Costa-Font J. and Rico A. (2006) Devolution and the interregional inequalities in health and healthcare in Spain, Regional Studies 40, 875-887. The desirability of devolution of government responsibilities is often questioned on the grounds of regional cohesion concerns. This feature is...

In unitary states, competitive decentralisation structures can take place by increasing the visibility of politically accountable jurisdictions in certain policy responsibilities such as health care. Drawing from the Spanish decentralisation process we examine the mechanisms (and determinants)...

Health care is one of the main public policy areas in which management has been decentralised at sub-state level in Europe. However, given the complexities of health care funding, economic research into the effects of such decentralisation, and particularly into vertical and horizontal...

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to understand the determinants of quality in obstetric care and particularly why caesarean sections (CS) are experiencing unprecedented increases in developed societies. Design/methodology/approach – The paper exploits a population-based database...

The extent to which equality in the access to and the financing of health care reduces inequalities in health is a key question for health-care reform policy-making. Cross-country studies, when they exist suffer from marked comparability limitations due to data heterogeneity and differences...

Excessive preoccupation for self-image has been pointed out as an essential factor explaining food disorders. This paper draws upon Akerlof and Kranton (2000) to model how ’self-image’ and others’ appearances influence health related behaviours. We estimate the influence of ’peers’...