The paper studies the incentive for providers to invest in new health care technologies under alternative payment systems, when the patients' benefits are uncertain. If the reimbursement by the purchaser includes both a variable (per patient) and a lump-sum component, efficiency can be ensured...

The paper attempts to describe catastrophic health spending and its impact on poverty in the Philippine setting. It focuses on the role of out-of-pocket payments for health care as a springboard for measuring the magnitude and analysing the extent of damage of catastrophic health expenditures....

This paper reviews the arguments which can justify government intervention in health care and health insurance. It is shown that moral hazard or adverse selection do not appear to justify public intervention. The two main arguments in favor of public health insurance appear to be its lower...

The United States faces challenging budgetary prospects, as do most other OECD countries. The federal budget deficit widened considerably during the recession, reaching about 10% of GDP in both 2009 and 2010, reflecting the operation of automatic stabilizers and the policy response to the...

We examine why it is important to consider seemingly autonomous but more embedded socio-political-economic aspects in assessing the impact of changes in Science and Technology (S&T) on human capital. In capturing the linkage between S&T and human capital, as we show, the dynamics in labour...

Decentralization has been for many years a widespread trend in health care sectors throughout Europe. Yet, more recently, a new host of reforms is observable implying an ambition of some states to regain lost control. What is the general trend of (re)centralisation about and what happens when...