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User Charges in Health Care. The public expenditure burden of ageing populations in developed countries is of great concern to many policymakers. Deborah Freund and Timothy Smeeding argue for user charges for health care for older people - as older people are both increasingly able and willing to pay "The Future Costs of Health Care in Aging Societies: Is the Glass Half Full or Half Empty?" is published by the Social Policy Research Centre.
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By Social Policy Research Centre, Australia.
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Health Policy Resource.
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Is the ECB Accountable? Many financial analysts and academics believe that the European Central Bank lacks transparency and accountability. Lorenzo Bini-Smaghi & Daniel Gros argue that actually their analysis suggests instead that the ECB is, at least on paper, one of the most transparent and accountable central banks. The discrepancy between theory and public perception suggests that much remains to be done within the given institutional framework to improve the transparency of the ECB. The authors suggest that the best way to make the ECB more accountable is to engage it in substantive discussions about its policy. The ECB should provide more information about the background analysis that leads to policy decisions. For example, the ECB should transform its ?staff projections? into true inflation forecasts and it should be more open about the arguments that shape the internal debates, which precedes decisions. "Is the ECB sufficiently accountable and transparent?" is published by ENEPRI.
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By ENEPRI, Europe.
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Governance Policy Resource.
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| Smoking. Christian Bantle and John P. Haisken-DeNew investigate the intergenerational transmission of smoking behaviour from parents to their children. They found strong evidence that parental smoking significantly increases the probability that their children likewise become smokers. Youths living in families with both parents smoking are 3.3 times more likely to smoke themselves, while a smoking father raises the probability a factor of 2.8 and a smoking mother by 2.1. They conclude that policies targeted at reducing juvenile smoking may fail, if parents' behaviour is not taken into account. "Smoke Signals: The Intergenerational Transmission of Smoking Behaviour" is published by DIW-Berlin. | By DIW-Berlin, Germany. | Health Policy Resource. |
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