In the aftermath of the Asian financial crises, the Indonesian government launched a subsidized rice program called RASKIN in 1998 to moderate the shocks of food price inflation and reduced employment to poor households. The program has been continued since then with an objective to provide food...

Equity in health has to be distinguished from equity in access to health care, or equity in the distribution of health care resources. We take as a working definition of health for our purposes the number of quality adjusted life years that a person may expect to enjoy over his or her lifetime....

At the end of 2008, the Government set in motion a Strategic Review of Health Inequalities in England chaired by Sir Michael Marmot. It is to report in December 2009. As part of its work, it set up various Task Groups to collect evidence and suggest policy options. The Task Group on Social...

How much have government programs improved elderly well-being? I examine the impact of OAA on mortality between 1930-1955. I construct two new data sets: a database on OAA, and a database on elderly mortality. To control for the joint determination of income and mortality, I use a simulated IV...

We analyze whether a consumer driven health care plan like the newly established Health Savings Accounts (HSAs) can reduce health care expenditures in the United States and increase the fraction of the population with health insurance. Unlike previous literature, our analysis relies on a dynamic...

The Pantawid Pamilya Pilipino Program (4Ps), the first conditional cash transfer (CCT) program of the Philippine government, has become a popular approach aimed at improving the health and educational status of disadvantaged households. Its implementation is expected to advance the...

This paper examines whether participation in workfare and food grain subsidy programs in India impacts health and nutritional status of women and children in participating households, using short-term morbidity and body mass index (BMI) as indicators. Using the Indian Human Development Survey...

High prevalence of obesity in female Food Stamp Program (FSP) participants has led to the question of whether or not the FSP, which provides in-kind transfers to low-income Americans, causes this serious health problem. This paper estimates the effects of food stamp benefits on obesity,...

New York City Housing Authority (NYCHA) tenants' health are put at risk by the policies and practices of the government. Public housing tenants receive unequal treatment when compared to tenants in private housing in obtaining repairs and preventing dangerous conditions. These conditions include...

Reducing urban-rural gaps in child health and nutrition is one of the most difficult challenges faced by many countries. This paper evaluates the impact of the Nutrition Improvement Program (NIP), a large-scale school meal program in rural China, on the health and nutritional status of...