Volume III of the Pepperdine Policy Review highlights the work of three students at Pepperdine University School of Public Policy. Lindsay Young wrote an article about the recent removal of President Zelaya in Honduras, which was also presented at the Pacific Coast Council on Latin American Studies Annual Conference. Kevin Chlebik's article uses game theory to explain the actions of terrorist c...

This paper provides a synthesis on socioeconomic inequalities in cancer incidence, mortality and survival across countries and within countries, with particular focus on the Italian context; the paper also describes the underlying mechanisms documented for cancer incidence, and reports some remarks on policies to tackle inequalities.From a worldwide perspective, the burden of cancer appears to ...

Two decades of research on euthanasia in the Netherlands have resulted into clear insights in the frequency and characteristics of euthanasia and other medical end-of-life decisions in the Netherlands. These empirical studies have contributed to the quality of the public debate, and to the regulating and public control of euthanasia and physician-assisted suicide. No slippery slope seems to hav...

PURPOSE Adverse events are increasingly recognized as a source of harm to patients. When such harm occurs, problems arise in communicating the situation to patients and their families. We reviewed the literature on disclosure across individual and international boundaries, including patients', healthcare professionals' and other stakeholders' perspectives in order to ascertain how the needs of ...

School closure policies are among the non-pharmaceutical measures taken into consideration to mitigate influenza epidemics and pandemics spread. However, a systematic review of the effectiveness of alternative closure policies has yet to emerge. Here we perform a model-based analysis of four types of school closure, ranging from the nationwide closure of all schools at the same time to reactive...

This paper surveys recent evidence suggesting that market-oriented institutions and policies are strongly related to economic growth, focusing on studies using the economic freedom indicator of the Fraser Institute. This index is critically discussed. Also various serious shortcomings of empirical studies using this index are identified. Nevertheless there are strong indications that liberaliza...

Evidence-based methodologies are used to synthesise systematic high-quality evidence and were first applied in clinical practice. Evidence-based public health, however, is still in its early stages. The European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control sought the insight of European organisations working and providing services in the field of public health on current practices, capacities, per...

This paper reviews the evidence for the effectiveness and cost-effectiveness of policies and programmes to reduce the harm caused by alcohol, in the areas of education and information, the health sector, community action, driving while under the influence of alcohol (drink-driving), availability, marketing, pricing, harm reduction, and illegally and informally produced alcohol. Systematic revie...

This paper analyses the case for selective industrial and trade policies in Africa, drawing upon the lessons of East Asia. It reviews the theoretical arguments for government intervention in the context of technological learning, and relates this to the new environment of rapid technical change and globalisation of production. It also considers the risks of government failure in mounting select...

ISSUES Reviews recommend controlling alcohol availability to limit alcohol-related harm. However, the translation of this evidence into policy processes has proved challenging in some jurisdictions. APPROACH This paper presents a critical review of empirical spatial and temporal availability research to identify its features and limitations for informing alcohol availability policies. The UK ...