United Kingdom academic Ellen Annandale, in The sociology of health and medicine, argues that “nonphysician providers can sometimes deliver a comparable service at lower cost. This is fostered by specialization which permits knowledge to be broken down into smaller tasks which can be undertaken by less skilled workers.” And these workers’ time has come! Task substitution is now touted as a cure...

The U.S. airline industry went through tremendous turmoil in the early 2000’s. There were four major bankruptcies and two major mergers, with all legacy carriers reporting a large profit reduction. This paper presents a structural model of the airline industry, and estimates the impact of demand and supply changes on profitability. We find that, compared with the late 1990s, in 2006, a) air-tra...

Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini urged Iranians yesterday to rejoice in their final break with the “ world-devouring plunder’’ America, and the Tehran gov­ ernment began mobilizing the people for a “ holy war” of belt-tightening and possible rationing to grapple with econ­ omic woes. President Abolhassan BaniSadr declared there was “ no reason to worry” about the U.S. econom ic em bargo ag a in st I...

Kenneth Mayer and Chris Beyrer’s Comment (July 27, p 287) on WHO’s new guidelines for antiretroviral therapy frames as all but inevitable “treatment as prevention”, now embraced by WHO. Absent from the gathering momentum for massive expansion of antiretroviral drug use is discussion of at least three important issues. First, problems of delivery of and adherence to lifelong treatment are acknow...