How has internal migration in Albania affected the receipt of transfers from family and friends?

Social networks of family and friends are very important in providing economic and social support to households. The massive internal migration flows towards the big cities in the transition countries like Albania can seriously affect such networks, and influence the support received. Previous migration studies have analysed mostly the transfers between the migrant and the family left behind. This study analyses households that migrate together to the peripheries of Tirana (Albania) after the fall of the communist regime. The frequencies of transfers received before and after migration are used to test the change in the composition of transfers and the substitution of family members by friends after migrating. The empirical analysis shows that households receive fewer transfers after migration, but financial transfers increase. Friends become increasingly more important after migration, substituting for transfers from siblings and more distant family relatives.kinship networks; internal migration; Albania; inter-household transfers

How has internal migration in Albania affected the receipt of transfers from family and friends?

Social networks of family and friends are very important in providing economic and social support to households. The massive internal migration flows towards the big cities in the transition countries like Albania can seriously affect such networks, and influence the support received. Previous migration studies have analysed mostly the transfers between the migrant and the family left behind. This study analyses households that migrate together to the peripheries of Tirana (Albania) after the fall of the communist regime. The frequencies of transfers received before and after migration are used to test the change in the composition of transfers and the substitution of family members by friends after migrating. The empirical analysis shows that households receive fewer transfers after migration, but financial transfers increase. Friends become increasingly more important after migration, substituting for transfers from siblings and more distant family relatives

How has internal migration in Albania affected the receipt of transfers from family and friends?

Social networks of family and friends are very important in providing economic and social support to households. The massive internal migration flows towards the big cities in the transition countries like Albania can seriously affect such networks, and influence the support received. Previous migration studies have analysed mostly the transfers between the migrant and the family left behind. This study analyses households that migrate together to the peripheries of Tirana (Albania) after the fall of the communist regime. The frequencies of transfers received before and after migration are used to test the change in the composition of transfers and the substitution of family members by friends after migrating. The empirical analysis shows that households receive fewer transfers after migration, but financial transfers increase. Friends become increasingly more important after migration, substituting for transfers from siblings and more distant family relatives

EFFECTS OF HEALTH INSURANCE ON LABOUR SUPPLY: A SYSTEMATIC REVIEW

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to provide a systematic review of empirical evidence on the labour market effects of health insurance from the supply side. Design/methodology/approach – The study covers the largest peer-reviewed and working paper databases for labour economics and health studies. These include Web of Science, Google Scholar, Pubmed and the most popular economics working paper sources such as NBER, ECONSTOR, IDEAS, IZA, SSRN, World Bank Working Paper Series. The authors follow the PRISMA 2009 protocol for systematic reviews. Findings – The collection includes 63 studies. The outcomes of interest are the number of hours worked, the probability of employment, self-employment and the level of economic formalisation. The authors find that the current literature is vastly concentrated on the USA. Spousal coverage in the USA is associated with reduced labour supply of secondary earners. The effect of Medicaid in the USA on the labour supply of its recipients is ambiguous. The employment-coverage link is an important determinant of the labour supply of people with health problems and self-employment decisions. Universal coverage may create either an incentive or a disincentive to work depending on the design of the system. Finally, evidence on the relationship between health insurance and the level of economic formalisation in developing countries is fragmented and limited. Practical implications – This study reviews the existing literature on the labour market effects of health insurance from the supply side. The authors find a large knowledge gap in emerging economies where health coverage is expanding. The authors also highlight important literature gaps that need to be filled in different themes of the topic. Originality/value – This is the first systematic review on the topic which is becoming increasingly relevant for policy makers in developing countries where health coverage is expandin

Response to Letter to the Editor Regarding "Abiraterone Acetate for the Treatment of Chemotherapy-Naive Metastatic Castration-Resistant Prostate Cancer: An Evidence Review Group Perspectiveaof a NICE Single Technology Appraisal"

This project was funded by the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) Health Technology Assessment (HTA) Programm

Abiraterone Acetate for the Treatment of Chemotherapy-Naive Metastatic Castration-Resistant Prostate Cancer: An Evidence Review Group Perspective of an NICE Single Technology Appraisal

This project was funded by the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) Health Technology Assessment (HTA) Programme (see the HTA programme website for further project information [http://www.hta.ac.uk])

Catastrophic and impoverishing effects of out-of-pocket payments for health care in Albania: evidence from Albania Living Standards Measurement Surveys 2002, 2005 and 2008

The absence of or poorly functioning risk pooling mechanisms and high amounts of out-of-pocket payments for health care expose households to financial risks associated with major illnesses or accidents. The aim of this article is to analyse the extent to which out-of-pocket health spending impoverishes households in Albania. The study augments existing evidence by analysing the dynamics of such payments over different years and the weight that informal payments have in the total out-of-pocket health spending. The data used in the study come from the Albania Living Standards Measurement Survey (ALSMS) for 2002, 2005 and 2008. We measure headcount catastrophic payments using different thresholds and the decomposition of indicators by expenditure quintiles to better understand their effects. We find that out-of-pocket and informal payments have increased in real value throughout the years. Even though their catastrophic effect has gone down (due also to declining trends in absolute poverty), the effect for the poorest expenditure quintiles remains high. Out-of-pocket payments deepen the poverty headcount and also enlarge the poverty gap and again the effect is larger for the poorest quintiles. Future policy interventions should provide better protection mechanisms for the poor by providing exemption criteria or subsidized transport. They should also seek to address the widespread informal payments in the country

Additional file 1: of Informal care and gifts to and from older people in Europe: The interlinks between giving and receiving

Table S1. Descriptive Statistics: The incidence of giving and receiving care and financial help by country. Table S2. Selected coefficients of the multinomial regression model for selected variables on transfers from and to children. Table S3. Selected coefficients of the multinomial regression model for selected variables – Wave 5 of SHARE data. Table S4. Selected coefficients of the multinomial regression model for the pooled data. Table S5. Coefficients of the multinomial regression model for the multinomial logistic model with random effects– Wave 4 and 5 of SHARE data. Table S6. Full results for the multinomial regression model for transfers from and to children. (DOCX 73 kb