User charges have come to play a significant role in the financing and delivery of publicly provided health services in many developing countries. As a response to health care financing crises, user charges are often promoted as a way of rationalizing the use of care, raising revenue, and...

The first depression of the twenty-first century appears to contain some unusual properties in the United States. In the midst of an economy in its fourth year of oscillating between stagnation and recession, the companies in the Standard & Poor's 500 stock index were expected to report record...