Macro-level estimates of the productivity of public capital are typically larger than microlevel estimates. The evidence also shows large cross-country differences in the quality of public capital. A general equilibrium growth model is introduced to explain both facts. The productivity of firms specializing in differentiated intermediate inputs depends on public capital whose provision is subje...

Capital investment is a major concern for public hospitals. Relative to operating expenditures, it has been almost constant for 40 years, despite great changes in technology and patient throughputs. Research studies during the last decade suggest that over that time almost all investment has been on simply replacing existing assets. Per person, the total capital stock has actually declined. How...

Weaknesses in social protection and risk management systems within workplaces and in the wider public health environment and weak investment in health insurance and health services shift a significant share of the burden of production risks onto worker communities and under-funded public services. Inequality has been constructed by powerful economic and political interests and by weak policies ...

During the 1980s, the need for reduction of scal deecits lead many LDC governments to cut public investment, impose import restrictions and tighten credit. In this paper we examine the eeect of public policies on private investment in a number of LDCs, to assess whether public investment acted as a catalyst or competed for scarce resources. In order to analyze whether there are diierences among...

Concerns regarding the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) have raised awareness about the negative public health impacts of trade and investment agreements. In the past decade, we have learned much about the implications of trade agreements for public health: reduced equity in access to health services; increased flows of unhealthy commodities; limits on access to medicines; and constrained policy...

We provide an overview of the comprehensive evaluation of State Public Health Actions to Prevent and Control Diabetes, Heart Disease, Obesity and Associated Risk Factors and Promote School Health (State Public Health Actions). State Public Health Actions is a program funded by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to support the statewide implementation of cross-cutting approaches to p...

Philip Morris has recently brought claims against Australia (2011) and Uruguay (2010) under international investment agreements (IIAs). The claims allege that Philip Morris is entitled to compensation following the introduction of innovative tobacco packaging regulations to reduce smoking and prevent noncommunicable diseases (NCDs). Since tobacco control measures are often viewed as a model for...

The cost of public investment is not the value of public capital. Unlike with private investors, there is no plausible behavioral model in which every dollar that the public sector spends as “investment” creates capital in an economic sense. While this simple analytic point is obvious, it has so far been uniformly ignored in the empirical literature on economic growth which uses, at best, cumul...