OBJECTIVES To document how out-of-pocket health expenditure can lead to debt in a poor rural area in Cambodia. METHODS After a dengue epidemic, 72 households with a dengue patient were interviewed to document health-seeking behaviour, out-of-pocket expenditure, and how they financed such expenditure. One year later, a follow-up visit investigated how the 26 households with an initial debt had...

INTRODUCTION For many years political and professional concerns have centred on the health service access of Norway's modern Indigenous Sami people. Thirty years ago, a study determined that a low rate of health expenditure on Sami patients had lead to inferior health services for the Sami people, with their average consultation rate 6 times lower than the Norwegian national average. Since 1980...

Pacific Economic Bulletin Volume 21 Number 2 2006 © Asia Pacific Press The paper discusses how the principal-agent theory of economics may provide a suitable analytical framework and interesting lessons for the targeting of public expenditure management reforms in Pacific island economies. Elisabeth Paul is FNRS Research Fellow, University of Liège. Lessons from principal-agent theory for publi...

Empirical evidence suggests that macroeconomic growth in India is not correlated with any substantial reductions in the prevalence of child undernutrition over time. This study investigates the two commonly hypothesized pathways through which macroeconomic growth is expected to reduce child undernutrition: (1) an increase in public developmental expenditure and (2) a reduction in aggregate inco...