A decade ago, the Cross-Departmental Review of Services for Young Children concluded that disadvantage among young children was increasing and it was more likely that poor outcomes could be prevented when early intervention was undertaken.1 The review also noted that current services were uncoordinated and patchy, and recommended that there should be a change in service design and delivery. It ...

BACKGROUND In May 2003, the government of British Columbia adopted income-based pharmacare, replacing an age-based drug benefits program. Stated policy goals included reducing government spending, maintaining or enhancing access to medicines and improving financial equity. The province's experience on these policy dimensions can inform policy making in other jurisdictions and offers insight int...

Regional Income Stratification in Unified Germany Using a Gini Decomposition Approach This paper delivers new insights into the development of income inequality and regional stratification in Germany after unification using a new method for detecting social stratification by a decomposition of the GINI index which yields the obligatory betweenand within-group components as well as an “overlappi...

Good nutrition and health for all are recognized as socially desirable objectives around the globe. It is generally accepted that national and local governments have a duty to provide the goods and services necessary for maintaining good nutrition and health. Moreover, improved health and nutrition are critical inputs for achieving broad economic growth and poverty reduction. Malnutrition and i...

Despite an attempt by its own authors, it is difficult to argue that the influential model of the size of government developed by Meltzer and Richard (1981) has had convincing empirical backing. In this paper, we adapt that model to a model of state government size. The main testable hypothesis is that as income inequality grows, government size (as measured by the percentage of income devoted ...

about long waits for health care services, 1,2 federal and provincial governments in Canada have made the reduction of wait times for key health services – including magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scanning – a priority. 3 Under Ontario's Wait Times Strategy, launched on 17 November 2004, the provincial government has invested approximately $118 million in capital and operational funding for M...

Modern national income accounting was designed in the early 20th century for the purpose of providing improved indicators about the performance of the economy so that government policy makers could better control the economy. The way that performance is measured affects the types of policies used to try to accomplish policy goals. Two attributes of national income accounting are analyzed for th...