TB episode, corresponding to >50% of annual household spending among patients in the lowest expenditure quintile. Non-medical hospitalisation costs accounted for 88% of this total. Patients treated entirely as outpatients incurred estimated costs of $25 (standard deviation: $15) per episode. The concentration curves showed that, among individuals hospitalised for an initial TB episode, poorer patients shouldered a much greater proportion of inpatient TB treatment costs than wealthier ones (concentration index: -0.279).Conclusion: Patients hospitalised for TB in resource-limited rural Malawi experience devastating costs of TB treatment. Earlier diagnosis and treatment must be prioritised if we are to meet goals of effective TB control, avoidance of catastrophic costs and provision of appropriate patient-centred care in such settings. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We investigated whether post-earnings announcement drift (PEAD) in the Korean stock market is related to investor inertial behavior under a directional trend in market sentiment. Given that investors tend to procrastinate due to their belief in the persistence of the current market's condition and thus underreact to earnings information, we examined whether this investor inertia influences the drift in stock price following an earnings announcement. Our findings show that when the market sentiment continues to shift upwardly (downwardly) over the pre- and post-earnings announcement period, positive (negative) drift occurs. Note that these results are robust to control for the effect of market sentiment at a specific point in time. We suggest that investors do not fully respond to new earnings information due to investor inertial behavior under the market sentiment with a consistent trend. Overall, our study sheds light on a determinant of PEAD as one of the market anomalies in terms of investors' cognitive bias by documenting the relation between PEAD and investor inertia. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines whether organizational slack is associated with firms' voluntary disclosure of corporate social responsibility (CSR), sustainability, and integrated reporting. This is an empirical research study using archival data based on a sample of public firms listed on the Korea Exchange from 2005 to 2016. We manually collected CSR reports, sustainability reports, and integrated reports (IRs) that were published during our sample period. We found that human resource slack was highly related to the publication of corporate social responsibility, sustainability, and integrated reports. Firms initiating such disclosure in their industry groups were likely to have slack in permanent employees as well as financial slack. Additionally, integrated reporting, which is a recent improvement in the delivery of financial and non-financial information, was positively associated with an excess number of regular employees. This study provides evidence that slacks in regular employees are related to a greater degree of voluntary disclosure via standalone CSR or sustainability reporting as well as integrated reporting. These findings suggest that slacks or excess human resources play a crucial role in voluntary corporate disclosure. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study investigates whether corporate governance mechanisms are associated with earnings quality, especially accurate earnings reporting, and whether investors react differently to inaccurate earnings according to governance strength. Earnings accuracy is one of the key factors affecting a firm's sustainability in the sense that reported earnings provide information about a firm's long-term sustainability and further are directly associated with a firm's cost of capital. In this paper, we employ the independence of the board of directors (BOD) and foreign ownership as governance mechanisms associated with the earnings gap between audited and unaudited earnings. Using 1976 non-financial firm-year observations listed on the Korea Stock Exchange from 2013 to 2016, we find that the gap between unaudited earnings and actual earnings is smaller for firms with independent BODs and foreign ownership, suggesting that earnings accuracy is higher for firms with effective corporate governance. This study also examines how investors react to the earnings gap. Stock returns to the earnings gap are less negative for firms with independent BODs and are more negative as foreign ownership increases, implying that each mechanism of corporate governance has different effects. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]