Informal payments and intra-household allocation of resources for health care in Albania

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Informal payments for health care services can impose financial hardship on households. Many studies have found that the position within the household can influence the decision on how much is spent on each household member. This study analyses the intra-household differences in spending on informal payments for health care services by comparing the resources allocated between household heads, spouses and children.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>Pooled data from two cross sectional surveys, the Albanian Living Standard Measurement Survey 2002 and 2005, are used to analyse both the probability and the amount paid in inpatient and outpatient health care services. A generalised Hausman specification test is used to compare the coefficients of probit and OLS models for nuclear and extended households.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>We find that due to the widespread informal payments there are no significant differences between households in the incidence of informal payments for households' members, but there are more differences in the amount paid informally. Results suggest that households strategically allocate their resources on health care by favouring individuals with higher earning potential who have invested more in human capital. Extended households pay higher amounts for spouses with higher education compared to nuclear households. On the other hand, nuclear households choose to pay higher amounts for children with a higher level of education compared to extended households.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>The differences between households should be taken into account by public policies which should compensate this by redistribution mechanisms targeting disadvantaged groups. Governments should implement effective measures to deal with informal patient payments.</p> <p><b>JEL Codes: </b>I10, I19, D10</p

Apricot flower bud dormancy: main morphological, anatomicaòl and physiological features related to winter climate influence.

Abstract: This review examines recent advances regarding flower bud dormancy in apricot, focusing on biological, anatomical, and physiological processes which occur during the induction and depth of dormancy. In a scenario of global climate change, the relationship between endodormancy and winter climate influence is discussed. Dormancy regulation is a complex process necessary for plant survival and development. In fruit species, the knowledge of mechanisms controlling dormancy and establishing its release appears crucial for successful yields. Specific studies have suggested that, when the flower buds are apparently inactive, slow and gradual changes occur in the whorls: organogenesis, such as microsporogenesis processes and vascular connections take place during the entire dormancy period. It has been indicated that an asynchronism between biological (i.e. endodormancy release, microsporogenesis evolution), anatomical (i.e. xylem vessel differentiation) and biochemical (i.e. changes in metabolic compounds and enzymes) events could represent further causes determining an inconstant rate of blooming. Temperature is the main factor involved in dormancy triggering and releasing. In the perspective of global warming, mild winter temperatures could greatly impact apricot ecological cropping systems. Phenological process-based models are considered to be the best tool to study the climatic changes and subsequent expected phenology variation (dormancy and flowering). A new model, calibrated and validated on apricot cultivars, is proposed to predict the dormancy release date in a future scenario