The Urban Institute's Microsimulation Model for Reinsurance: Model Construction and State-Specific Application

Describes the Urban Institute's model for simulating the effects of using state-funded reinsurance to subsidize primary insurance premiums. Details the process of building state-specific baseline databases and modeling reinsurance policy options

Reinsurance in State Health Reform

Based on the experiences of three states, formal modeling, quantitative estimates, and qualitative assessments, explores the impact of and issues involved in publicly funding reinsurance for insurers as a way to expand or maintain private coverage

The Internet and Democratic Debate

Presents findings from a survey conducted in June 2004. Looks at the role of the Internet in providing a wider awareness of political views during the 2004 campaign season

Test of variational transition state theory against accurate quantal results for a reaction with very large reaction-path curvature and a low barrier

We present three sets of calculations for the thermal rate constants of the collinear reaction I+HI-->IH+I: accurate quantum mechanics, conventional transition state theory (TST), and variational transition state theory (VTST). This reaction differs from previous test cases in that it has very large reaction-path curvature but hardly any tunneling. TST overestimates the accurate results by factors of 2×10^10, 2×10^4, 57, and 19 at 40, 100, 300, and 1000 K, respectively. At these same four temperatures the ratios of the VTST results to the accurate quantal ones are 0.3, 0.8, 1.1, and 1.4, respectively. We conclude that the variational transition states are meaningful, even though they are computed from a reaction-path Hamiltonian with large curvature, which is the most questionable case

Words matter: deconstructing ‘welfare dependency’ in the UK

Should the dominant narratives of politicians such as Ian Duncan Smith influence our perceptions about the ‘poor’? Have ideologically underpinned debates portraying those on welfare as being lazy and having an easy life, become part of collective public perceptions? With 2016 marking the 40th anniversary of the publication of Raymond Williams’ Keywords, an interrogation of the taken-for-grantedness of specific words, Paul Michael Garrett demonstrates how there is a pressing scholarly and political need to question and interrogate focal words and phrases within the neoliberal lexicon. Here, he looks at ‘welfare dependency’