This paper does not address itself to high theory or to complex methodologies; nor does it offer any detailed illumination of key economic concepts. Rather, it focuses on the role of economists and economics (not the same thing) in the formulation of health policies, and in influencing an...

Financing reforms of China's public health services are characterised by a reduction in government budgetary support and the introduction of charges. These reforms have changed the financing structure of public health institutions. Before the financing reforms, in 1980, government budgetary...

This paper examines the equality of utilization for equal need and equity of out-of-pocket expenditure for health services in a large urban area in Thailand. Data from a household health interview survey were used to explore patterns of perceived morbidity, utilization of various treatment...

The Bamako Initiative, a controversial attempt to strengthen Primary Health Care using community financing and community participation and management was launched at a meeting of African Ministers of Health in 1987. This evaluation focuses particularly on the community financing aspects of the...

A logit model is used to estimate provider choice from six types by malaria patients in rural Nepal. Patient characteristics that influence choice include travel costs, income category, household size, gender, and severity of malaria. Income effects are introduced by assuming the marginal...

Clinical trials have indicated that treating mosquito nets with insecticide could be a potentially cost-effective method of preventing malaria. As malaria is one of the most common causes of death in children under five in developing countries, there has been substantial interest in whether such...

Argument still rages over whether vertical health programmes--attacking one or a few health problems--should still be set up in developing countries, or whether all their efforts should be devoted to establishing a horizontal multiproblem approach such as primary health care. This paper argues...

The desirability of using the private sector to deliver public services is widely debated internationally. Understanding the nature of contracts that initiate and govern such public-private partnerships, and the extent to which they can define the performance of private providers, is key in...

Despite the emphasis placed during the last two decades on public delivery of comprehensive and equitable primary care (PC) to developing country populations, coverage remains far from universal and the quality often poor. Users frequently patronise private providers, ranging from informal drug...

Fee exemption schemes are widely recommended but little analysed. This paper analyses the operation of the Free Medical Care Project in Thailand, which enables those classified as poor to receive free treatment at government facilities. The paper concentrates in particular on the size and...