We analyze the importance of Internal Revenue Service (IRS) monitoring to equity pricing in U.S. public firms. Our strong, robust evidence from large samples implies that equity financing is cheaper when the threat of an IRS audit is higher, enabling investors to learn more about the firm. Reflecting its first-order economic impact, our coefficient estimates translate into the cost of equity ca...

We apply theories of capital market failure to analyze optimal financing of risky higher education. In the market solution, students can only finance their education through debt. There is underinvestment in human capital, because some students with socially profitable investments in human capital will not invest in education due to adverse selection problems in debt markets and because insuran...

BACKGROUND Equity in health care entails payment for health services according to the capacity to pay and the receipt of benefits according to need. In Uganda, as in many African countries, although equity is extolled in government policy documents, not much is known about who pays for, and who benefits from, health services. This paper assesses both equity in the financing and distribution of ...

There is wide debate over the causes and ultimate importance of the pecking order and debt conservatism to firm financing decisions. We argue that these empirical patterns are not driven solely by firmand market level variation, but are also linked to individual managerial characteristics. We relate the reluctance of (some) managers to access external capital markets, and particularly equity ma...

BACKGROUND Equitable financing is a key objective of health care systems. Its importance is evidenced in policy documents, policy statements, the work of health economists and policy analysts. The conventional categorisations of finance sources for health care are taxation, social health insurance, private health insurance and out-of-pocket payments. There are nonetheless increasing variations ...

BACKGROUND Nigeria and Ghana have recently introduced a National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS) with the aim of moving towards universal health care using more equitable financing mechanisms. This study compares health and economic indicators, describes the structure of each country's NHIS within the wider healthcare system, and analyses impacts on equity in financing and access to health care....

In 2014, a series of reforms, called as the Health Sector Evolution Plan (HSEP), was launched in the health system of Iran in a stepwise process. HSEP was mainly based on the fifth 5-year health development national strategies (2011-2016). It included different interventions to: increase population coverage of basic health insurance, increase quality of care in the Ministry of Health and Medica...

Equity in healthcare in British Columbia is defined as the provision of services based on need rather than ability to pay and a separation of contributions to financing from the use of services. Physician and hospital services in Canada are financed mainly through general tax revenues, and there is a perception that this financing is progressive. This paper uses Gini coefficients, concentration...