One of the central interests of modern public finance theory is the implication of decentralization for the equity and efficiency of public services. It is therefore somewhat surprising that health policy in the UK and elsewhere is formulated with hardly any reference to this theory and the associated empirical evidence. The purpose of this paper is to examine the relevance of mainstream public...

OBJECTIVE To identify trends and to describe the impact of health care decentralization on health financing policies in Mexico. METHODS The study population comprised four states selected according with six technical criteria: socioeconomic development, implementation of decentralization process, database on economical features, data consistency and reliability, and technical support from a m...

introduction: in spite of the vast improvement in the area of mental health care delivery in this country, very little attention has been given to the mental health registry. considering the absence of an appropriate national mental health registry system in iran, the purpose of the present study was to formulate a preliminary model for mental health registry in iran. methods: in this comparati...

This article addresses several issues pertinent to health systems governance for health equity. It argues the importance of health systems using measures of positive health (well-being), discriminating in favour of historically less advantaged groups and weighing the costs of health care against investments in the social determinants of health. It cautions that the concept of governance could w...

The Province of the Punjab underwent a number of attempts to decentralize the health sector in the 1990s. Among the most important were the decentralization of financial management within the district, the Sheikhupura PHC Pilot Project, the establishment of the District Health Authorities and District Health Management Teams, the creation of semi-autonomous hospitals and the programme of Distri...

ence of three East Asian countries from the perspective of how well they have addressed the special features and requirements of the health sector. These features include the substantial role of externalities, the high degree of specialization, the critical role of quality and timeliness, and the high level of knowledge required to participate in the health care system at all levels. These char...

One of the limitations of cross-country health expenditure analysis refers to the fact that the financing, the internal organization and political restraints of health care decision-making are country-specific and heterogeneous. Yet, a way through is to examine the influence of such effects in those countries that have undertaken decentralization processes. In such a setting, it is possible to ...