The practice of female genital cutting (FGC) has a long history in Africa and it is thought that over 130 million females alive today have undergone the practice. In this paper we argue that FGC is a pre-marital investment. We analyze data from Burkina Faso and find that FGC is correlated with...

The Great Chinese Famine of 1959-1961 is puzzling, since despite the high death rates, there is no discernable diminution in height amongst the majority of cohorts who were exposed to the famine in crucial growth years. An explanation is that shorter children experienced greater mortality and...

This paper constructs a model of child labor where siblings differ in birth order and credit constrained parents use the labor income from their first-born child to fund the schooling of later-born children. We show how in this environment, coercive child labor policies may backfire, increasing...

This paper challenges the argument that expanding private health insurance coverage in Australia will reduce the demand for public hospitals. We construct a simple model to illustrate that although a premium subsidy might expand insurance coverage, it may not reduce the demand for public health...

This paper considers a model of defensive medicine where doctors are imperfect agents of insured patients. A national insurer subsidises both curative and preventive medical care consumed by risk averse patients. We show that in such an environment, the optimal liability regime is similar to the...

The Great Chinese Famine of 1959-1961 is puzzling, since despite the high death rates, there is no discernable diminution in height amongst the majority of cohorts who were exposed to the famine in crucial growth years. An explanation is that shorter children experienced greater mortality and...

Canada's restrictions on the role of private health insurance for publicly insured physician and hospital services are unique among countries with universal, publicly funded health care systems. Pressure is mounting in Canada, however, to loosen these restrictions and create a parallel system of...

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