In this study, we introduced the concept of the integrated healthcare system into budget allocation decisions and analysed the potential improvement in healthcare performance by reallocating the budget among the preventive care, medical care and long-term care services. We have applied an...

With the goal of extending the New Public Management perspective by focusing on the play of vested interests and power, our study examines the active agency of a single company contracting with local and state governments to implement a Tax Incremental Financing (TIF) programme. Extending beyond...

The first part of this paper gives an overview on the difficult preconditions of a European social policy by analysing the different models of market economies ('varieties of capitalism'), types of welfare states and systems of labour relations within the EU. These different types of market...

Over the past 30 years, considerable use has been made by the French government of contract-based arrangements for implementing vocational training and employment policies. Three major types of contracts have been used: 'meta-contracts' that bind governments at state and regional levels;...

This qualitative research using the focus group approach has gathered pertinent perceptions from the stakeholders in Chinese elderly care environment, including community-based and institutionalised elderly, medical providers, administrators and governmental officials. The study found that the...

The development of Regional Health Information Organizations (RHIOs) has become an important priority for policymaking in the USA. These development efforts have focused primarily on data exchange. In this paper, we propose the use of a research approach, based on knowledge networks and...

This paper examines the phenomenon of international R%D collaboration in the form of cross-national patenting. Using a unique dataset on patents from the USPTO for a maximum of 125 countries over the period 1975-2005, we show that, despite the potential for technological advancement arising from...

Climate change produces future risks and increasing climate variability produces current risks. Reducing disaster risk is addressed at the national level using approaches usually developed by the United Nations. These approaches, particularly in the developed world, address resilience building...

The interaction between the competition policy and regulatory reform has attracted the attention of specialists and policymakers in recent years. The topics covered include the interface between competition and the regulatory authorities (the division of labour and coordination mechanisms) and...

This paper shows how complexity theory can better enable hospitals to prepare for bioterrorism events. It briefly explains the major theoretical dimensions of complexity theory and Complex Adaptive Systems (CAS) and shows how healthcare is best viewed as a CAS. It then looks at the specific...