Informal payments in the public health care system represent one of the most sensitive topics in the medical world. It is also a subject of interest for many researchers. As evidenced by reports from various European institutions, a catalyst for their use was the COVID-19 pandemic. Among all the...

The paper investigates how efficiency of business environment and corruption (infirmal payments and state capture) affect the microeconomic perfirmance of firms. The novelty of the paper is to look at these effects in the interaction with the firm ownership. We use firm-level micro data...

Over millennia, mankind has used hard cash in various forms ranging from shells to gold coins and paper. More recently, cash has become unpopular in political circles, as it effectively restricts states’ power to tax (explicitly or via negative interest rates) or to survey and potentially...

Universal Health Coverage is a powerful framework for a nation aiming to protect their population against health risks. However, countries face multiple challenges in implementing, achieving and sustaining UHC strategies. Sharing and learning from diverse country experiences may enable to foster...

The paper investigates how efficiency of business environment and corruption (informal payments and state capture) affect the microeconomic performance of firms. The novelty of the paper is to look at these effects in the interaction with the firm ownership. We use firm-level micro data...

The absent or poorly functioning risk pooling mechanisms and high amounts of out-of-pocket payments for health care expose households to financial risks associated with major illnesses or accidents. The aim of this paper is to analyse the extent to which out-of-pocket health spending impoverish...

Informal payments in the public health care system represent one of the most sensitive topics in the medical world. It is also a subject of interest for many researchers. As evidenced by reports from various European institutions, a catalyst for their use was the COVID-19 pandemic. Among all the...

The study examines the effect of health care reform in Bulgaria in 1999 on the equity of health care financing. It explores the distribution of different types of health care financing by income. Furthermore, it separates the financial and social reasons for these differences, dividing them into...