There is an apparent consensus that the correct health policy in developing countries is public provision of a mix of preventive and simple curative services through low level health workers and facilities. But the strength of this consensus on the primary health care paradigm is in sharp...

Das and Hammer develop a method in which vignettes - a battery of questions for hypothetical cases - are evaluated with item response theory to create a metric for doctor quality. The method allows a simultaneous estimation of quality and validation of the test instrument that can be used for...

The quality of medical care is a potentially important determinant of health outcomes. Nevertheless, it remains an understudied area. The limited research that exists defines quality either on the basis of drug availability or facility characteristics, but little is known about how provider...

Government spending on risk reduction could improve welfare in developing economies, either by alleviating a risk-market failure or by reducing uncertainty in otherwise distorted markets.As governments grow richer, the share of their GDP devoted to public spending rises. Public spending in the...

This paper provides an overview of recent work on quality measurement of medical care and its correlates in four low and middle-income countries-India, Indonesia, Tanzania, and Paraguay. The authors describe two methods-testing doctors and watching doctors-that are relatively easy to implement...

Chaudhury and Hammer report on a study in which unannounced visits were made to health clinics in Bangladesh with the intention of discovering what fraction of medical professionals were present at their assigned post. This survey represents the first attempt to quantify the extent of the...

This study examines the impact of a fee-waiver program for basic medical services on health care utilization in Armenia. Because of the reduction in public financing of health services and decentralization and increased privatization of health care provision, private out-of-pocket contributions...

The author applies to the health sector an approach to analyzing projects advocated in a recent paper by Devarajan, Squire, and Suthiwart-Narueput. In the health sector, a project evaluation should: 1) Establish a firm justification for public involvement. The author identifies a number of...

The quality of medical care is a potentially important determinant of health outcomes. Nevertheless, it remains an understudied area. The limited research that exists defines quality either on the basis of drug availability or facility characteristics, but little is known about how provider...