BACKGROUND Access to tertiary care is a problem common to many small states, especially island ones. Although medical treatment overseas (MTO) may result in cost savings to high income countries, it can be a relatively high cost for low and middle income source countries. The purpose of this study was to estimate the costs of overseas medical treatment incurred by the households of medical trav...

In this paper, I explore the effect of fragmentation of production processes on social welfare in the imperfectly competitive market. In particular, I examine the welfare properties of fragmentation from the viewpoint of industrialized countries. Firms located at a country decide whether they produce at home or move their production overseas. I show that there exists Nash equilibrium in which a...

The term ‘Overseas Chinese Phenomenon’ is used here to refer to the fact that scientists of Chinese descent play an important role in international collaboration between mainland China and the rest of the world. In this paper, we review international collaboration between ethnic Chinese scientists in eight countries – USA, England, Germany, France, Japan, Canada, Australia, and South Korea – an...

We investigate whether productivity differences explain why some manufacturers sell only to the domestic market while others serve foreign markets through exports and/or FDI. When overseas production offers no cost advantages, our model predicts that investors should be more productive than exporters. An extension allowing for low-cost foreign production can reverse this prediction. Data for 10...

How does international competition affect overseas outsourcing? While it is commonly believed that international competition enables firms to desert high cost countries in favor of low wage locations, the frequency of such responses may be reduced if the movement of outsourcing activities involves sunk costs. To put these factors in perspective, I study the production decisions of participants ...

Introduction: The State of Kuwait spends large sums of governmental funds on sending patients abroad to receive medical treatment. This study aimed to explain the rationale behind receiving primary medical care overseas, given the expense and inconvenience, from the perspective of Kuwaiti patients whose applications were approved. Methods: The survey was ...

The population reached nearly 19 million in 2000, with growth at around 1.5% per year. Migration has been a key factor in population growth and the population is culturally diverse with almost 40% either born overseas or with a parent born overseas: 91% of the population is of European descent, 7% Asian and 2% Aboriginal or other. 64% of the population live in cities and towns. Future trends po...