For the purposes of calculation, context is irrelevant: one is expected to strip away the “contingent” details, slot bare numbers into the equations, and perform the relevant maths. Medical doctors must know this. So why, asked just such a question about the likelihood of a diagnostic test...

Traditional theories of the origins of the welfare state have emphasized the financial weakness of Britain’s largest provider of mutual insurance in the late 19th century, the friendly societies. These theories share common implications with contemporary theories of institutional change...

It has long been accepted that lack of social participation in wider society is oneaspect or one definition of poverty. Current concerns with the extent anddistribution of social capital as both a measure of a good society and as meansto upward mobility also emphasise the importance of social...

Chronicling the history of science and health popularisation in the United States, John C. Burnham sees a decline from the Victorian “men of science” to a situation in the mid-1980s where what passed as the popularisation of science consisted of little more than a litany of unrelated facts....

Furthering equity as an achievable public policy objective is based on theability to assess needs accurately, and distribute resources accordingly.The purpose of this paper is to plot the development of the formulaegoverning resource allocation in education, health and social housingand to chart...

This paper uses evidence from the US to examine the impact ofadolescent illegal consumption and violent behaviour on later lifechances. Specifically, we look at the effect of such behaviour by youngmen in late adolescence on productivity and household formation tenyears on. We find that alcohol...

In the past decade there has been a minor revolution in how local services are funded.Those delivering the services now have their own budgets. How these budgets arecalculated – how Whitehall pulls the purse strings – are now central issues in social policy.In a new book, CASE members...

It is increasingly recognised that improving the quality and quantity of children’s services isan essential part of any long-term strategy to tackle poverty and social exclusion amongchildren. As part of its wider programme to address child poverty in England, Save TheChildren commissioned...

This paper explores these issues further by reconsidering the link between democracy and health using panel data from a cross-section of countries. The data show a strong (conditional) correlation between life expectancy and democracy. This relationship is strongest for the decades of the 1960s...

A vast literature has examined the impact of family income on the health anddevelopment outcomes of children. One channel through which increasedincome may operate is an improvement in a family’s ability to provide food,shelter, clothing, books, and other expenditure-related inputs to a...