BACKGROUND Universal health coverage through the removal of financial and other barriers to access, particularly for people who are poor, is a global priority. This viewpoint describes the many pathways to catastrophic health expenditure (CHE) for patients with Acute Coronary Syndrome (ACS) based on two case studies and the thematic analysis of field notes regarding 210 patients and their house...

I analyze the relevance of debt composition (secured versus unsecured) for association between collateral and investment. study a negative shock to cost availability unsecured debt. A decrease in share leads reduction The substitution toward secured results asset encumbrance, higher interest rates, presence covenants. minimization financing costs is one mechanism through which priority impacts ...

How do firms finance large cash flow requirements? We examine this in the context of firms that are subject to substantial cash flow requirements. We find that trade credit, inventory and cash stock reductions are all important in the short term for mild requirements. Larger and longer cash flow shortages give rise to more equity than debt finance. After the shocks, firms gradually adjust their...

Consider the finance of an exogenous path of public expenditure, G(t), with taxes and public debt issues. In the absence of unexpected default, borrowing does not allow the government to escape taxes in a present-value sense. But the choices of how much to borrow and in what form affect the timing of tax collections and the ways in which these collections are contingent on economic outcomes. Th...

OBJECTIVES To estimate the present value of current and future funding needed for HIV treatment and prevention in 9 sub-Saharan African (SSA) countries that account for 70% of HIV burden in Africa under different scenarios of intervention scale-up. To analyse the gaps between current expenditures and funding obligation, and discuss the policy implications of future financing needs. DESIGN We ...

This paper examines to what extent credit ratings directly affect capital structure decisions. The paper outlines discrete costs/benefits associated with firm credit rating level differences, and tests whether concerns for these costs/benefits directly affect debt and equity financing decisions. The tests find that firms near a rating upgrade or downgrade issue less debt relative to equity than...

This paper makes use of a database of Spanish manufacturing firms to explore the effect of a firm’s ownership structure on its inventory policy. We have argued that the presence of institutional investors reduces a firm’s liquidity needs and nts overinvestment policies. This, in turn, leads to lower equilibrium inventory levels. Also, we expect, on average, ventory investment when bank-equity f...

This study examines the relationship between product differentiation and financial leverage. It argues that product differentiation is associated with investments in firm-specific assets that have lower liquidation value than general assets. Debt investors need to charge a higher interest rate to cover the risk of default, making the firm resort to equity financing and resulting in low financia...