Prices system

Some results of the constant-value pricing system are as foUow generation in a central unit at relatively low pressure, <4.24 MPa (600 psig) tremendous economic pressure to use turbines rather than motors for drives lack of incentive for high efficiency turbines excessively high temperature differentials in steam users tremendous incentive to recover waste heat as low pressure steam and a large plume of excess low pressure steam vented to the atmosphere. 

A number of alternative pricing systems have been proposed that hinge on turbine efficiency and the relative pricing of fuel and electricity. AH... 

Each of these products is different each uses a different technology, is subject to different market forces, different production characteristics, distribution practices, and pricing systems. Yet, the dominant trends in energy efficiency, and in the policies used to affect it, show rcniarkablc siniilarity across end uses. 

All of the information required for firms and individuals to pursue economic efficiency is conveyed by the price system. The price of natural gas relative to coal conveys information to all potential users of the... 

Markets decide what energy resources shall be produced, how they shall be produced, and who will receive the benefits of the production processes. With millions of different activity options, and millions of individuals making individual and collective decisions, it is an ovenvhelniingly complex process. At the same time, it is usually very efficient because self-interested market players communicate through the price system. A self-interested rational individual will make decisions based on true preferences, and follow those preferences in a way that will provide the greatest satisfaction. Choices will be made under certain... 

The purpose of this chapter is to present the main economic characteristics of reference pricing (RP) as a system for the public funding of pharmaceuticals financed by the public sector. The following sections deal with the definition and objectives of RP and analyse the features of the various reference pricing systems that are applied internationally. This is followed by a look at the justification for RP from the economic point of view. We then go on to analyse the impact of RP policies, especially with regard to expenditure, consumption and drag prices. In the final section we discuss what can be expected from the application of RP to the Spanish health system. 

Maassen, B.M. (1998), Reimbursement of medicinal products the German reference price system - law, administrative practice and economics , Cuademos de Derecho Europeo Farmaceutico, 8, 69-100. 

Ramsey prices The theory on price structures in a monopoly developed by Ramsey affects those monopolies that produce more than one type of product. Ramsey showed that the best way to share fixed costs and cause minimal welfare losses was not the non-linear pricing system described above instead, the rule he proposed consisted in increasing prices above the marginal cost in an inverse proportion to demand elasticities. Ramsey prices are therefore linear prices that fulfil the condition that total revenue equals total costs, and moreover minimize welfare losses. 

The philosophy in which Table 9.1 is inspired requires some elucidation given the role of doctors as their patients agents, they could be placed on either the demand side and the supply side. Here we have opted for the latter approach, in view of their function as prescribers, who prefigure the available supply and simultaneously help towards defining the demand. The reference pricing system figures twice, insofar as it seeks to influence both demand and supply at the same time. As far as demand is concerned, it is designed to break the consumer/decision-maker/payer dissociation that characterizes the... 

It should also be emphasized that this adaptation of the Kalecki system represents an interpretation of the reproduction schema that is consistent with Marx s system. As Lee (1998) has argued, Kalecki has a restrictive production model in which each department is vertically integrated, producing its own raw materials. In contrast, Marx assumes that raw materials are a part of constant capital, produced in the first department and circulated to other departments. A failure to fully take into account connections between industries leaves the Kalecki system vulnerable to a SrafFian critique. Steedman (1992), for example, has lambasted the Kaleckian price system for the absence of multisectoral relationships. By establishing the Kalecki principle in an input-output context, an interpretation of the reproduction schema is possible in which linkages between industries are taken seriously. 

Where money is considered, its role in this Sraffian interpretation of Marx is limited. For Saad-Filho (2002 24), As the analysis is primarily concerned with the relationship between the value and price systems, money has no autonomous role and, when considered at all, it is merely a numeraire. A key defence of Marx s theory, against the Sraffian critique, is to argue that the Srafffians do not take money seriously. An alternative strand of value theory that corrects this mistake is the value-form tradition, which emphasised the importance of money for value analysis, because value only appears in and through price (ibid. 27). As a way of testing the possibility that money can be taken seriously in the input-output approach, it can be explored how the preceding analysis of the Kalecki principle can be reconciled with the value-form approach. 

Since pF = r(pAX + wlX), it is straightforward to derive (8.7) from the Sraffian price equation.5 The Sraffian price system can be easily made consistent with our macro monetary multiplier. 

From a Sraffian perspective, however, the gross multiplier and price system do not require any mention of labour values. The parameters of the system are defined in physical and money price terms. However, using... 

The same pricing system, albeit with different benchmarks, applies to Austrian large-scale projects. As there are no suitable data available on the already completed projects at a national and international level, these figures are based on careful estimates (estimated average potential savings EUR... 

Hubbard, T. 2003. Alternatives to the Price System. Available at http //www.earthinstitute. columbia.edu/cgsd/accesstomedicines papers.html [Accessed February 5, 2006]. 

At a press conference in Pretoria on January 15, 2004 the Minister of Heaith of SA, Dr Manto Tshabalala-Msimang, informed the media of the contents of the draft Regulations Relating to a Transparent Pricing System for Medicines and Related Substances made in terms of the Medicines and Related Substances Control Amendment Act 90 of 1997. 

The Business Day (a newspaper for the business community in SA. Available at www. bday.co.za) reported on measures the MoH would use to pave the way for cheaper medicines. Here mention was made of the establishment of a Pricing Committee with a clear mandate to start a transparent pricing system, examining the prices of drugs in other countries, advising the MoH on parallel importation of medicines and sourcing cheaper medicines from outside SA, amongst others (Kahn 2003). 

The U.S. Trade Act 1972 required AUSFTA negotiators to facilitate the "elimination of government measures such as price controls and reference pricing which deny full market access for United States [pharmaceutical] products" (USC 2002, 107-210 2102 b.8.D). Official comments supported the position that the AUSFTA would make Australian consumers pay more for the R D costs of U.S. pharmaceuticals and set a precedent for "eliminating" a pharmaceutical cost-effectiveness pricing system (Shiner 2004). 

Reflections on developing an ideal pharmaceutical cost-effectiveness pricing system... 

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