Was the German slump inevitable? This paper argues that -despite the speed and depth of Germany's deflation in the early 1930s - fear of inflation is evident in the bond, foreign exchange, and commodity markets at certain critical junctures of the Great Depression. Therefore, policy options were...

In May 1927, the German central bank intervened indirectly to reduce lending to equity investors. The crash that followed ended the only stock market boom during Germany’s relative stabilization 1924-28. This paper examines the factors that lead to the intervention as well as its consequences....

This paper presents new estimates of total factor productivity growth in Britain for the period 1770–1860. We use the dual technique and argue that the estimates we derive from factor prices are of similar quality to quantity-based calculations. Our results provide further evidence, calculated...

For most of the post-war period, Europe’s capital markets remained largely closed to international capital flows. This paper explores the costs of this policy. Using an event-study methodology, I examine the extent to which restrictions of current and capital account convertibility affected...

The goal of this paper is to present an optimal resource allocation model for the regional allocation of public service inputs. The proposed solution leads to maximise the relative public service availability in regions located below the best availability frontier, subject to exogenous budget...

Informal care is today the form of support most commonly used by those who need other people in order to carry out certain activities that are considered basic (eating, dressing, taking a shower, etc.), in Spain and in most other countries in the region. The possible labour opportunity costs...

Despite the importance of supplier inducement and brand loyalty in the drug purchasing process, little empirical evidence is to be found with regard to the influence that these factors exert on patients’ decisions. Under the new scenario of easier access to information, patients are becoming...

This paper studies oligopolistic competition in off-patent pharmaceutical markets using a vertical product differentiation model. This model can explain the observation that countries with stronger regulations have smaller generic market shares. It can also explain the differences in observed...

This paper presents a method for the measurement of changes in health inequality and income-related health inequality over time in a population. For pure health inequality (as measured by the Gini coefficient) and income-related health inequality (as measured by the concentration index), we show...

The trade-off between property rights/price regulation and innovation depends on country characteristics and drug industry specificities. Access to drugs and innovation can be reconciled by seven ways that, among others, include: public health strengthening in the countries with the largest...