Medical practice variation (MPV) is marked, apparently ubiquitous across the health sector, well documented, and continues to be a focus of professional and policy interest. MPV have stimulated two paths of investigation, one economic in emphasis and the other more clinical in orientation; while...

Objectives To assess micro-simulation for testing policy options under demographic ageing.Methods Individual-level data were drawn from the New Zealand Health Survey (1996/7 and 2002/3), a national survey of ambulatory care in New Zealand (2001/2), and the Australian National Health Survey...

In this paper I consider the role of empirical industrial organization (IO) in competition policy. In particular, I consider the effect of the institutional setting in which competition policy is developed on the diffusion of ideas and techniques emerging from the empirical IO literature. In...

This paper explores the implications of using two methodological approaches to study poverty dynamics in rural Bangladesh. Using data from a unique longitudinal study, we show how different methods lead to very different assessments of socio-economic mobility. We suggest five ways of reconciling...

Did the rise in anti-American sentiment caused by the Iraq war affect sales of US goods abroad? We address this question using data on soft drink and fabric detergent sales in nine Arab countries. We find a statistically significant negative impact of the war on sales of US soft drinks in seven...

This paper explores long-term effects of microfinance, educational transfers and agricultural interventions within life-trajectories in rural Bangladesh. More than one-half of respondents had used microfinance for some kind of income-generating activity in their lives. For 18 per cent it was an...

The article attempts to reopen a discussion about the legacy of the English labor economists. In the past they have been essentially seen as utopian radicals who predated Marx in certain respects but were superseded by his mature analysis. The authors claim that it is important to re-examine the...