Policy Implications for Low-to-Middle Income (LMICs) Countries Considering Universal Coverage: Lessons from OECD Countries

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Caroline G. Kinyua
Data ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 6 (4) ◽  
pp. 39
Author(s):  
Quan-Hoang Vuong ◽  
Tri Vu Phu ◽  
Tuyet-Anh T. Le ◽  
Quy Van Khuc

Solutions for mitigating and reducing environmental pollution are important priorities for many developed and developing countries. This study was conducted to better understand the degree to which inner-city citizens and foreigners perceive air pollution and respond to it, particularly how much they willingly contribute to improving air quality in Vietnam, a lower-middle-income nation in Southeast Asia. During mid-December 2019, a stratified random sampling technique and a contingent valuation method (CVM) were employed to survey 199 inhabitants and 75 foreigners who reside and travel within the inner-city of Hanoi. The data comprises four major groups of information on: (1) perception of air pollution and its impacts, (2) preventive measures used to mitigate polluted air, (3) commitments on willingness-to-pay (WTP) for reducing air pollution alongside reasons for the yes-or-no-WTP decision, and (4) demographic information of interviewees. The findings and data of this study could offer many policy implications for better environmental management in the study area and beyond.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rachid Laajaj ◽  
Duncan Webb ◽  
Danilo Aristizabal ◽  
Eduardo Behrentz ◽  
Raquel Bernal ◽  
...  

Abstract Background: Across the world, the COVID-19 pandemic has disproportionately affected economically disadvantaged groups. This differential impact has numerous possible explanations, each with significantly different policy implications. We examine, for the first time in a low- or middle-income country, which mechanisms best explain the disproportionate impact of the virus on the poor. Methods: We use primary data from the CoVIDA project, including the results of 59,770 RT-PCR tests in Bogotá, targeted on a mostly asymptomatic adult population June 2020 to March 3rd, 2021. This is combined with administrative data that covers all reported cases in Bogotá. We estimate a number of parameters that are likely to drive inequality in COVID-19 infection rates across socioeconomic groups, then use these estimates in an individual-level branching process model of the epidemic. We use counterfactual scenarios to estimate the relative importance of different channels for explaining inequality in infection rates. Findings: Total infections and inequalities in infections are largely driven by inequalities in the ability to work remotely and in within-home secondary attack rates. Inequalities in isolation behavior are less important but non-negligible, while access to testing and contract-tracing plays practically no role. Interventions that mitigate transmission are found to be more effective when targeted on socioeconomically disadvantaged groups.Interpretation: Socioeconomically disadvantaged groups are particularly vulnerable to COVID-19 infections, and this appears to be primarily driven by the need to work out of home, higher transmission within home, and to some extent, the ability to isolate when needed. Policies that can successfully reduce these channels of transmission among the poor are likely to have large benefits.


Nova Economia ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 30 (spe) ◽  
pp. 1145-1167
Author(s):  
Paulo Henrique Assis Feitosa

Abstract The development experience observed in Korea has been a symbol of successful catch-up for several decades. This process allowed its upward transition from middle income to high-income status and has drawn the attention of many streams of scholars. More recently, emergent research has improved our understanding of this experience and its policy implications for developing countries (Lee, 2013; 2016; 2019). This paper proposes a review of what this literature has to say about the mechanisms behind the successful path followed by Korea and a discussion of lessons to overcome the middle-income trap. It is argued that latecomers do not limit themselves to follow the path of technological development of the advanced countries and that alternative paths are possible. The main policy implication for latecomers is that a successful catch-up is possible yet difficult to achieve because it requires taking detours and leapfroging into new technologies.


Author(s):  
Edgar Muhoyi ◽  
Josue Mbonigaba

Small-scale irrigation schemes (SSIS) in developing countries have been crucial, but the evidence about their performance has not been sufficiently analyzed. This chapter documents such evidence by reviewing and classifying the performance indicators. It also assesses literature on whether there are discernible trends in the efficiency of SSIS, identifies and classifies SSIS constraints, and characterizes various channels through which SSIS might affect poverty. Objectives are achieved via a systematic review of literature from 1990 to 2017. Results indicate a lack of standardization of irrigation performance indicators, and there is evidence that irrigation has boosted agricultural performance. Even though SSIS were associated with higher productivity than rain-fed agriculture, they performed below their full potential due to undervaluation of irrigation water by irrigation authorities, farmer characteristics, costs, institutional setups, the policy environment, and design, cultural, community, and environmental issues. SSIS are important tools for poverty reduction, and relevant policy implications are outlined.


2013 ◽  
pp. 1554-1570
Author(s):  
Nicoletta Corrocher ◽  
Anna Raineri

This chapter aims at investigating the evolution of the digital divide within a set of developing countries between the years 2000 and 2005. In doing so, it moves away from the traditional analysis of the digital divide, which compares developed countries and developing countries, and examines the existing gap within a relatively homogeneous group of countries. On the basis of the theoretical and empirical contributions from scholars in different disciplines, we select a series of socioeconomic and technological indicators and provide an empirical assessment of the digitalization patterns in a set of 51 low income and lower-middle income countries. By means of cluster analysis techniques, we identify three emerging patterns of the digital divide and derive a series of policy implications, related to the implementation of an effective strategy to reduce digital backwardness. The characteristics of each pattern of digitalization can be also usefully employed to understand whether past interventions, especially in the area of competition policy, have been successful in addressing country-specific issues.


2020 ◽  
pp. 24-47
Author(s):  
Homi Kharas ◽  
Indermit Gill

Since the authors of this chapter coined the term in 2006, “the middle-income trap” has been the subject of scores of investigations. The evidence in support of its existence has been mixed, but their original proposition was that of the possibility of a trap, not its inevitability. In this chapter, they emphasize the absence of a functional theory of economic growth in middle-income economies. Solow–Swan models did well to explain growth in low-income countries, and Lucas–Romer models emphasizing endogenous technical change identified the main drivers of growth in advanced economies. Neither class of models has, however, satisfactorily explained successful transitions from one type of growth to the other. The authors suggest that Schumpeterian models proposed by Aghion, Howitt, and others that stress creative destruction and institutional change provide the analytical foundations for a better understanding of growth in middle-income economies. They present evidence that is consistent with the predictions of this approach, and discuss its policy implications.


2009 ◽  
Vol 28 (4) ◽  
pp. 71-94 ◽  
Author(s):  
Adam J. Fforde

Vietnam's economic performance in 2009 is seen by the Vietnamese government and representatives of the Western donor communities as good, with the effects of the global financial crisis relatively mild. The paper notes a lack of contestation of these mainstream views and locates them within an assessment of major trends in 2009, and medium-term issues. Particular focus is placed upon the policy implications of rural development and the need for a strong rationalisation of the state sector. Remarks upon the political economy of change then permit comments upon interactions between economic performance and gathering social and political concern with the political challenges of transition to so-called ‘middle income’ status, which in many countries has posed novel and tricky problems of adjustment, often requiring major social and political adjustments that have not always been successful. The paper concludes by suggesting that, as in the past, Vietnam's style of change finds some things easy and others hard, and that this has its reflection in economic policy and performance.


2020 ◽  
pp. 1-17
Author(s):  
FUMITAKA FURUOKA ◽  
KIEW LING PUI ◽  
CHINYERE EZEOKE ◽  
RAY I. JACOB ◽  
OLAOLUWA S. YAYA

This paper suggests a new testing procedure to systematically examine the middle-income trap (MIT). To empirically demonstrate this procedure, one high income and 14 middle-income countries are examined using newly developed unit root tests — Fourier ADF with structural break (FADF-SB) and Seemingly Unrelated Regressions Fourier ADF (SUR-FADF). The FADF-SB test incorporates unknown nonlinearity and smooth break in the time-series, while the SUR-FADF test accounts for cross-sectional dependency. The empirical findings produced mixed results: 10 countries have a relatively high possibility of facing the MIT problem, while only one country has a relatively low possibility of facing the problem. For the remaining three countries, it is uncertain whether they will face the problem of MIT. These empirical findings have significant policy implications.


Author(s):  
Noppakun Thammatacharee ◽  
Anne Mills ◽  
Dorothea Nitsch ◽  
Adisorn Lumpaopong

Abstract Based on projected numbers, approximately only 50% of those requiring renal replacement therapy (RRT) receive it. Many patients who require RRT live in low- and middle-income countries. The objective of this study was to examine the changing pattern over time of entry into the RRT programme in Thailand following RRT’s inclusion in the Universal Coverage Scheme. This study was an ecological study using the age-period-cohort analysis to look at dialysis registration and kidney transplant trends during RRT programme implementation. Data from 2008 to 2016 of patients diagnosed with end-stage renal disease (ESRD) were obtained from the National Health Security Office. The study found that the numbers of new patients with ESRD, aged 20–69, registered with the dialysis programme increased over time. For patients aged 20–40 years, the dialysis programme took up to 400 new patients for every 1000 new ESRD diagnoses. For kidney transplant, the rates increased slowly. The kidney transplant programme could at best treat only around 50 cases for every 1000 new ESRD diagnoses in patients aged 20–30 years. Findings of this study highlighted the importance of promoting strategies to reduce the increasing number of patients with kidney disease, to consider conservative therapy for older/frail patients, and to improve access to kidney transplantation and live-donation.


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