Separating financing from provision: evidence from 10 years of partnership with health cooperatives in Costa Rica.

Conceptualization of the dynamics and synergistic partnership between the agri-food production chain and public health veterinarians

The Impact of Fair Trade on Producers and Their Organisations: a Case Study with Coocafé in Costa Rica

Fair Trade attempts to address the poverty issues of small Southern producers through the payment of a 'fair price' for their goods and the provision of support services for producer organisations. Although Fair Trade is overwhelmingly identified with the 'fair price' paid by participating importers and buyers, sketching the possible avenues of impact reveal that many of the effects of Fair Tra...

“It’s Practically a Must”: Neoliberal Reasons for Foreign Language Learning

This qualitative study analyzes the reasons of college students for learning English as a foreign language (EFL) in Costa Rica and the reasons of high school students for learning German as a foreign language (GFL) in the US. It asks to what extent the learners’ reasons align with or deviate from neoliberal discourses that commodify foreign languages. The analysis of 27 interviews in a US high ...

Association between Heart Disease and Subjective Health in Ten North, Middle, and South American Countries

Introduction: This study was conducted to compare 10 American countries for the association between self-reported physician diagnosis of heart disease and subjective health above and beyond the effect of socio-economic factors. Methods: With a cross-sectional design, this study used data from Research on Early Life and Aging Trends and Effects (RELATE). T...

Productive efficiency of specialty and conventional coffee farmers in Costa Rica: Accounting for technological heterogeneity and self-selection

A steep decline in coffee prices at the producer level led to considerable pressure for farmers in Costa Rica and producer countries all over the world. One possible reaction was moving to specialty markets, where price pressure was perceived to be lower. We use original survey data from 2002/03 and 2003/04 to analyze the factors influencing efficiency levels of conventional and specialty coffe...