OBJECTIVES To analyse how economic downturns affect child mortality both globally and among subgroups of countries of variable income levels. DESIGN Retrospective observational study using economic data from the World Bank's Development Indicators and Global Development Finance (2013 edition). Child mortality data were sourced from the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation. SETTING Gl...

BACKGROUND Cost-effectiveness analysis can guide policymakers in resource allocation decisions. It assesses whether the health gains offered by an intervention are large enough relative to any additional costs to warrant adoption. When there are constraints on the health care system's budget or ability to increase expenditures, additional costs imposed by interventions have an "opportunity cost...

OBJECTIVES To investigate the trends and correlations of gross domestic product (GDP) adjusted for purchasing power parity (PPP) per capita on suicide rates in 10 WHO regions during the past 30 years. DESIGN Analyses of databases of PPP-adjusted GDP per capita and suicide rates. Countries were grouped according to the Global Burden of Disease regional classification system. DATA SOURCES Wor...

A rich dictatorships more likely than poor dictatorships to collapse and be replaced by democracies? Consider, for example, Chile, which in 1985 had a per capita gross domestic product (GDP) of $3,400 and was under dictatorship, and Benin, which in the same year had a per capita income of about one-third of Chile’s, $1,108, and was also under dictatorship. Setting aside other differences betwee...

Health spending is expected to resume its rise as a share of gross domestic product (GDP) in the projection period, following 6 years of near stability, increasing from 13.5 percent in 1997 to an estimated 16.2 percent by 2008. This implies an approximate doubling of health spending, from $1.1 trillion in 1997 to $2.2 trillion by 2008. We anticipate a reversal in recent patterns of growth in pu...

A number of studies have estimated the income elasticity of health care expenditure to identify whether health care is a necessary or luxury product. However, the issue has received less attention in developing countries, especially in Asian economies. The current study for the first time has used the panel data covering 36 Asian countries for the period 1995-2013 for revealing the nature of he...

What is Russia and where is it going? As we approach the ninth year after the Fall, we are faced with Russia’s unprecedented economic decline, year in year out. The story is grim whether measured by gross domestic product, capital investment, industrial and agricultural output, inflation, budget deficits, international debt, educational levels, or health and mortality. Just when economists anti...

The adversarial tort system in the United States is a significant burden on the economy and its cost exceeds 2% of the gross domestic product (GDP). These costs have grown 4 times faster than the US economy between 1930 and 1994.1 In the next few years, tort costs could increase twice as fast as the economy, going from $200 billion in 2001 to $298 billion, or 2.4% of GDP, by 2005.2 The current ...

In 2007, U.S. health care spending growth slowed to its lowest rate since 1998, increasing 6.1 percent to $2.2 trillion, or $7,421 per person. The health care portion of gross domestic product reached 16.2 percent, up from 16.0 percent in 2006. Slower growth in 2007 was largely attributed to retail prescription drug spending and government administration. With the exception of prescription drug...

Empirical studies quantifying the benefits of increased foreign direct investment (FDI) have been unable to provide conclusive evidence of a positive impact on host country’s economic performance. I show that the lack of robust evidence is not inconsistent with theory, even if the eventual gains to FDI are large, if restrictions on FDI are lifted only gradually and part of FDI is intangible inv...