INTRODUCTION Financial access to promotive, preventive, curative and rehabilitative healthcare by every one remains a challenge globally. The requirement to make direct payments at the time of consuming health services is one of the reasons why it persists. In this paper, we present findings on the financial risks households bear as a result of healthcare consumption in one district in Uganda. ...

Based on a household survey conducted in Tbilisi, Georgia, in 2000, this paper examines current patterns of health care-seeking behaviour and the extent of out-of-pocket payments. Results show that health care services are a financial burden and that private (out-of-pocket) payment creates financial barriers to accessing health services. Members of the poorest households are less likely to seek...

Current attention to improved cook stoves (ICS) focuses on the "triple benefits" they provide, in improved health and time savings for households, in preservation of forests and associated ecosystem services, and in reducing emissions that contribute to global climate change. Despite the purported economic benefits of such technologies, however, progress in achieving large-scale adoption and us...

In this dissertation, I develop a framework to study the effects of tax-deferred saving accounts on the aggregate economy. I incorporate tax-deferred saving accounts in a theoretical model of household’s life-cycle decisions, which is then linked to the real world data by calibration. I study the effects of tax-deferred saving accounts on the aggregate savings and the aggregate output, and furt...

BACKGROUND The public sector healthcare system in Saudi Arabia, essentially financed by oil revenues and 'free at the point of delivery', is coming under increasing strain due to escalating expenditure and an increasingly volatile oil market and is likely to be unsustainable in the medium to long term. OBJECTIVES This study examines how satisfied the Saudi people are with their public sector ...

The average microenterprise in a developing country has very high marginal returns to capital (on the order of 100% annually), according to several recent studies. Financial constraints are part of the explanation for how these high returns persist. But, given these constraints, it remains to explain the limited self-financing by the households running these businesses. In particular, little is...

BACKGROUND Out-of-pocket spending (OOPS) is the major payment strategy for healthcare in Nigeria. Hence, the paper assessed the determinants socio-economic status (SES) of OOPS and strategies for coping with payments for healthcare in urban, semi-urban and rural areas of southeast Nigeria. This paper provides information that would be required to improve financial accessibility and equity in fi...