Account of Pegu and the Voyage to Cambodia and Siam in 1718 by Alexander Hamilton, edited by Michael W. Charney

Captain Alexander Hamilton collated an account of his voyage to Cambodia and Siam in 1718 with accounts of his experiences in Pegu and elsewhere on earlier travels, as well as information he had gathered about certain other locations (such as Arakan) in his A New Account of the East Indies (Edinburgh, 1727). While the original account also included accounts of parts of the Malay world and “Cochinchina,” these have been excluded from the following text. The account begins with a brief account of Chittagong and concludes with eastern mainland Southeast Asia. Edited for the SBBR by Michael W. Charney

Palliative care declarations: mapping a new form of intervention

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The political economy of economic policy in Iraq

Since 2003, despite an abundance of resources and a more pluralistic political settlement, Iraq’s economic reform process has failed to take off. This paper explores the link between the evolution and consolidation of Iraq’s post-2003 political settlement and the way this has impacted the incentives decision-makers face when implementing economic policy. Paradoxically, the fact that the settlement has accommodated more groups than its repressive predecessor has not resulted in more inclusive, long-term oriented and programmatic economic decision-making. This is because the inclusion of more (elite) groups reflects the fact that more actors can now generate violence if they are not placated with state-generated rents. Consequently, Iraq’s political transition has exacerbated incentives for decision-makers to pursue more short-termist policies that have diverted resources away from long-term productive investments and reconstruction, and towards a focus on satisfying ethnic and religious clientelist networks. Transitioning away from this modus operandi will require patient and opportunistic economic reforms that slowly create new pressures on political actors to support the delivery of public goods and a policy environment more conducive to private sector growth

The Path Less Traveled: A Natural Law Critique of Justice Holmes’ Path of the Law

American law and jurisprudence fail to solve fundamental problems in our country. Every lawyer and judge practices, knowingly or unknowingly, from a particular philosophy of law. Much of the practice of law in the United States is rooted in the thought of Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr. Holmes taught that law was not grounded in morality and logic, but rather the pragmatic rulings of judges. Our law schools and courts today follow Holmes in defining law as merely what a judge says it is. This Comment argues that Justice Holmes’ definition of law was fundamentally flawed and his jurisprudence should not be followed. Using the teaching of St. Thomas Aquinas, the author asserts that natural law jurisprudence, understood in the Thomistic tradition, proves Holmes to be wrong about law and provides a proper understanding of law that can build a just society

Is demography destiny? The economic implications of Iraq's demography

This paper examines the fiscal and economic implications of Iraq’s current demographic trajectory. We find that, given Iraq’s almost total dependence on oil for government revenues, slight changes in the demographic transition rate could result in significant cumulative per capita expenditure changes- equivalent to $2.9bn, or approximately 7% of the current health budget, 9% of the current defence budget, or 17% of current aid flows. Furthermore, evidence from the entire Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region, suggests that Iraq’s relatively slow demographic transition is reducing per capita economic growth, especially as it is combined with a hostile business environment. Specifically, using a panel dataset, we find that the interactive effect of a 1% decrease in the dependency ratio and a 1% decrease in the unit costs of starting and running a business could add, on average, 1.2% to GDP per capita in a typical MENA country. Therefore, investing in Iraq’s demographic transition could potentially yield significant economic returns. This is especially pertinent if the COVID-19 induced recession results in a significant increase in the budget deficit. As reducing demographic momentum will be equivalent to a per capita increase in resources available for basic services. Evidence from other MENA countries, especially neighbouring Iran, suggests that interventions that support a faster demographic transition, by promoting reproductive rights, are feasible to implement and could, therefore, have quite a profound effect on future economic growth

The political economy of healthcare litigation : model and empirical application to Uruguay

The political economy of health care is complex, as stakeholders have conflicting preferences over efficiency and equity. This paper formally models the preferences of consumer and producer groups involved in priority setting and judicialization in public health care. It uses a unique dataset of stakeholder perceptions, from Uruguay, to test whether these hypotheses are consistent with empirical evidence. The results suggest that the expectations of the political economy literature are supported: 1) regulators of public healthcare are less concerned with efficiency considerations than consumers; and 2) less organized groups are more concerned about equity than more organized interest groups. With respect to the consequences of health litigation, the findings are only partially consistent with the health care governance literature. Consumers perceive litigation as more beneficial than health care providers and regulators do. Counter-intuitively, powerful interest groups seem less willing to use litigation to shape policy outcomes.Health Systems Development&Reform,Health Monitoring&Evaluation,Health Economics&Finance,Economic Theory&Research,Population Policies