Patient and user choice are at the forefront of the debate on the future direction of health and public services provision in many industrialized countries in Europe and elsewhere. It is used both, as a means to achieve desired policy goals in public health care systems such as greater efficiency and improved quality of care, and as a good with its own intrinsic value. However, the evidence sug...

OBJECTIVES To identify if older adults have equitable access to health services in four major Latin American cities and to determine if the inequities that are found follow the patterns of economic inequality in each of the four nations studied. METHODS Data from persons age 60 and over in the cities of São Paulo, Brazil (n = 2,143); Santiago, Chile (n = 1,301); Mexico City, Mexico (n = 1,247...

This study assembles a geographic information system (GIS) to relate the 2000 census population (demand) with an inventory of health facilities (supply). It assesses the equity in access to health care by Costa Ricans and the impact on it by the ongoing reform of the health sector. It uses traditional measurements of access based on the distance to the closest facility and proposes a more compr...

building retailer equity increases revenue and profitability by insulating retailers from competitors. store image is the basis of retailer equity, but extant literature offers little in sight in to the empirical research which takes store image dimensions as antecedents of retailer equity. this paper establishes a theoretical and empirical basis that shows the impact of selected store image di...

Background: Crowdfunding has risen rapidly as a way of raising funds to support projects such as art projects, charity projects, and new ventures. It is very important to understand how crowds in the crowdfunding market are organized to carry out various activities. This study documents and compares two crowd designs for crowdfunding, namely pure crowds, where all crowd members participate as e...

INTRODUCTION Despite widespread gains toward the 5th Millennium Development Goal (MDG), pro-rich inequalities in reproductive health (RH) and maternal health (MH) are pervasive throughout the world. As countries enter the post-MDG era and strive toward UHC, it will be important to monitor the extent to which countries are achieving equity of RH and MH service coverage. This study explores how e...