The herding of expert opinions is often rationalized as the outcome of social learning. However, experts are typically individuals with career concerns. As a result, herding can also arise from the fear of opposing consensus opinion and the potential career consequences of being wrong. We...

The reforms that have reshaped most public health care system have often been accompained by a process of devolution. However, this process has not always produced the desired effects and the existence of widespread soft budget constraint policies at local level is well documented. In this paper...

This article presents a framework to analyze federalism based on enactment, implementation, and enforcement institutions. The framework provides a mechanism to determine whether a particular public policy should be conducted at a state or federal level, by examining economies and diseconomies of...

Because tort law generally and healthcare regulation specifically are traditional state functions and because medical, legal, and insurance practices are highly localized, legal scholars have long believed that medical malpractice falls within the states' exclusive jurisdiction and sovereignty....

Although mandated by federal law, Medicaid always has been fundamentally a matter of state business, primarily because states administer the program and receive only partial federal reimbursement for state expenditures. As health care costs have burgeoned over the past few decades, states have...

This symposium article recounts recent litigation by several states over a provision of the Medicare Modernization Act Part D prescription drug benefit: The clawback, which requires states to pay the a potentially substantial portion of new federal program. I then examine the unique federalism...

Recent policy developments in public health care systems lead to a greater diversity in health care. Decentralisation, either geographically or at an institutional level, is the key force, because it encourages innovation and local initiatives in health care provision. The devolution of...

Australia’s harmonised occupational health and safety (OHS) regulatory regime was scheduled to commence 1 January 2012. Presently, however, only seven (out of nine) jurisdictions have enacted harmonised laws, most with differences. That the harmonisation initiative has not (yet) delivered on...

In some ways, a 2012 symposium on “Dilemmas of State Debt” may seem a bit behind the news curve. At the end of 2010, municipal bond markets were in a deep funk. Analysts predicted that countless municipalities and perhaps one or more of the United States might default on their debt...

Proponents of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act of 2010 (ACA) set forth two primary goals: (1) to constrain health care costs and (2) to expand health insurance coverage. In its June 28, 2012 decision upholding the constitutionality of the ACA, the U.S. Supreme Court effectively...