Article history: Received 5 August 2009 Accepted 7 August 2009 China has recently unveiled an ambitious new health-care reform plan, entailing a doubling of government health spending as well as a number of concrete reforms. While the details of the plan have not yet been completely announced, we offer a preliminary assessment of how well the reform is likely to achieve its stated goal of assur...

There is more to Cuba than fabulous cigars, 1950s cars, cheap rum, and music so infectious that even a Norwegian bachelor farmer will get up and dance to it. It also happens to be a showcase for policy transformation from industrialized agriculture to a greener, sustainable agriculture. Cuba has transformed its agriculture from a low productivity, highly subsidized, high input system to one tha...

In April 2006, Massachusetts passed its third major health care access reform law since 1988. This law establishes new structures and requirements that have never been attempted by any state. Key features include a shift of federal Medicaid dollars from institutional support to individual insurance subsidies, establishment of an insurance "Connector," individual and employer responsibility, a s...

Through the use of narrative analysis, this research sought to analyze how the Catholic Church, arguably the world’s largest organization, represented itself through the use of its official online communications. Using framing and agenda-setting theories, the study examined the news subsidies of both the Vatican and U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops. The research revealed that the Catholic Ch...

The health reform plan put forth by Sen. Barack Obama (D-IL) focuses on expanding insurance coverage and provides new subsidies to individuals, small businesses, and businesses experiencing catastrophic expenses. It greatly increases the federal regulation of private insurance but does not address the core economic incentives that drive health care spending. This omission along with the very su...

Over the last twenty years we have seen an increasing use of in-work tax subsidies to encourage labor supply among low-income groups. In Sweden, a non-targeted earned income tax credit was introduced in 2007, and was reinforced in 2008, 2009 and 2010. The stated motive of the reform was to boost employment; in particular to provide incentives for individuals to go from unemployment to, at least...

Child Care Subsidy Receipt, Employment, and Child Care Choices of Single Mothers This paper examines the impact of actual subsidy receipt of single mothers on their joint employment and child care mode decisions in the post-welfare reform environment, which places a high priority on parental choice with the quality and type of care chosen. Results indicate that single mothers are highly respons...

This paper argues that a desirable health reform plan should accept some features that the Obama and McCain plans have in common, and combine other features from each of the plans. Useful combinations include the presence of both public and private options and a system of credits that are more generous for lower-income households (Obama) and creation of a system of public subsidies that is ince...

Developing countries have struggled with low electrification rates in the rural areas. This study investigates one major issue impeding the rural electrification programs in rural Kenya: high connection payments. The paper uses estimates obtained from a stated preference study, namely a contingent valuation method completed in 2007, to examine the willingness to pay to connect to grid-electrici...