This study investigates whether health spending and access to services in South Africa have become more or less pro-poor over time. We find that over the post-apartheid period health spending has become significantly more pro-poor. In addition to the rising share of the health budget allocated...

Summary Using comparable, nationally representative surveys and extending the work of [Sahn, D. E., & Stifel, D. C. (2000). Poverty comparisons over time and across countries in Africa. World Development, 28(12), 2123-2155], an asset index is used to investigate changes in poverty in seven...

In light of the economic, political and social significance of the middle class for South Africa's emerging democracy, we critically examine contrasting conceptualisations of social class. We compare four rival approaches to empirical estimation of class: an occupational skill measure, a...

Existing empirical research on consumption patterns of the South African black middle class leans either on the theory of conspicuous consumption or culture-specific utility functions. This paper departs from treatment of the black middle class as a homogeneous group. By differentiating between...

This note provides an overview of South Africa's education system and learning outcomes. It reviews early childhood development, basic education, and higher education (university education and vocational training). It is a review of available research in support of the South Africa Systematic...

This paper examines the determinants of child nutritional status in seven provinces of China during the 1990s, focusing specifically on the role of two areas of public policy, namely health system reforms and the one child policy. The empirical relationship between income and nutritional status,...

This paper explores the major challenges to the sustainability of health sector financing in the countries of the Western Balkans - Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, Montenegro, Serbia and the province of Kosovo. It focuses on how the incentives created...

Providing protection against the financial risk of high out-of-pocket health spending is one of the main goals of the Philippines' health strategy. Yet, as this paper shows using eight household surveys, health spending increased by 150 percent (real) from 2000 to 2012, with the sharpest...

In December 2012, the government of the Philippines passed the Sin Tax Law (RA 10351) which restructured and raised tobacco and alcohol taxes, while earmarking 85 percent of the incremental revenues for health. Of this 85 percent, 80 percent was intended to be used to provide free health...

In recent years, the Philippines has seen a rapid expansion of health insurance coverage, especially among the poor. In particular, the implementation of the 2012 Sin Tax Law, which increased tobacco and alcohol excise tax and earmarked most of the incremental revenues for PhilHealth premium...