Patients hospitalized for heart failure (HF) are at high risk for post-discharge events. Although transition from intravenous to oral diuretic therapy for 24 hours is commonly practiced to reduce post-discharge risk, evidence supporting this strategy is limited. We investigated the impact of...

Models of endogenous economic growth typically assume that aggregate production is characterised by increasing returns to scale, often as a result of the accumulation of physical and human capital. In this paper, an international data-set on formal educational attainments is used to disaggregate...

L. K. C. Chan (1983) and R. B. Barsky et al. (1986) have demonstrated that a tax cut financed by bonds to be repaid from proportional income taxes on uncertain future income, by reducing the latter's riskiness, stimulates current consumption--Ricardian equivalence does not hold. However, their...

Logical inconsistencies in survey respondents' valuations of hypothetical health states - represented by the EQ-5D, for example - present a conundrum as to whether or not their responses ought to be included for estimating social 'tariffs'. A 'logical inconsistency' occurs when a state that 'in...

Objectives: To obtain health-related quality-of-life (HR-QOL) valuations (or `utilities') from New Zealand women for four health states representative of advanced (metastatic) breast cancer, suitable for use in cost-utility analysis, and to compare four valuation methodologies. Methods: Written...

Objectives: To compare the cost effectiveness of azathioprine (AZA), methotrexate (MTX) and no immunosuppression for maintaining remission of moderate to severe inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) in New Zealand Caucasians, and to determine whether prospective testing for poor metabolisers of AZA...

Arrow’s (1951) Impossibility Theorem is the idea that, given several well-known assumptions, the social orderings of particular alternatives that are meant to reflect individuals’ preferences must match the preferences of an arbitrary individual (the dictator). A social-choice rule...