National Soil and Water Conservation Policy: An Economic Perspective

The Impact of Agricultural Water Conservation Policy on Economic Growth

An agricultural water conservation policy prevalent worldwide encourages producers to improve on-farm irrigation efficiency. Contrary to intention, increasing empirical evidence reveals that this policy may set an ‘irrigation efficiency trap’ that worsens water crises by reducing water supplies and jeopardizing economic growth. We derive a pair of testable hydrologic-economic conditions require...

Adverse events and the National Health Service: an economic perspective

National Evaluation of Sure Start local programmes: An economic perspective

Sure Start local programmes (SSLPs), the forerunners to Sure Start Children’s Centres, aim to support young children and their families by integrating early education, childcare, healthcare and family support services in disadvantaged areas. The programmes aim to improve the health and well-being of families and young children, so that the children will have a greater opportunity to do well in ...

HealtH tecHnology assessment – implications for national policy: an industry perspective

Introduction and objectives: Due to limited resources, health systems are increasingly looking to health technology assessment (HTA) as a tool to guide health policy decisions. There are a range of models used in HTAs across the European countries including the “relative effectiveness” followed by Germany and France, and the “cost/quality adjusted life year (QALY)” used in the UK. Pharmaceutica...

Environmental and economic costs of soil erosion and conservation benefits.

Soil erosion is a major environmental threat to the sustainability and productive capacity of agriculture. During the last 40 years, nearly one-third of the world's arable land has been lost by erosion and continues to be lost at a rate of more than 10 million hectares per year. With the addition of a quarter of a million people each day, the world population's food demand is increasing at a ti...