This paper examines whether loss of locally available hospital-based obstetric services affects racial/ethnic disparities in intrapartum care access and birth outcomes in rural areas of the US. To conduct causal inference, we combine difference-in-difference and propensity score matching methods...

This paper explores the causal pathway by which poor fetal health translates into reducing educational attainment and earnings as an adult. Using insights from the medical literature, I decompose low birth weight infants into two distinct subtypes: a symmetric type, which is characterized by...

Faith-inspired institutions (FIIs) commonly have as their stated mission a desire to provide quality health services to all, and in particular a commitment to serve the poor, for example, by providing services in remote areas where there are none, or by making services more affordable for those...

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...

In China, Medical Savings Accounts (MSAs) are a major tool financing health care consumption in urban areas. Whether MSAs control medical expenditures and encourage saving is based on an assumption that enrollees treat the MSA money the same as their pocket money. This assumption has never been...

This chapter aims to quantify and compare inequalities of opportunity in health across European countries considering two alternative normative ways of treating the correlation between effort, as measured by lifestyles, and circumstances, as measured by parental and childhood characteristics,...

Patient service satisfaction has become a critical concept, utilized both in the assessment of quality of care and to predict a range of health-related behaviors and outcomes. What can be said about patient satisfaction with faith-inspired institutions (FIIs) in the African context in comparison...

This paper relies on household survey data as well as qualitative fieldwork to answer two questions about the services provided by faith-inspired health care providers in Ghana: how satisfied are patients with the services received?; and why are patients choosing faith-inspired providers for...

This paper relies on administrative, household surveys and qualitative data to answer three questions about the services provided by faith-inspired health care providers in Ghana, asking: (1) what is the market share of faith-inspired providers as compared to other types of providers; (2) are...

This paper uses the fifth round of the Ghana Living Standards Survey collected in 2005-2006 to conduct a benefit incidence analysis of public spending for health. District-level financial data on public transfers are combined with household survey data on the use of various types of facilities...