Electoral goals and center-state transfers : a theoretical model and empirical evidence from India

We construct a model of redistributive politics where the central government is opportunistic and uses its discretion to make transfers to state governments on the basis of political considerations. These considerations are the alignment between the incumbent parties at the central and state levels and whether a state is a swing state or not. A testable prediction from the model is that a state that is both swing and aligned with the central government is especially likely to receive higher transfers. We test this prediction using Indian data for 14 states from 1974–75 to 1996–97. We find that a state which is both aligned and swing in the last state election is estimated to receive 16% higher transfers than a state which is unaligned and non-swing

Ley N. 19.253 (1993) Ley Indigena

General law on indigenous peoples, which sets rules on the protection and promotion of indigenous development. It affects projects that are intended to be developed on indigenous territories, which must consider, apart from environmental obligations, consultations with indigenous groups, approvals and additional compensation

Feeling Safe in the Dark : Examining the Effect of Entrapment, Lighting Levels, and Gender on Feelings of Safety and Lighting Policy Acceptability

This research examined to what extent physical factors, notably lighting and entrapment (blocked escape), and individual factors, notably gender, affect feelings of safety and the acceptability of reduced lighting levels. The authors reasoned that acceptability of reduced street lighting depends on perceived safety, which in turn depends on entrapment, lighting, and gender. Virtual representations of a residential street were used, systematically manipulating entrapment and lighting levels. As expected, people felt less safe in lower lighting and higher entrapment settings, and these settings were evaluated as less acceptable. Although women perceived a situation as less safe compared with men, the authors found no gender differences in acceptability, which extends previous research. Importantly, as hypothesized, perceived safety mediated the effect of lighting on acceptability levels, suggesting that people can accept lower lighting levels when social safety is not threatened

Equity in health care financing: The case of Malaysia

Background: Equitable financing is a key objective of health care systems. Its importance is evidenced in policy documents, policy statements, the work of health economists and policy analysts. The conventional categorisations of finance sources for health care are taxation, social health insurance, private health insurance and out-of-pocket payments. There are nonetheless increasing variations in the finance sources used to fund health care. An understanding of the equity implications would help policy makers in achieving equitable financing. Objective: The primary purpose of this paper was to comprehensively assess the equity of health care financing in Malaysia, which represents a new country context for the quantitative techniques used. The paper evaluated each of the five financing sources (direct taxes, indirect taxes, contributions to Employee Provident Fund and Social Security Organization, private insurance and out-of-pocket payments) independently, and subsequently by combined the financing sources to evaluate the whole financing system. Methods: Cross-sectional analyses were performed on the Household Expenditure Survey Malaysia 1998/99, using Stata statistical software package. In order to assess inequality, progressivity of each finance sources and the whole financing system was measured by Kakwani's progressivity index. Results: Results showed that Malaysia's predominantly tax-financed system was slightly progressive with a Kakwani's progressivity index of 0.186. The net progressive effect was produced by four progressive finance sources (in the decreasing order of direct taxes, private insurance premiums, out-of-pocket payments, contributions to EPF and SOCSO) and a regressive finance source (indirect taxes). Conclusion: Malaysia's two tier health system, of a heavily subsidised public sector and a user charged private sector, has produced a progressive health financing system. The case of Malaysia exemplifies that policy makers can gain an in depth understanding of the equity impact, in order to help shape health financing strategies for the nation

Understanding Community Colleges in the Indian Context

Peer Reviewedhttps://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/136494/1/cc20242.pdfhttps://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/136494/2/cc20242_am.pd

Relationship between spatial proximity and travel-to-work distance : the effect of the compact city

In this paper, an assessment is made of the relationship between selected aspects of spatial proximity (density, diversity, minimum commuting distance, jobs-housing balance and job accessibility) and reported commuting distances in Flanders (Belgium). Results show that correlations may depend on the considered trip end. For example, a high residential density, a high degree of spatial diversity and a high level of job accessibility are all associated with a short commute by residents, while a high job density is associated with a long commute by employees. A jobs-housing balance close to one is associated with a short commute, both by residents and by employees. In general, it appears that the alleged sustainability benefits of the compact city model are still valid in a context of continuously expanding commuting trip lengths

Socially-marketed rapid diagnostic tests and ACT in the private sector: ten years of experience in Cambodia.

Whilst some populations have recently experienced dramatic declines in malaria, the majority of those most at risk of Plasmodium falciparum malaria still lack access to effective treatment with artemisinin combination therapy (ACT) and others are already facing parasites resistant to artemisinins.In this context, there is a crucial need to improve both access to and targeting of ACT through greater availability of good quality ACT and parasitological diagnosis. This is an issue of increasing urgency notably in the private commercial sector, which, in many countries, plays an important role in the provision of malaria treatment. The Affordable Medicines Facility for malaria (AMFm) is a recent initiative that aims to increase the provision of affordable ACT in public, private and NGO sectors through a manufacturer-level subsidy. However, to date, there is little documented experience in the programmatic implementation of subsidized ACT in the private sector. Cambodia is in the unique position of having more than 10 years of experience not only in implementing subsidized ACT, but also rapid diagnostic tests (RDT) as part of a nationwide social marketing programme. The programme includes behaviour change communication and the training of private providers as well as the sale and distribution of Malarine, the recommended ACT, and Malacheck, the RDT. This paper describes and evaluates this experience by drawing on the results of household and provider surveys conducted since the start of the programme. The available evidence suggests that providers' and consumers' awareness of Malarine increased rapidly, but that of Malacheck much less so. In addition, improvements in ACT and RDT availability and uptake were relatively slow, particularly in more remote areas.The lack of standardization in the survey methods and the gaps in the data highlight the importance of establishing a clear system for monitoring and evaluation for similar initiatives. Despite these limitations, a number of important lessons can still be learnt. These include the importance of a comprehensive communications strategy and of a sustained and reliable supply of products, with attention to the geographical reach of both. Other important challenges relate to the difficulty in incentivising providers and consumers not only to choose the recommended drug, but to precede this with a confirmatory blood test and ensure that providers adhere to the test results and patients to the treatment regime. In Cambodia, this is particularly complicated due to problems inherent to the drug itself and the emergence of artemisinin resistance