The objective of this study is to proffer and then empirically investigate for the U.S. what is being identified as the “small firms hypothesis,” i.e., a hypothesis that the greater the percentage of firms that are “small,” the greater the percentage of the population that will be...

This is an effort at explaining the reasons and rationale behind the rising mortality rate (CDR) in the South Indian State – Andhra Pradesh. Although the state’s performance in socio-economic sphere seems to be not that impressive, its performance in demographic transition during the last...

The circular interplay between demography-employment-productivity-PayGo is investigated for Europe and Us. Looking forward to the mid-long run, the paper offers simulations of the burden each effective worker and each active citizen will have to bear to finance via pay-as-you-go public health...

Ageing society opens up enormous economic potential. Whereas for a long time social interpretation homed in on the doomsday scenarios of demographic change, it is the economic potential that is now emerging with increasing clarity. Information and communication technologies stand a good chance...

Using data from a randomized experiment in rural China, this paper studies the influence of social networks on weather insurance adoption and the mechanisms through which social networks operate. To quantify network effects, the experiment offers intensive information sessions about the...

Introducing compulsory health insurance for government employees bears immense importance for stepping towards universal healthcare coverage in Bangladesh. Lack of scientific study on designing such scheme, in the Bangladesh context, motivates this paper. The study aims at designing a...

Health insurance reform in Massachusetts lowered the financial cost of both pregnancy (by increased coverage of pregnancy-related medical events) and pregnancy prevention (by increasing access to reliable contraception and family planning). We examine fertility responses for women of...

I find causal evidence that Hurricane Katrina increased stress, smoking, binge drinking, and health insurance coverage in the non-impacted storm surge region. In this region, Hurricane Katrina increased health insurance coverage by 440,000 young adults, the number of smokers by 930,000, and the...