Can we rely on the altruism of professionals or the public service ethos to deliver good quality health and education services? And how should patients, parents, and pupils behave - as grateful recipients or active consumers? This book provides new answers to these questions - a milestone in the...

If the objective of creating a society with opportunity for all is to be achieved, understanding the roots and impacts of social exclusion is essential. This book is the most comprehensive attempt to examine the causes of social exclusion and the policies necessary to tackle it. It is based on...

Can we rely on the altruism of professionals or the public service ethos to deliver good quality health and education services? And how should patients, parents, and pupils behave - as grateful recipients or active consumers? This book provides new answers to these questions - a milestone in the...

The paper explains the economist's concept of human capital, and uses it to analyse some of the problems raised in the Black Report on inequalities in health. Individuals are assumed to have an optimal 'stock' of health, defined as the level of stock for which the marginal benefits of further...

This paper explores the motivation and behaviour of hospitals, using data from UK hospital Trusts. Managers and consultants (hospital specialists) are identified as the main alternative sources of power within Trusts. It is hypothesised that consultants are interested in production or service...

This paper argues that issues concerning incentives and motivation are crucial to recent reforms to the British National Health Service. It examines how the incentive structure of General Practitioners with respect to the interface between primary and secondary care changed with the introduction...

This study aimed to evaluate whether subjective assessments of unmet need may complement conventional methods of measuring socioeconomic inequity in health care utilization. This study draws on the 2003 Canadian Community Health Survey to develop a conceptual framework for understanding how...