Insurance demand is driven by many factors, but for the emerging economies, one of the most significant historical drivers of growth has been income per capita. Based on a simple forecasting approach, we project that insurance penetration in the BRICS economies could increase at a rate of between 1.6 and 4.2% per year over the coming decade, depending on the country, due to rising per capita in...

The relationship between per capita income and a number of pollution indicators has been found to display an inverted U-shaped or downward-sloping pattern. Corruption may affect this relationship in two distinct ways: by raising pollution at given income levels (direct effect) and by reducing per capita income (indirect effect). The total effect is ambiguous a priori. Using cross section data f...

Essay 1: To replicate an industrial revolution: from exogenous to endogenous growth In the last quarter of the second millennium many countries experienced, simultaneously, an industrial revolution (an exponential increase in the income per capita) and a demographic transition (an increase first and a decrease later of the population growth rate). How do we account for these facts? Following Lu...

Carbon emission reduction could be achieved through extensive cooperation between relevant groups such as businesses, governments and consumers. Generally, carbon emissions stem from consumer behavior. To tackle the increasingly serious energy crisis and climate change in China, it is thus vital to control carbon emissions generated by the country’s urban consumers. From a consumption perspecti...

OBJECTIVE Access to healthcare is mostly contingent on out-of-pocket spending (OOPS) by health seekers, particularly in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs). This would require many LMICs to raise enough funds to achieve universal health insurance coverage. But, are individuals or households willing to pay for health insurance, and how much? What factors positively affect WTP for health ins...

Aubhik Khan* It is difficult to overemphasize the potential benefits of economic growth for improving human welfare. For example, Bangladesh, India, and Pakistan, three of the world’s lowest income nations, had real per capita GDP of $1908, $1633, and $1793, respectively, in 1992. In contrast, the equivalent values for three of the world’s highest income nations, Denmark, Sweden, and the United...

INTRODUCTION The objective of this paper is to investigate the relation between state and local government expenditures on public services and all cause mortality in 48 US states in 1987, and determine if the relation between income inequality and mortality is conditioned on levels of public services available in these jurisdictions. METHODS Per capita public expenditures and a needs adjusted...

OBJECTIVES Swiss health care is relatively costly. In order better to understand the drivers of spending, this study analyses geographic variation in per capita consultation costs for ambulatory care. METHODS Small area and longitudinal analysis of costs of ambulatory services covered by compulsory health insurance, 2003-07. RESULTS The results show considerable geographic variation in per ...