OBJECTIVES To examine the extent of variation in public health agency spending levels across communities and over time, and to identify institutional and community correlates of this variation. DATA SOURCES AND SETTING Three cross-sectional surveys of the nation's 2,900 local public health agencies conducted by the National Association of County and City Health Officials in 1993, 1997, and 20...

BACKGROUND The aim of this study was to examine if government spending is associated with an individual's decision to participate in physical activity and sport which is regarded as healthy behavior given the positive health effects documented in previous research. METHODS Individual-level data (n = 25 243) containing socio-demographic information are combined with national-level data on gove...

While numerous studies assess the impact of healthcare spending on health outcomes, typically reporting multiple estimates of the elasticity of health outcomes (most often measured by a mortality rate or life expectancy) with respect to healthcare spending, the extent to which study attributes influence these elasticity estimates is unclear. Accordingly, we utilize a meta-data set (consisting o...

Conventional population management theory, predicated on prevention and keeping the healthy majority healthy, fails to address the root cause of the unsustainable health care spending trajectory in the United States. The national health care agenda has been heavily influenced by the assumptions that disease prevention and the general promotion of "population health" will be sufficient to reduce...

BACKGROUND The health implications of regional differences in Medicare spending are unknown. OBJECTIVE To determine whether regions with higher Medicare spending provide better care. DESIGN Cohort study. SETTING National study of Medicare beneficiaries. PATIENTS Patients hospitalized between 1993 and 1995 for hip fracture (n = 614,503), colorectal cancer (n = 195,429), or acute myocardi...

BACKGROUND Numerous simultaneous complex humanitarian emergencies strain the ability of local governments and the international community to respond, underscoring the importance of cost-effective use of limited resources. At the end of 2011, 42.5 million people were forcibly displaced, including 10.4 million refugees under the mandate of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR)...

This thesis analyzes the impact of capital budget on capital spending in the U.S. states. The analysis is based on the James Poterba's 1995 study of the impact of a capital budget on capital spending using 1962 U.S. state-level data. I first replicate Poterba's model using the 19921996 data set that I had constructed for this study. I then extend Poterba's model to include a set of variables th...

OBJECTIVE To estimate the relationship between variations in medical spending and health outcomes of the elderly. DATA SOURCES 1992-2002 Medicare Current Beneficiary Surveys. STUDY DESIGN We used instrumental variable (IV) estimation to identify the relationships between alternative measures of elderly Medicare beneficiaries' medical spending over a 3-year observation period and health stat...

OBJECTIVE To assess the individual financial impact of having diabetes in developing countries, whether diabetic individuals possess appropriate medications, and the extent to which health insurance may protect diabetic individuals by increasing medication possession or decreasing the risk of catastrophic spending. RESEARCH DESIGN AND METHODS Using 2002-2003 World Health Survey data (n = 121,...