Public Ownership as a Signalling Device

We study public ownership from the perspective of political economics. A partly partisan government runs a state-owned firm. The number of employees the government wants to hire depends both on economic conditions and on the preferences of the government, both unknown to the electorate. The government's policy towards the state-owned firm gives a signal of its preferences, and may thereby influence the probability that the government is re-elected. As a result, the governance of the firm becomes inefficient and static, in the sense that it does not react adequately to changing economic conditions.

Sustainable champions: how international companies are changing the face of business in China

PublishedThe final version is available from Greenleaf Publishing via the link in this record.The book illuminates some of their transformative practices, and the impact this is having on business in China and beyond

Market competition may not reduce costs or lead to greater efficiency in hospitals

The U.S. has the most expensive per capita health care system in the world. As such, one of the main goals of the Affordable Care Act (ACA) is to reduce costs for citizens. Morgen S. Johansen and Ling Zhu examine how private, non-profit, and government-run hospitals have responded to local market competition and the ACA. They find that administrators from public, non-profit, and private hospitals prioritize different aspects of care and costs in the face of market competition and that public hospitals are much more responsive to the ACA reforms

The refusal of 24 states to expand Medicaid under Obamacare will maintain their high levels of inequality in healthcare coverage

The United States is the only industrialized democracy that does not have universal health care coverage, and nearly one in five Americans do not have health insurance. The Affordable Care Act (commonly known as ‘Obamacare’) aims to extend health insurance to under and uninsured Americans by having them enroll in state or national “exchanges,” or online marketplaces; and by providing federal funds to states to expand their Medicaid coverage. Since the Act is implemented predominantly by the states, the benefits of the Act for uninsured Americans depends heavily on what states do, or refuse to do with Medicaid coverage and the state exchanges. Ling Zhu and Morgen Johansen examine what the U.S. states can do to address inequality in health insurance coverage

SiC nanocrystals as Pt catalyst supports for fuel cell applications

A robust catalyst support is pivotal to Proton Exchange Membrane Fuel Cells (PEMFCs) to overcome challenges such as catalyst support corrosion, low catalyst utilization and overall capital cost. SiC is a promising candidate material which could be applied as a catalyst support in PEMFCs. SiC nanocrystals are here synthesized using nano-porous carbon black (Vulcan ® XC-72) as a template using two different reactions, which result in particle sizes in the ranges of 50-150 nm (SiC-SPR) and 25-35 nm (SiC-NS). Pt nano-catalysts of size 5-8 nm and 4-5 nm have successfully been uniformly deposited on the nanocrystals of SiC-SPR and SiC-NS by the polyol method. The SiC substrates are subjected to an acid treatment to introduce the surface groups, which help to anchor the Pt nano-catalysts. These SiC based catalysts have been found to have a higher electrochemical activity than commercially available Vulcan based catalysts (BASF &amp; HISPEC). These promising results signal a new era of SiC based catalysts for fuel cell applications.</p

Oxygen reduction and methanol oxidation behaviour of SiC based Pt nanocatalysts for proton exchange membrane fuel cells

Research with proton exchange membrane fuel cells has demonstrated their potential as important providers of clean energy. The commercialization of this type of fuel cell needs a breakthrough in the electrocatalyst technology to reduce the relatively large amount of noble metal platinum used with the present carbon based substrates. We have recently examined suitably sized silicon carbide (SiC) particles as catalyst supports for fuel cells based on the stable chemical and mechanical properties of this material. In the present study, we have continued our work with studies of the oxygen reduction and methanol oxidation reactions of SiC supported catalysts and measured them against commercially available carbon based catalysts. The deconvolution of the hydrogen desorption signals in CV cycles shows a higher contribution of Pt (110) and Pt (111) peaks compared to Pt (100) for SiC based supports than for carbon based commercial catalysts, when HClO 4 is used as an electrolyte. The Pt (110) and Pt (111) facets are shown to have higher electrochemical activities than Pt (100) facets. To the best of our knowledge, methanol oxidation studies and the comparison of peak deconvolutions of the H desorption region in CV cyclic studies are reported here for the first time for SiC based catalysts. The reaction kinetics for the oxygen reduction and for methanol oxidation with Pt/SiC are observed to be similar to the carbon based catalysts. The SiC based catalyst shows a higher specific surface activity than BASF (Pt/C) for methanol oxidation and oxygen reduction while the mass activity values are comparable.</p