The Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic is bringing about once-in-a-century changes to human society. Three key properties escalate the COVID-19 pandemic into a syndemic. To address this triple crisis, we discuss the importance of integrating early, targeted and coordinated public...

The Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic is bringing about once-in-a-century changes to human society. This article summarizes key characteristics of the COVID-19 pandemic that should be incorporated in economics and health policy analyses. We then review the literature on the importance...

We seek to explain why countries have adopted national Old-Age Insurance and Health Insurance programs. Theoretical work has posited several factors that could lead to this adoption: the strain from expanding capitalism; the need for political legitimacy; the desire to transfer to similar people;...

Policymaker commentary : how explicit benefits plans have helped Mexico in its transition towards UHC / Eduardo González Pier -- Defining the rules of the game : good governance principles for the design and revision of your benefits package / Ursula Giedion and Javier Guzmán -- Tracking the...

Financial crises in developing and transition countries have often proven disruptive to policies and programs due to procyclical trends government spending growth. Given the importance and significant component of public budgets devoted to education and health cuts in government expenditures...

The world has enjoyed huge improvements in population health during the last half century. But major health problems persist, particularly in tropical countries, which are still struggling with infectious diseases while increasingly having to deal with noncommunicable diseases. Several classic...

This paper evaluates whether the level of public corruption influences COVID-19 case fatality rates. Using cross-section data, including 64 countries and multiple regression techniques, we find that the level of corruption is positively and significantly associated with COVID-19 human costs....

Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) is the strain of novel coronavirus that causes Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) that generates high number of infected cases and deaths worldwide. The fundamental question in this field of research is how countries can reduce...

The COVID-19 pandemic has exacted an extraordinarily high human toll throughout the country, imposing an almost unfathomable strain on its healthcare infrastructure and vast losses in terms of economic growth and employment. The failures of the federal government in its response to the pandemic...

How has government healthcare spending prepared countries for tackling the COVID19 pandemic? Arguably, spending is the primary policy tool of governments in providing effective health. We argue that the effectiveness of spending in reducing COVID deaths is conditional on the existence of...