STUDY OBJECTIVE As earlier studies have shown space-time clusters at onset of type 1 diabetes in the south east region of Sweden we investigated if there also has been any geographical clusters of diabetes in this region. DESIGN The place of residence (coordinates) at the time of diagnosis were geocoded in a geographical information system (GIS). All children diagnosed with type 1 diabetes up...

This paper contributes to the broad literature on public services contracting in two ways. First, we provide an empirical analysis of contracting decisions in the provision of welfare-to-work (WTW) services. We estimate both the WTW-contracting decisions of Dutch municipalities and their impact on the performance, measured as the fraction of Social Assistance (SA) recipients. Second, we explici...

During the 2008 financial crisis, general municipalities' across the United States began considering bankruptcy as a means for resolving systemic budget crises. This signified a substantial shift in the relationship between municipalities and Chapter 9 of the federal bankruptcy code. Until 2008, few general municipalities filed under Chapter 9. Special utility districts filed most Chapter 9 pet...

OBJECTIVE To analyze resource allocation for pharmaceutical procurement by federative entities in the Brazilian Unified Health System. METHODS The amounts allocated to purchase pharmaceuticals during 2009 in two information systems were analyzed: Siga Brasil (Follow Brazil) for national data and Sistema de Informações sobre Orçamentos Públicos em Saúde (Information System on Public Health Bud...

Explaining why the provision of public goods varies across jurisdictions is often complicated by the self-selection of jurisdictions into the population with provision authority. To address this problem we develop and estimate a multi-stage selection model in tandem with a public goods provision model. Our empirical application is to the State of California where counties are assigned primary r...

Municipalities make an important contribution to poverty alleviation and economic development, through providing free basic services (FBS) to poor households and investing in infrastructure and associated services that are critical for economic activity (National Treasury, 2008). To deliver these services effectively, municipalities rely on two important sources of revenue. One is from the nati...

BACKGROUND Female genital mutilation (FGM) is a harmful practice prevalent in 35 countries, mainly in Africa, as well as in some Middle Eastern countries and a few Asian countries. FGM comprises all procedures that involve partial or complete resection of, or other injury to, external female genitalia for non-medical reasons. The practice of FGM has spread to Western countries due to migration....