CONTEXT Quantitative estimates of the magnitude, direction, and rate of change of health inequalities play a crucial role in creating and assessing policies aimed at eliminating the disproportionate burden of disease in disadvantaged populations. It is generally assumed that the measurement of health inequalities is a value-neutral process, providing objective data that are then interpreted usi...

The Distribution View provides a model that integrates four 6 distributional concerns in the evaluation of risky prospects. Starting from 7 these concerns, we can generate an ordering over a set of risky prospects, 8 or, starting from an ordering, we can extract a characterization of the 9 underlying distributional concerns. Separability of States and/or Persons 10 for multiple-person risky pro...

OBJECTIVE To analyze the challenges and potentialities for the development and implementation of local public policies that focus on the relationship between the use of pesticides, the health of the rural population and the environment in tobacco producing municipalities in southern Brazil. METHODS Qualitative case study research conducted at three major tobacco producing municipalities, by m...

The interaction of monetary and fiscal policies is a crucial issue in a highly integrated economic area as the EU. In this paper we study policy cooperation. In particular, we focus on how coalitions among policy-makers are formed and what are their effects on the stabilization of output and price.

Each chapter ends with an attempt to draw conclusions on trends or developments. Interestingly, the question of trends and convergence of health policies (the authors deny that convergence actually has been shown to occur) is a recurrent theme in the book. However, when discussing the drivers of policy convergence, more attention to the effects of EU regulation and policy on member states’ heal...

In Europe, successful health policies have contributed to a continued decline in mortality. However, not all parts of Europe have benefited equally and the sustainability of achievements cannot be taken for granted since health policies vary widely even among neighbouring countries. Furthermore, there are a number of remaining public health challenges such as food and alcohol polices. We argue ...

78 BMJ | 10 JANUARY 2009 | VolUMe 338 Devolution and spending will probably be the two main health legacies of Tony Blair’s Labour government. Spending, because the historically low cost NHS received one of the greatest bursts of funding in history, with long term consequences for workforce, infrastructure, and patients; and devolution, because it created four distinct health systems just as th...

To the Editor: In the report on the spread of obesity in a social network, by Christakis and Fow­ ler, and the accompanying editorial by Barabási (July 26 issue),1,2 variables of social and economic status (SES) are not mentioned. Social networks conceal a high degree of social homogeneity — that is, people are more likely to network with people at similar income and educational levels — and we...

The rise in obesity levels in the U.S. in the past several decades has been dramatic, with serious implications for public health and the economy. Experiences in tobacco control and other public health initiatives have shown that public policy may be a powerful tool to effect structural change to alter population-level behavior. In 2007, the National Cancer Institute convened a meeting to discu...