Resources for biodiversity conservation are severely limited, requiring strategic investment. Understanding both the economic benefits and costs of conserving ecosystems will help to allocate scarce dollars most efficiently. However, although cost-benefit analyses are common in many areas of policy, they are not typically used in conservation planning. We conducted a spatial evaluation of the c...

User fees for municipal services may generate revenue for municipalities and their utility commissions, but they are equally important as prices for those services. Pricing services at marginal cost can lead to efficient production and consumption of the service, and efficient allocation of the service when capacity limits are reached; and it can help to guide investment on an efficient basis. ...

OBJECTIVE To identify aspects of provision of total joint replacements which could be improved. DESIGN 10 month prospective study of hospital admissions and hospital costs for patients whose total joint replacement was cancelled. SETTING Information and Waiting List Unit, Musgrave Park Regional Orthopaedic Service, Belfast. PATIENTS 284 consecutive patients called for admission for total ...

Inclusion of spatially explicit information on ecosystem services in conservation planning is a fairly new practice. This study analyses how the incorporation of ecosystem services as conservation features can affect conservation of forest biodiversity and how different opportunity cost constraints can change spatial priorities for conservation. We created spatially explicit cost-effective cons...

The resource-based view on firm diversification, subsequent to Penrose (1959), has focused primarily on the fungibility of resources across domains. We make a clear analytical distinction between scale-free capabilities and those that are subject to opportunity costs and must be allocated to one use or another, thereby shifting the discourse back to Penrose’s (1959) original argument regarding ...

The objective of this study was to estimate household costs (direct medical, direct non-medical and opportunity costs) associated with outpatient consultations and inpatient admissions at three tertiary hospitals in Lao PDR (national, university and regional hospitals). Revolving drug funds are the main sources of revenue for the facilities. We used outpatient exit interviews and interviews wit...

From one election to another, crime remains one of the biggest social and political issues, and it is a favourite subject of campaign promises by politicians. Crime imposes large costs onto society which are not taken into account by official measures of well-being and happiness of the nations. In addition, crime responds to economic conditions and incentives, which is well accepted among econo...