WILLINGNESS TO PAY FOR DRINKING WATER CONNECTIONS:THE CASE OF LARESTAN, IRAN

Water scarcity in Iran has reached a level that calls for the attention of all stakeholders including water consumers. While government as water distributor has made significant efforts in managing water at the supply side, an annual average rainfall of 251 mm (Iran Meteorological Organization, 2008) limits the capacity of this supply-side approach. As a result, policy efforts have increasingly turned towards demand management approaches. The objective of this paper is to estimate drinking tap water demand for the households in Larestan. We determine the willingness to pay (WTP) for drinking taps water connections by the Larestan’s households, using contingent valuation method (CVM). We use data from 320 randomly selected households in Larestan, Iran. Our findings show that, once drinking tap water connected, the households are willing to pay US$0.24 on average in addition to their monthly charge for per cubic meter water consumed.willingness to pay (WTP), contingent valuation method (CVM), tap water demand, Larestan, demand-side approach.

Seeking the Ideal of Universalism within Norway’s Social Reality

How much inequality in policy instruments can a universalist welfare state tolerate in its pursuit of equity? This article reviews the nuances of universalism as a concept through examination of its meaning and application in Norwegian health policy, with a contextual focus on migrant maternal health in Norway. The Nordic welfare model is generous and dedicated to achieving equality through the universal provision of social services; however, there are increasing gray areas that challenge the system, invoking the conundrum of equality versus equity. Universalism is a central principle in Norwegian health policy, however changes in the socio-political environment have meant the concept as originally conceived requires a more nuanced articulation. Population changes in particular, such as a growing and diverse migrant settlement, present challenges for how to achieve the equality desired by universalist measures, while maintaining the equity demanded by diversity. This article uses an example of a Norwegian program that delivers maternal health services to migrant women to question the concept of universalism as a theoretical and practical construct, as historically and currently applied in Norwegian health policy. This example illustrates how healthcare as an organization functions in the country, and the role of its key players in adapting policy instruments to meet the Norwegian welfare state’s universal policy aims. The scholarly contribution of this article lies in promoting a critical reflection on the evolving definition of universalism, and in contributing to a discussion on the need to retheorize the concept in Norwegian health policy to attain equity

Return Predictability of Stock Price Index in Tehran Stock Exchange

The question of whether asset price changes are predictable has long been the subject of many studies. Many studies, using historical returns based on random walk tests, have shown that stock return is not predictable. We study return predictability of the Tehran Exchange Price Index (TEPIX) based on monthly data from 2000 to 2011. For forecasting the return, we used a recursive estimation method in which the parameter estimates were updated recursively in light of new weekly observations, and also its regressors were changed recursively according to the Schwarz Bayesian Criterion. The results show that the daily stock returns are not predictable using publicly available information

Imperfections of a Perfect State: A social policy analysis of the provisions of maternal health services for migrant women in Norway - A case study on Stavanger

Master's thesis in Social Work with Families and ChildrenBackground: The increasing ethno-cultural diversity in European societies has posed new challenges for their health and welfare systems. As of January 2017, migrants constitute 16.8% of Norway’s total population (SSB, 2017a). Studies show that despite the availability of maternal care and legal migrant women’s right to access reproductive health services in most European countries, including Norway, migrant women have been found to exhibit different perinatal outcomes, and patterns of antenatal care utilization compared to non-migrant women (Dejin-Karlsson & Östergren, 2004; Rechel et al., 2011c). Migrants are affected by an array of challenges that might act as barriers to attaining good health outcomes, even in an egalitarian society like Norway. Socio-economic inequalities are the most prominent issues discussed in policy for addressing barriers to access. Although they are important they tend to overshadow more nuanced factors such as linguistic and/ or ethno-cultural barriers for targeting inequalities. My literature search revealed that there is an inadequate body of research exploring the effects of more implicit and informal social determinants such as ethnicity and culture linked to migrant health. Although some studies acknowledged them as determining factors, none analyzed or evaluated how they have been addressed in policy. Therefore, it became the aim of this study to contribute to this knowledge gap by exploring: 1. How has health policy in Norway recognized and addressed barriers that affect migrant and refugee women’s access to maternal health services? 2. How have these policies enabled accessibility and acceptability of maternal health services to migrant and refugee women? Methods: I developed an instrumental case study using the provisions of maternal health care in Stavanger to illustrate Norwegian health policy. I analyzed the data using a policy analysis framework before subjecting them to further critique, using my conceptual framework containing four theories for understanding. Results: There is a contradiction in the assumption that universal provision enables equal and effective access. Norway’s universalistic approach to health policy has inadvertently resulted in a degree of ambiguity in the ethos of equity and equality, which has overlooked intricate determinants of health at the micro level of society. Consequently, this has led to the formation of loopholes in the theoretically equitable healthcare system, through which a fraction of population, particularly people from migrant and refugee backgrounds fall. Hence, this approach to equity imposes weakness to the principle of universalism and further deepens inequality. Conclusions: It is time to challenge the underlying principles of health policy to elicit realization of inequality and induce action for promoting equity by addressing the needs of a diversifying society through multidisciplinary interventions and targeted approaches to universalism

Health Expenditure and Economic growth: An ARDL Approach for the Case of Iran

This paper examines the relationship between health expenditure and economic growth in Iran for the period 1970-2007, based on the autoregressive distributed lag (ARDL) approach. The study finds a cointegrating relationship among real GDP, health expenditure, capital stock, oil revenues and education, although among them, health spending explains just a small part of the economic growth. The results indicate that while health care expenditures are among the most important factors in the lowering of infant mortality, they do not make a significant marginal contribution to the economic growth in Iran. This findings call for pressing reforms and improved allocation of resources in health sector

The Relationship between Non-Oil Trade and GDP in Petroleum Exporting Countries

This paper investigates the causal relationship between non-oil international trade and the GDP in a panel of 11 selected oil exporting countries by using panel unit root tests and panel cointegration analysis. A three-variable model is formulated with oil revenues as the third variable. The results show a strong causality from oil revenues and economic growth to trade in the oil exporting countries. Yet, non-oil trade does not have any significant effects on GDP in short- and long-run. It means that it is the oil and GDP that drives the trade in mentioned countries, not vice versa. According to the results, decision makings should be employed to achieve sustainable growth through higher productivity and substantially enlarging the economic base diversification in the future

Pollution, Energy Consumption and Economic Growth: evidence from India, China and Brazil

This paper examines the relationships between the energy consumption, GDP growth and emission, using Panel Smooth Transition Regression (PSTR) model for BRIC countries over the period 1960 –2006. Our results reveal that environmental quality in these countries has increasingly suffered from high energy consumption. Moreover, rapid economic growth and international trade in energy intensive goods have progressively increased energy consumption. This suggests that excessively high economic growth is a curse for environmental quality and energy conservation policies to reduce unnecessary wastage of energy should be kicked off for energy-dependent BRIC countries

How universal is universal health care? A policy analysis of the provision of maternal health care for immigrant women in Norway

Doctoral thesis (PhD) - Nord University, 2022publishedVersio

Imperfections of a perfect state: a social policy analysis of the provisions of maternal health services in Norway: a case study on Stavanger

The increasing ethno-cultural diversity in European societies has posed new challenges for their health and welfare systems. As of January 2017, migrants constitute 16.8% of Norway’s total population (Statistics Norway, 2017). Studies show that despite the availability of maternal care and legal migrant women’s right to access reproductive health services in most European countries, including Norway, migrant women have been found to exhibit different perinatal outcomes, and patterns of antenatal care utilization compared to non-migrant women (Dejin-Karlsson & Östergren, 2004; Rechel et al., 2011c). Migrants are affected by an array of challenges that might act as barriers to attaining good health outcomes, even in an egalitarian society like Norway. Socio-economic inequalities are the most prominent issues discussed in policy for addressing barriers to access. Although they are important they tend to overshadow more nuanced factors such as linguistic and/ or ethno-cultural barriers for targeting inequalities. My literature search revealed that there is an inadequate body of research exploring the effects of more implicit and informal social determinants such as ethnicity and culture linked to migrant health. Although some studies acknowledged them as determining factors, none analyzed or evaluated how they have been addressed in policy. Thereof, it became the aim of this study to contribute to this knowledge gap by exploring: 1. How has health policy in Norway recognized and addressed barriers that affect migrant and refugee women’s access to Maternal Health services? 2. How have these policies enabled accessibility and acceptability of Maternal Health services to migrant and refugee women