Empirical studies of the effects of intergovernmental grants to localities do not support standard microeconomic predictions. Block grants have surprisingly large positive effects on public expenditures. Researchers have attributed this quot;flypaper effectquot; to imperfect information (fiscal...

This paper is based on the classification of healthcare services and public health actions in light of some fundamental principles of public economics. Specifically, public health actions can be regarded as a public good while healthcare services seem to be a private good. This difference should...

The authors empirically study factors that influence public investment in transportation and communication infrastructure. Using data for 1980-86 for 27 economies, they assess the influence of government objectives, the nature of the domestic economy, and the external assistance flow on public...

Many health care reform proposals expand insurance coverage without fundamentally changing the structure of health insurance. The stay-well plan used in Mendocino County, California, since 1979, offers an alternative insurance structure that provides direct incentives for consumers to control...

The endogenous relationship between income-per-worker (Y) and product price (E') under labor management or, more broadly, market syndicalism, causes P to play a critical role in clearing product and labor markets. The level of P that clears the product market, however, may differ from the level...

Regional integration proposals often require agreements between countries that differ in geographic size, resource endowments, transportation assets, technologies, and product quality. In this asymmetric setting, questions arise about the potential for mutual gains and the distribution of...

All countries - whether industrial, developing, or in transition to a market economy - are interested in health care reform. A central focus of reform everywhere is to make patients more responsive to health care costs without diluting the protection offered by public or private insurance....