Despite the fact that after the second half of the 1990s studies of financial exclusion have gained strength among the studies about poverty and regional and social inequalities, a few studies about this problem had appear in the Brazilian economic literature. The present work contributes to the...

This paper aims to provide insights for the development of a study based on utilization rates on health services. The following topics are addressed: (1) the motivation for the study of health services utilization rates ; (2) utilization rates of public health services in light of demographic...

The aim of this paper is to present healthcare expenditures indicators of the private healthcare system in Brazil. We use administrative records of a healthcare insurance company that provide collective contracts to its employees. The indicators are classified according to the type of healthcare...

In this paper we investigate the concentration in health insurance sector in Brazil. In order to conduct this analysis it is necessary to establish the definition of relevant market in product and geographical dimensions. In this paper we apply a methodology based on gravitation models to define...

Antenatal care encompasses a broad spectrum of clinical procedures and care provided to pregnant women. Ideally, all pregnant women should have proper access to effective antenatal care irrespective of their social, economic, cultural and geographical background. This paper investigates the...

Brazil presents severe socioeconomic inequalities among regions and individuals. Several studies analyze the determinants of these inequalities and its effects on social welfare indicators, such as health. This paper measures the socioeconomic inequalities in healthcare utilization in Brazil and...

To elicit preference weights for a subset of EuroQol five-dimensional (EQ-5D) questionnaire health states from a representative sample for the state of Minas Gerais, Brazil, using a time trade-off (TTO) method and to analyze these data so as to estimate social preference weights for the complete...

The health sector is one of the most dynamic sectors of the economy having major impacts on levels of social welfare. On the one hand the consumption of goods and health services directly affects the welfare of the individual to the extent that health is a parameter of the individual utility...

This paper investigates the impact of a conditional cash transfer on child nutritional status in Brazil. We use data from "Bolsa Família" Research Impact Evaluation. "Bolsa Família" is a conditional cash transfer program focused on Brazilian poor families. In order to evaluate the average...

This article undertakes an economic evaluation of Fica Vivo Program in the slum of Morro das Pedras in Belo Horizonte. The cost-effectiveness and cost-benefit analyses were run for the 2004-2006 period. The costs were accounted based on information by the Social Defense Secretary (SEDS) and the...