In many countries manpower problems in the field of health care are regular items on the agenda of policy makers. To avoid mismatches between demand of care and supply of care on national and regional levels, manpower planning models and methods are used to determine adequate numbers of medical specialists to fulfil the future demand of care. A key question is which factors should be included i...

It was Edmund Burke who, after the French Revolution, wrote, "But the age of chivalry is gone. That of sophisters, economists, and calculators has succeeded, and the glory of Europe is extinguished forever." I suppose that the presence of an economist on this program-in fact of two economists-might lead some to contend that the glory of medicine is similarly extinguished. There are in fact thos...