Healthcare utilization varies widely between regions. Yet, the causes of regional variation are still not well understood, and they can also differ between countries and institutional settings. We exploit patient migration to examine which share of regional variation in ambulatory care use in...

Universal social protection (USP) is becoming high priority in many developing countries’ agendas. However, information on what has worked well – and not so well – is limited. This study reviews a wide range of recent country experiences with universal health coverage (UHC) financing and...

Although the study of the association between interventions in primary care and health outcomes continues to produce mixed findings, programs designed to promote the greater compliance of General Practitioners and their diabetic patients with treatment guidelines have been increasingly...

This paper addresses issues related to health care in the context of the debate about the typology of welfare state regimes and comparative studies conducted by reference to the debate. Particular attention has been paid to the phenomenon of decommodification as one of the key dimensions that...

In this study, we document the effect of food stamp access on adult health care utilization. While the Food Stamp Program provides one of the largest safety nets in the United States today, the universal nature of the program across geographic areas and over time limits the potential for...

Does higher medical spending improve quality of care? We estimate the effect of changes in regulated reimbursement prices for hospitals on multiple dimensions of hospital quality, including mortality outcomes, surgical complications, process quality, and patient satisfaction. We exploit an...

Using administrative data on incomes and healthcare spending, we develop new evidence on the distribution of healthcare spending in Hungary. We document substantial geographic heterogeneity and a positive association between income and public healthcare spending.

Pension systems and reforms thereof are often discussed in the context of financial viability. In industrialized countries, these debates grow in intensity with the aging of the population; however, an increase in retirement age may create unintended side effects with regards to retiree health...

The Partnerships pillar of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development cuts across all the goals focusing on the mobilisation of resources needed to implement the agenda. Thailand’s “sufficiency economy philosophy” encourages the prioritisation of long-term sustainability over short-term...

Millions of people in the developing world lack access to curative drugs. Thomas Pogge identifies the cause for this problem in a lack of redistribution across borders. By contrast, this article shows that institutional shortcomings within developing countries are the main issue. The different...