Local autonomy and interregional equality

Ethical Agreement and Disagreement about Obesity Prevention Policy in the United States

An active area of public health policy in the United States is policy meant to promote healthy eating, reduce overconsumption of food, and prevent overweight/obesity. Public discussion of such obesity prevention policies includes intense ethical disagreement. We suggest that some ethical disagreements about obesity prevention policies can be seen as rooted in a common concern with equality or w...

Gender Equality and Women’s Rights in the Interregional Relations between the European Union and Association of Southeast Asian Nations

A Positive Theory of Inter-Regional Redistribution and Constitutional Choice∗

The paper studies the effects and the determinants of interregional redistribution in a model of residential and political choice. We find that paradoxical consequences of interjurisdictional transfers can arise. While self-sufficient regions are necessarily identical with respect to policies and average incomes in our model, horizontal redistributive transfers lead to the divergence of regiona...

Ethical Standards to Guide the Development of Obesity Policies and Programs; Comment on “Ethical Agreement and Disagreement about Obesity Prevention Policy in the United States”

The recent report by Barnhill and King about obesity prevention policy raises important issues for discussion and analysis. In response, this article raises four points for further consideration. First, a distinction between equality and justice needs to be made and consistently maintained. Second, different theories of justice highlight one additional important source of disagreement about the...

Regional Development in China : Interregional Transportation Infrastructure and Regional Comparative Advantage

Significant economic disparities among China’s Eastern, Central, and Western regions pose unequivocal challenges to social equality and political stability in the country. A major impediment to economic development, especially in the poor, remote Western region, is the shortage of transportation infrastructure. The Chinese government has committed to substantial investment for improving the acc...