The combined incidence of taxes and public expenditures in the Philippines

Incidence studies of fiscal policy in developing countries typically examine either the distribution of tax burdens or the incidence of public expenditures. But the central issue for policymakers is the combined or net incidence of fiscal activities. One reason that combined incidence studies are so rare is that they require detailed data on both taxation and public spending. The authors show that the net incidence of fiscal policy in a country with average data - the Philippines - can be estimated using a variety of data sources and tools, using simplifying assumptions. For 20 years, the Philippine economy has experienced a series of balance of payments crises triggered by fiscal crises. It has had an unsatisfactory record of poverty alleviation. The authors examine net fiscal incidence to find out how poverty will be affected by the rise in taxes and the cut in spending. They found that: 1) the incidence pattern of taxes is basically neutral. Contrary to expectations, indirect taxes are only slightly regressive; and 2) it is the pattern of expenditures that drives the combined incidence, which is progressive.Public Sector Economics&Finance,Environmental Economics&Policies,Health Systems Development&Reform,Economic Theory&Research,Health Economics&Finance,Environmental Economics&Policies,Public Sector Economics&Finance,Economic Theory&Research,Health Economics&Finance,Banks&Banking Reform

Prevalence and correlates of self-rated hunger in class seven and eight students in Kenya

No Abstrac

Serum Vitamin Concentrations are Associated with Metabolic Syndrome and Insulin Resistance in US Children

Background: Vitamin D deficiency is a concern in the US. Association between vitamin D status and metabolic syndrome (MetS), insulin resistance (IR), and inflammation is unclear in children. Objective: The relationship between serum vitamin D and MetS, C-reactive protein (CRP), and Homeostatic Model Assessment-IR (HOMA-IR) was investigated. Design: Data from 3 cycles of National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey, 2001-2006 for 3700 (1820, boys; 1880, girls) children and adolescents, aged 12-17 y were used to assess prevalence of vitamin D deficiency (\u3c20 ng\u3e/mL) and association between serum vitamin D and prevalence of MetS, various components of MetS, CRP, and HOMA-IR using multivariate regression models. Results: Overall, prevalences of MetS and vitamin D deficiency were 6.1% and 30.5%, respectively. Prevalence of vitamin D deficiency was higher in girls (52%), blacks (74%), non-supplement users (50%), persons who were examined in winter (56%), and persons in the low poverty income ratio group (57%) compared to their counterparts. Serum vitamin D was inversely associated with waist circumference (P\u3c0.001), systolic blood pressure (P=0.009), and HOMA-IR (P=0.003) and positively associated with HDL-cholesterol (P\u3c0.001). Children with lowest serum vitamin D are at increased risk for MetS (P=0.04; OR 2.26; 95% CI: 1.11, 4.61). Serum vitamin D was not related to CRP (P\u3c0.10). Conclusions: Children with poor vitamin D status are at increased risk for MetS and IR. Because of negative health outcomes associated with MetS and poor vitamin D status when existed individually or in combination, early detection and intervention of these conditions are paramount, especially in children

A Redesigned Benders Decomposition Approach for Large-Scale In-Transit Freight Consolidation Operations

The growth in online shopping and third party logistics has caused a revival of interest in finding optimal solutions to the large scale in-transit freight consolidation problem. Given the shipment date, size, origin, destination, and due dates of multiple shipments distributed over space and time, the problem requires determining when to consolidate some of these shipments into one shipment at an intermediate consolidation point so as to minimize shipping costs while satisfying the due date constraints. In this paper, we develop a mixed-integer programming formulation for a multi-period freight consolidation problem that involves multiple products, suppliers, and potential consolidation points. Benders decomposition is then used to replace a large number of integer freight-consolidation variables by a small number of continuous variables that reduces the size of the problem without impacting optimality. Our results show that Benders decomposition provides a significant scale-up in the performance of the solver. We demonstrate our approach using a large-scale case with more than 27.5 million variables and 9.2 million constraints

Droplet digital PCR quantifies host inflammatory transcripts in feces reliably and reproducibly

AbstractThe gut is the most extensive, interactive, and complex interface between the human host and the environment and therefore a critical site of immunological activity. Non-invasive methods to assess the host response in this organ are currently lacking. Feces are the available analyte which have been in proximity to the gut tissue.We applied a method of concentrating host transcripts from fecal specimens using a existing bead-based affinity separation method for nucleic acids and quantified transcripts using droplet digital PCR (ddPCR) to determine the copy numbers of a variety of key transcripts in the gut immune system. ddPCR compartmentalizes the reaction in a small aqueous droplet suspended in oil, and counts droplets as either fluorescent or non-fluorescent. Glyceraldehyde-3-phosphate dehydrogenase (GAPDH) was used to normalize transcript concentration.This method was applied to 799 fecal samples from rural Malawian children, and over 20,000 transcript concentrations were quantified. Host mRNA was detected in >99% samples, a threshold for target detection was established at an average expression of 0.02 copies target/GAPDH, above which correlation coefficient between duplicate measurements is >0.95. Quantities of transcript detected using ddPCR were greater than standard qPCR. Fecal sample preservation at the time of collection did not require immediate freezing or the addition of buffers or enzymes. Measurements of transcripts encoding immunoactive proteins correlated with a measure of gut inflammation in the study children, thereby substantiating their relevance. This method allows investigators to interrogate gene expression in the gut

Tackling health transition in China

Over the past three decades, China has made commendable strides in improving the health status of its population. Between 1965 and 1995, its infant mortality rate declined from 90 per 1,000 live births to 36. During the same period, life expectancy at birth rose from 55 to 69 years and the maternal mortality rate fell from 26 to 15 per 100,000 deliveries. This performance compares favorably with that in similar Asian economies. China's infant mortality rate, for example, was less that half the rate predicted for its income level, Similarly, life expectancy at birth was higher than that in many comparable Asian countries. These favorable results conceal more recent trends, however. Since the early 1990s, mortality rates have increased in many provinces, particularly among infants and children under age five. And health status and health-related process indicators have improved more slowly than in the mid -1980s. What accounts for relatively stagnant, even deteriorating health indicators, and what strategies should be designed to address them as China enters the 21st century? Overall, the author argues, the recent erosion in health gains stems from three factors: a) changes in government financing of the health sector have increased inequity, inefficiency, and costs for medical treatment; b) the main contributors to the burden of disease have shifted from maternal conditions and infectious disease toward noncommunicable diseases and injuries, the prevention of which has not been a tradition part of China's public health programs; and c) the shift to a more market-oriented economy has changed environmental and behavioral risk factors, thus diversifying the types of disease across regions. The author suggests strategies for mitigating China's current and emerging health problems.Health Systems Development&Reform,Public Health Promotion,Health Monitoring&Evaluation,Disease Control&Prevention,Early Child and Children's Health,Health Monitoring&Evaluation,Health Systems Development&Reform,Health Economics&Finance,Adolescent Health,Gender and Health

Making education in China equitable and efficient

As China consolidates its rapid economic gains and continues its drive toward a market-oriented environment, the country's international competitiveness will depend greatly on the quality of its human resources. China has made impressive gains in human resource development in the past two decades, and continuing to do so will help reduce poverty in two ways: indirectly, by increasing the productivity and efficiency of its labor force, and directly, by fostering the earning capacity of the poor. Eventually, improving human resources will spur economic growth and enhance welfare. Progress in human resource development has steadily slowed in recent years, however, because of two broad problems. First, the distribution of education services continues to discriminate against the poor, largely because they have not benefited from recent gains in economic growth and are being choked off from access to services. Second, some mechanisms and arrangements for delivering services have created targeting inefficiencies. The author argues that the government's priorities should be to improve the equity, efficiency, and quality of social services, as well as their financing.Public Health Promotion,Primary Education,Curriculum&Instruction,Teaching and Learning,Decentralization,Teaching and Learning,Gender and Education,Primary Education,Curriculum&Instruction,Health Monitoring&Evaluation