Bücher der Reihe SpringerBriefs in Economics

This open access book evaluates African healthcare systems from multiple perspectives. By examining empirical data from various African countries, it analyzes the effects of socioeconomic factors such as urbanization, population growth, and education on various health indicators, including the situation of health professionals, patients's decision making, health resource distribution, mortality rates, and the burden of disease. Furthermore, topics such as the use of social media in healthcare and insurance policy in Africa are addressed. This book appeals to scholars and professionals interested in healthcare in Africa.

¿This book provides an updated overview of the recent progress in the theoretical study of third-degree price discrimination. It is a marketing tactic and is said to be present if the unit price is different across different groups of buyers. Its welfare evaluation is often difficult because it entails two countervailing effects: on one hand, it exploits surplus from consumers who have high willingness-to-pay, but on the other hand, it generates gains from trade from consumers who otherwise would not purchase the good. Recognizing this difficulty, we provide new insights on evaluation of third-degree price discrimination in consideration of network effects and vertical product differentiation. Our analysis is particularly useful for the industries related to information and communication technologies (ICT) because these two elements characterize them. Furthermore, we also study the welfare effects of third-degree price discrimination under imperfect competition other than monopoly.At first, it seems that it may complicate the analysis under monopoly. However, we argue that the main thrusts of analysis under monopoly carry over to the case of oligopoly. We also take into account behavioral aspects and their implications for studying third-degree price discrimination. Overall, this book is designed to provide implications for contemporary management and policy issues by advancing theoretical issues in industrial organization.

The climate is changing, bringing with it increasing natural disasters around the world. The progress of societies lies in their ability to adapt to the new climatic conditions. Effective climate-adaptation strategies must be based in the sound analysis of the costs of the disasters, as well as the potential benefits and beneficiaries of adaptation strategies. This book offers an appraisal method to capture the total economic costs of flooding events: the Multiregional Flood Footprint Analysis. It captures the economic costs directly caused by physical destruction, and disruptive implications in production propagated through inter-industrial linkages in the current context of a global economy. The proposed method uses the fundamentals of the Input-Output analysis (IOA) in a multiregional dimension. It concludes that damages from natural disasters in one part of the globe may affect many economic sectors in the rest of the world, increasing the need for global adaptation strategies.

This book uses the state-level panel data to identify some of the important correlates of employment growth/elasticity and indicators of quality-employment. To do so, it considers a wide spectrum of variables including physical, financial and social infrastructure specific indicators and government spending in certain key areas. In addition to the aggregate employment, the book also comprises analysis of different sectors, regions and gender categories. Based on the results, it identifies crucial determinants which bear important policy implications.The book presents evidence showcasing how the overall investment climate and an effective state, as envisaged in terms of increased social expenditure, are instrumental to improvements in employment elasticity. The findings also reinforce the role of industry-led growth and agglomeration economies in contributing to employment growth. Besides, based on the unit-level data from the periodic labour force surveys, the book tries to answer a wide range of questions such as, what restricts a person from getting absorbed in a high productivity activity; within a given sector why one is in a casual or self-employed job and not in regular wage job; are casual wage jobs in the informal sector different from those in the formal sector; and why the wage variations exist across sectors and activities. The three rounds of periodic labour force surveys reflect on certain individual and household characteristics; in particular, the role of education is seen to be crucial in determining the occupational choice and the wage rate. Finally, the book focuses on the enterprise-level data and identifies the types of units which are vulnerable within the unorganized sector. It assesses the links of the unorganized sector units with their organised sector counterpart and identifies the factors which reduce the economic viability of the units.

This Brief provides a cutting-edge evaluation of the application of digital technologies to tackle the informal economy. Employing institutional theory to explain the informal economy, this book reveals that the informal economy arises when formal institutional failings trigger a gap between the formal rules of the game and social norms. Chapters outline how use of digital technologies by public authorities, such as tax, social security and labor authorities, can alter social norms so that they accord with the formal rules of the game and generate a formalization of the informal economy. Setting out the e-government tools that can improve the relationship between businesses, employers, workers and citizens, and government, this book will be essential reading for academics and advanced students studying development economics, labor economics, public economics, behavioral economics, economic sociology and institutional economics as well as for government policymakers working in related fields.